By Living Room Realty, February 7, 2020
per·se·ver·ance /ˌpərsəˈvirəns/noun persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
My client Veronica is a great example of perseverance.
We met in spring of last year when she found me after looking at my reviews; she and her ex were amicably splitting and needed to sell their house, she wanted to buy. In order to qualify for a loan she needed a court settlement to fund. That settlement ended up taking 8 months. We stuck it out, and started the hunt for her house when she was notified it was closer to finalizing. Then it wasn’t. Then we waited some more.
She found a home that checked all the boxes for her: close to work, new construction, low maintenance yard but room to grow… so we took a shot and wrote a contingent offer. I made sure to explain to the listing agent what was going on, and because the home had been on the market for a while, the seller was motivated to get it under contract.
That actually leads me to a segue — as a buyer (or potential buyer), don’t get spooked by homes that have been sitting on the market for a while. It’s likely a pricing issue, and the seller will be more motivated to review all offers. Just because it’s been on the market more than 30 days doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something *wrong* with it. — OK, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
Three or so weeks in, it became clear the funds were not going to happen on time. So, through the relationship we’d built we asked for more time, and got it. Veronica agreed to release a portion of her earnest money to show the seller she was still in it to win it. 50 days later… I handed her the keys.
The moral of this little story: Sometimes a real estate transaction can happen so fast it will make your head spin. But if it doesn’t, stay the course. That’s one reason why I always encourage my prospective clients who are meeting me for the first time to be really thoughtful about selecting a broker. To me, it’s a relationship for the long haul, and perseverance is key. Get it, “key”?
Till then, high fives,
