Let me tell you a little story about a Realtor how she saved her client (Buyer) from a multiple offer situation. A house in the perfect neighborhood (Zilker) in the right price range gets listed on MLS with zero photos. So do we look at it or skip it? If you were searching on a www.findmytruelove.com type of website would you read the profiles with no picture? Usually not, it is much the same when house hunting. In the back of your mind you think it must be pretty ugly if they won't even show you a single picture of the house. I feel the same trepidation when I see listings with only outside photos. What is so scary on the inside that you won't show it?!?
This little house sounded perfect, but as I said it had zero photos. So I decided to check it out and bring my camera to take the photos for my clients. I was happy to spend a morning in my favorite neighborhood Zilker and I work there a lot. So off I went to investigate the house. The street appeal was great, the inside was perfect, with updated kitchen and bathrooms, beautiful carbonized bamboo floors, lots of natural light and a spacious landscaped yard with big trees. I took about 15-20 photos and emailed them to my clients. They loved the photos and immediately met me at the house, we wrote the offer right there in the kitchen.
I sent the offer to listing agent and he called me that evening to let me know the sellers accepted our offer. At some point the next day the listing agents assistant finally entered their photos into the MLS. That afternoon the listing agent calls me to rescind their acceptance of our offer. I said that is too bad you can't do that, the Ernest money and Option money were receipted with the title company this morning. This contract is in play and the house is ours until we decide otherwise. He sighed deeply in frusteration and did not sound very happy about the news.
Of course I did not stop there, I had to know why he would try to reject a full price offer three days after listing with a quick close. We all know that is a Sellers dream scenario. Well apparently the Listing Agent got two more offers on day four after accepting our offer. Both of these offers were from developers and they were for more than the asking price. The developers both wanted to tear down the darling 1930's house and build condos on that large and lovely wooded lot.
To make a long story short, my clients loved the house and closed on it and are very happy. The moral of the story is: Realtors please treat your clients as you would wish to be treated and go the extra mile, it will pay off. These clients love me, they have written a testimonial for me, given me referrals and invite me to parties and lunch all the time. They consider me to be there personal hero. The next door neighbors love me too because I saved the original house. So they won't haveto live through too many neighbors and a year of loud construction noise/mess. We are now great friends because they all know that I genuinely care about them.
If you are in the market for a new home and are not presently working with a Realtor, call me. I would be happy to help you through the process of buying a home. I specialize in Relocation and I have a network of experts to make the process easy to navigate. I look forward to the opportunity to earn your business.
Betina Foreman, Realtor
Keller Williams Real Estate 1801 S. Mopac, Suite 100 Austin, Texas 78746 512-771-6318 Realtor_Austin@yahoo.com Betina@BetinaForeman.com www.ZilkerParkHomes.com
Member: Austin Board of Realtors, Texas Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, ActiveRain, Trulia-Top Voices, and Zillow-Neighborhood Pros.
Comments(15)