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Stunning Home in Carmichael Closed Escrow at $1.2 million
My team members and I fell in love with this home in Carmichael on Del Dayo Drive. It is an absolutely beautiful and stunning home. Not only that, but the sellers invested quite a bit of money in new luxury vinyl plank flooring in the master suite and entire lower level. We tried to repair the granite island counter that had been stained. At the last minute, the handyman was afraid to touch it and opted out of that repair. Since it was time to go on the market, we could not wait any longer.
My solution for that was to send the buyer to Kitchen Design Center inside Filco and let them choose a new counter top, which the seller would pay for. We obtained a bid from Kitchen Design and uploaded that bid to MLS, in full disclosure. At this point, the sellers were excited and happy to turn over the home to a new buyer. But 4 weeks passed without an offer. Also, many buyers complained about the house.
What is not to love in a gorgeous setting of .40 acres, lush vegetation, terraced landscaping, with a beautiful pool? The home in Carmichael featured 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, with more than 5,000 square feet. It is one of the rare 1958-built homes in the Del Dayo neighborhood. We all expected that the home would promptly sell.
Although clearly noted in MLS and shown in the high-definition photos, buyers complained about the multiple levels in the home. Almost every single buyer either did not want multiple levels. Another good number of buyers felt the second master suite in the lower level was too small. Not on par with the master on the main level.
A few buyers said the home in Carmichael was too big for them, period. Way too much space.
As a result, we reset the days on market by signing a new listing at a new price. Within 7 days, bingo! We were in pending status.
There were a few glitches toward the end but nothing we could not resolve. Due to a snafu with the buyer’s lender, we could not close on our anticipated closing date of Friday. To facilitate a concurrent closing on Monday, the buyer dumped her lender, paid cash, and helped the sellers pay an unexpected hotel bill. We closed yesterday.
1661 Del Dayo Drive, Carmichael, CA 95608, sold for $1,200,000 on August 6, 2018. For more information, call the listing agent Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
How a HUD Section 8 Rental Receipt Can Mess Up Closing
Nothing like a HUD Section 8 rental receipt to mess up a buyer’s mortgage closing, and listing agents are often the last to know. Most people, for example, have little idea of what a Sacramento listing agent actually does, apart from lounging about Maui over federal holiday weekends and sticking a sign in the seller’s yard before leaving. They also often assume that once an offer has been accepted by both parties, most of the work is over when that is actually when much of the work begins.
There are often more negotiations after a purchase contract has been signed. That’s just the beginning in some cases. When a buyer can’t close escrow or attempts to renegotiate, that’s when most sellers are very happy to have a strong negotiator representing them. It’s when an agent earns her full-service fee. As a listing agent, I have to be fair to all parties, but I owe my fiduciary duty to the seller, always and foremost.
We were ready to close a concurrent transaction the early in the third week of June. A concurrent closing means the seller is buying another home and both the existing home and new home will close simultaneously. We matched the closing dates. Suddenly, without warning, the buyer’s file was kicked back from underwriting. Turns out the buyers, who had been living in a hotel for a while, had rented their previous home to a Section 8 tenant. The underwriter needed to verify receipt from HUD for rents paid and HUD had not even inspected the home yet.
This is when the buyer’s agent, like many agents, looks around for a simple solution. The simple solution was to extend closing another 30 days. Since the sellers were purchasing another home, a 30-day closing delay was not a satisfactory solution to the sellers.
Dan Tharp, my preferred mortgage lender at Guild Mortgage, helped to devise a strategy. He wasn’t involved in this transaction but he had the answer for us. The answer was to provide security for the underwriter and close the file pending post-HUD receipt, and advance part of the rent pre-closing. After delivering proper documentation requesting specific performance, we closed a day ahead of schedule, and the seller received another 48 hours to move. Crisis diverted.
Photo: lounging on the grass in Maui, by Elizabeth Weintraub
