I got a call from an agent from a few hundred miles away who referred me to local homeowners who wanted to sell and move to that agent’s area.
The sellers were a couple who had lived in my city for about twenty years. He was retiring and she did not work outside the home. Their daughter and her husband lived with them…along with several dogs, cats and a macaw…among other pets.
That was in late June 2018.
I contacted the owners who agreed to list with me. They had already written an offer with the referring agent to buy a house in the area of their desire in Northern California with two separate homes and plenty of room for all their pets…and the daughter’s horse which was being kept in a stable facility away from their current home.
That offer was not accepted so nothing happened at that time.
My new clients found a new property with another agent and got into escrow with a contingency based on the sale of their home. I and our Team put their house on the market in late August 2018.
Then…the wildfire that was named the Camp Fire wiped out the town of Paradise, Ca. which was where they planned to move. The property that they planned to buy, with two homes and a barn and other features that met their needs was destroyed by the fire.
Did I mention that my clients had accepted an offer on their house? So...if they honored their contract to sell, to where would they move? Where could they house…for an undeterminable time…a multi-generational family and multiple pets?
Did I mention that one of their pets is a snake?
My client balked on completing the sale. The erstwhile buyers, of course, insisted that a deal is a deal and wanted their new house. The sellers said, “No…we have nowhere to go.” They sent a cancellation notice to the buyers. The buyers, despite the fact that they probably could have made life miserable for the sellers who were subject to a valid contract eventually agreed to sign the cancellation form with the agreement that the sellers reimbursed them for the cost of the appraisal. The deal was killed and the listing was taken off the market at the end of October 2018.
Whew! But my clients still wanted to move. The husband had retired and the son-in-law had been seeking a new job in the new area. Their entire family was ready for the next phase of their lives.
So, they kept looking for their new home.
By and by they found another property and wrote an offer contingent upon sale of their existing property. The exiting property was put back on the market in mid-March 2019.
The local market had undergone a change. Prices were softening. Properties were staying on the market longer. The seller needed a certain price to make the whole deal work.
The sellers of the property which was the subject of their purchase got another offer and kicked my clients out and contracted with another buyer.
At that point, my clients made the decision to keep their house on the market, sell the house and deal with whatever consequences arose. They were SO ready to do whatever was required to meet their goal.
They found another house…made an offer…got their house into contract after agreeing to a less-than-desired price and closed their sale in late July 2019. They soon closed on their new home which is in a community a few miles away from the town of Paradise.
Their new home is in the woods with a stream running nearby and with features to accommodate both generations of the family and all pets including the horse…actually two horses. A friend of the daughter who boarded a horse at the same place the daughter boarded her horse gave her horse to the daughter when she was convinced that both horses would be better off together. Talk about a silver lining!
Good news/bad news. Stop and go. Ups and downs. Joy and heart break. Happy ending!
Yes…this was…in over twenty years of practice…my most unique and challenging transaction. And one of my most fulfilling transactions, too.
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