Real estate salespeople dream about these opportunities. A potential client calls you and says they want to write an offer on a property. All you need to do is show them the property, write the offer and negotiate the deal. I’ve been selling real estate full time since 2004, and before last week it’s only happened to me once. The first time worked out well. This time I declined to be of service.
The first time the Great Recession was fast approaching. You could see the edge of the housing market cliff speeding toward us fast and a good friend called me to say he wanted to write an offer on a house in San Anselmo. We had spoken before about his house search and I enrolled him on CleanOffer.com where he could search properties on his own. He would go to open houses on his own and when finally he found the house he wanted he called me up.
The most important part of that transaction was the research that I did. I looked at sales in the early 90’s and estimated the last time the market took a nose dive it dropped 25%. I was frank with my friend, as I am with all my clients and told him the market could do the same thing again. In fact, around that time I had sold my condo in Novato at the top of the market, correctly recognizing the market was ready to tank. My friend was okay with the situation and I will never forget what he said, “I can handle a 25% drop in prices. If it goes down any more than that we are all screwed.” Indeed, we were.
He is still in that house today. I was grateful for my friend’s business and for all the business I get, including the house I sold recently in Glen Cove. My buyers are a really lovely couple, two ladies who had been looking at properties with me for almost a year. We started in San Rafael, then they asked if I sell in the East Bay so we started targeting neighborhoods out there. I don’t know how many times we went out to look at places in Vallejo, American Canyon, Hiddenbrooke and Glen Cove. We wrote several offers before we finally closed on the right house. These ladies were really wonderful to work with, so I was happy to spend as much time as they needed finding their new home. That’s generally how the purchase process goes with buyers, it rarely happens that you show and sell one house.
This week I received a call from a potential client who wanted to purchase a condo at Villa Marin. Villa Marin is a very nice retirement community in Terra Linda. I haven’t heard of any Corona cases currently at Villa Marin, but I know the virus has ravaged two other retirement communities in San Rafael. All I had to do was show the condo, write the offer, and negotiate the deal.
I’ve got too many people counting on me to thrust myself into a potential hot spot. Family, friends, clients, and co-workers could all become infected if I knowingly or unknowingly became infected. The commission was tempting on a $600,000 sale, but I called another agent I know who has a listing in Villa Marin already and referred the buyer to her. I just didn’t feel comfortable, and the other agent is already working out there anyway. After the showing she told me that she had to ride an elevator with the client and the listing agent. There is zero probability I’m getting in any elevator anywhere right now, especially in a retirement community.
The buyer did not actually write the offer yet, he’s going to think about it over the weekend. I’m glad I declined that perfect opportunity.
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