Absolutely Perfect Timing with a Property
Some properties are ‘for sale’ but not (yet) ‘on the market.’ Their owners have almost arrived at the place where it’s time to move on.
Late one Thursday afternoon, I visited a house in a very tightly-held neighbourhood where my client wanted to live. When the owner came to the door, he listened to my short introduction, then said “You’d better come in.”
As it turned out, this couple were building a new home in another area, which was almost finished. In the past couple of weeks they’d had several agents around to choose one to list their property for sale – and they were now totally confused… What should the price be (wide range from different agents)? Should they auction or not? How should they select an agent from among those they had met? Or might there be other agents they’d perhaps feel better about?
I explained that I was working for a buyer who was paying my fee, and willing to pay a fair price if the house was right. There’d be only one inspection, no signboard, no marketing, and no fee for the owner to pay.
We arranged for my client to inspect the property that weekend. He then instructed me to arrange to buy the property. So I drafted a contract and took it to the owners. After some thought, the owners asked for an additional $5,000, to which my client agreed.
By the following Monday (4 days after I first met the owners) the property was sold, at a price they were happy with, and within the range the various agents had provided.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this true story is what the owners told me after the contract was signed.
They said if I’d knocked on their door a week earlier, they’d have told me they weren’t ready to sell, and if I’d arrived a week later, they would probably have already listed the property with an agent, incurred marketing costs, likely time delays, and an agent’s commission. They were very happy that providentially I’d arrived at the perfect time for them!
My client was also very happy to be able to move into this tightly-held neighbourhood with no other properties for sale at the time.
I’ve been blessed to have been able to deliver similar results for clients and property owners too many times to say ‘it’s just a fluke.”
