Client Success Story: The $50,000 Week

Once upon a time, after quietly watching the market for over a year, some of our favorite long-time clients finally spotted a place worthy of jumping off the fence for. It offered serenity, rolling hills views, a walk-in closet, and - most importantly - a fantastic, chef's-kiss kitchen.

The sellers had paid $2,350,000 in 2021. They'd priced aggressively at $1,995,000, hoping for multiple offers. Sure enough, when offer day came around, multiple over-asking offers did too, including one from our clients. 

After a long day of back and forth, we had to make one of the WORST phone calls in real estate… the one where we tell our clients that, despite them bidding $400k over asking, another buyer was now in contract.

Disappointed and maybe even a little dejected, our clients took a beat to lick their wounds, then took a deep breath and started to regroup. 

The seller was offering them the opportunity to be in first backup position at their original offer price of $2.4m. If the current deal fell through, our clients would automatically go into contract. Ordinarily we would advise an enthusiastic YES. This time, we advised…

NO. 

Why?

Because every deal is different. Remember our story on getting the scoop on offer day? During negotiations we learned three important things. 

1 - There were 3 offers total. Not 50 (we've seen it) or even 15. Not a crowded field. If the first place offer dropped out, that would leave only 2.

2 - We had intel that the 3rd place offer was significantly lower than our clients'. That's us doing our job. 

3 - The sellers had some timing motivation. If they fell out of escrow, they would likely be loath to go back on the market and start from scratch. 

So in a week, when the first buyer did in fact cancel, our clients had optionality. That's when we got to make the BEST kind of phone call… the one where we let our clients know they get another shot at their dream place. 

With our counsel, our clients decided to redraft their offer: $50,000 lower in price. 

The listing agent was, shall we say, incredulous. 

"Wait… your last offer was $50k higher than this. What happened? This isn't what my clients are expecting!"

"Well, that was last week's price. This is this week's price. We're ready to close in 21 days."

You may have guessed the end to this story. Our clever clients are spending the holidays happily sipping tea on their fabulous view deck, $50k ahead of the game. 

May they live happily ever after!