JUST SOLD! Bargain Bread-Box Cottage

I sold this home today to a great family here in Ogden.  They were looking for an investment-priced property that they could move into with some minor TLC.  Our search brought us to this house which, ironically, is less than a block from where they live now.

The story behind the sale is more eventful than most.  First, with the home being listed at $55,000, we found ourselves in a "highest and best" bidding situation as multiple buyers placed offers on the home.  We originally offered $55,000 but raised our price to $60,000 with earnest money increased from just $500 to $1,800. We also were using an FHA loan to purchase the property and asked the seller to contribute $1,800 towards the buyer's closing costs. Our offer prevailed.

As we started our due diligence, our inspector noticed some things wrong with the property and so we asked for a $2,000 price concession to bring us to a $58,000 purchase price.  The seller (asset manager for the bank) verbally agreed but then balked because he believed that the FHA appraisal would require further repairs.  Essentially, he was betting that there would be $2,000 in FHA required repairs. We ordered the appraisal.  In a bitter-sweet moment for my buyers, our appraiser reported that no FHA repairs were needed.

This situation led us to explore some ways in which we might induce the seller to reduce the price the $2,000 that we had originally requested.  The problem was that there was no incentive for the seller to do so.  All of our contingency deadlines had expired by this point and my buyers would loose their earnest money if they walked from the transaction.  I proposed to my buyers that if it was possible to close early, we might be able to persuade the seller to reduce the price in exchange for an early settlement deadline.  After consulting with our loan officer, the buyers agreed to take this approach.  We sent an addendum requesting $2,000 off the purchase price in exchange for closing 10 days early.  The seller quickly agreed!

Congratulations to the buyers and also a special thanks for being patient while we navigated the clumsy bureaucratic process of purchasing a bank-owned property.