Well, La Casa De IPO is no more... We are officially closed and have fully joined the rootless renter population. No check in hand yet, but the sale got recorded today for the sum of $604,000.
The transaction was quite smooth with one exception. The appraisal our buyer's lender (US Bank) ordered came in at $585K and the contract purchase price was $610K. We learned of this tidbit on July 17th or so. IR2 immediately went to work blasting away at the comps they used and offering a different set of comps with reasons as to why they were more appropriate. This hurdle was primarily due to the model match REO sale a few months ago at $552K. After a week of waiting, we learned that the appraiser, despite new and different information, was unwilling to revise the appraisal upward...
This put our buyer into a bit of a pickle as he was going to have to come up with more cash to close the deal. Once we got past the 14-day mark, which was originally supposed to be when we would close (they offered a 14-day close), we served them with a notice to perform re: removing all contingencies. We had planned to give them until Friday, July 25th, to commit or cancel. As I predicted to Deuce, they used the low appraisal to push us on price via an amendment. They offered to move the transaction forward for $600K.
During the two or so weeks we were in escrow, the prospective buyers that did an offer of $615K (coming in after we opened escrow at $610K) had gone forward on another property, so we were left with a solid backup at $605K with the next best a mediocre quality offer at $600K. I felt comfortable with the $605K buyers, but was leery about another multi-week cycle with a new buyer taking us too close to the end of the summer season. I figured that at a price of $605K with the backup offeror and additional 30-days of carrying the property, I would really be getting a price of around $603K relative to the first buyer. With this in mind, we elected to counter their amended price up to $604K with the conditions that they would close by 7/31, immediately remove all contingencies, and pay us $150/day for late closing beyond 7/31. Fortunately, this was low enough to hook them and we moved it quickly forward to closing today.
The house just like mine down the street is in escrow at a price of $606K with a $5K credit to the buyer so we beat their price by a few thousand. Mentally and/or emotionally, I was looking for $600K, so we were able to beat that by a bit... We did 28 days list to close and around 45 days from decision to sell to close. Those stats are truly a testament to the skills and intelligence of IR2. He works hard, provides great information and feedback, and lets his buyers and sellers stay in command/control of their transactions. Many many thanks Deuce.