This is one of those fun “war” stories from helping a family sell a house in Glendora last month. We received a well-priced offer from some buyers who were selling their own property in Los Angeles to an investor who had approached them off-market, so they had a huge down payment for this purchase. The offer didn’t have a contingency on the sale of the L.A. property. Cool, right?
A couple of weeks later, I got a call from the buyers’ agent saying they might not close on time because the investor on their other property needed more time. Their agent suggested I talk directly to that investor, so I called him. It turned out he was asking for an extra two and a half months to submit plans for a 7-unit development project to the city before committing to the purchase of the Los Angeles property. Awkward!
What to do in a situation like that? Our seller clients couldn’t wait that long, and the buyers seemed stuck on their own sale. Should we kick them out of the deal and go back on the market?
I suggested forcing their existing investor’s hand to commit or bail by pitching their property to investors in my database. I was confident some would be interested and could close much sooner. They agreed, and over the next few days, I called 25+ investors. We put a backup offer in place with a second investor, creating pressure on the first investor to commit, and it worked! The first investor committed in writing to close the next week, and the sale successfully closed!
You never know what might arise on the journey to the best home for your next season of life, but whatever comes, we’re here to help you find the path forward.