Negotiation Plus!

I received an e-mail a few months ago from a couple looking to purchase a new house.  They were referred from a friend (gotta love referrals!).  They were planning to see a listed house with the listing agent and wanted to know if I could help them buy it if they liked it.  WHOA!  There is a little law called “procuring cause”.  If they decided to pursue the house and had looked at it with the listing agent, I couldn’t help them.  A few quick phone calls to the listing agent remedied the situation.  We looked at the house, but it wasn’t the one.

We continued to search.  Nothing!  More searching, more looking.  Still nothing. I had an idea!  I knew about a house that had been on the market the year before but had not sold.  I contacted the listing agent and yes, the seller’s were still considering selling.  We could take a look at it.  We made arrangements to see it.  They liked it.  We looked at it again.  They still liked it.  We made an offer.  A couple of counter-offers and it seemed it wasn’t going to come together with this house. 

In the meantime, we listed their house to sell.  A much easier situation as they received multiple offers.   We settled on one of the offers, but now the pressure was on to find this young family a new house.  More searching, more looking.  Again, nothing.  Maybe we should go back to the original house.  That was the plan.

 Another counter-offer was drafted.  And another, and still another.  One month later and five counter offers later…yes FIVE counter offers, we had an accepted offer.  Talk about negotiating!

More negotiating after the inspection; all was still coming together.  And then the lender’s appraisal came in.  The purchase house did not appraise.  What?  Yep.  The appraiser determined the house was not worth the purchase price.  What to do now?  More negotiating, of course!

In the end, both the sale of their house and the purchase of their new house came together.  I won’t say it wasn’t stress-free, but in the end all parties were happy.

Perhaps you know someone who is looking for help negotiating when buying or selling a house and could benefit from my help.  Have them give me a call at (608) 333-4406 or shoot me an e-mail at kepping@restainohomes.com  I’d be happy to help!