Well, Its winter break for the kids and this is when we typically head up to the cabin for a few weeks and put some mileage on our Big Bear season passes.
Unfortunately---the weather has not been that cold and the resort only has a base of 6-12” and it is raining up there this whole week----in fact, the resort is completely shut down today and is operating on a minute by minute basis----UNREAL!! Last year at this time---we were looking at a 6 foot base and beautiful conditions-------OH—why now?
To top off this crappy situation I am in escrow on two of my properties—should be great but, I am having some issues with one of my places. I am selling a 5 bedroom—3 bath home that is beautiful with new everything. This was a whole house renovation----everything from the floors to furnace was replaced. I am also selling it cheap---287K when the last house sold for 264K and had 1000 square feet less living space. I am only selling it this cheap because the buyers promised me that they would close prior to December 31 2010 and I could book this revenue and post it against some earlier negative entries.
During the discussions about price-----I committed the Cardinal Sin—I negotiated against MYSELF!! (Whats up Rookie?) I knew what I was doing at the time---the agent was telling me how much they could afford, comps etc. and in one conversation I was in a good mood and said—“Yeah OK—as long as I net 280K and then 10 minutes later “OK we I will take 272” and then the next morning in a caffeine induced snow covered morning (I was at the cabin) I texted her and said if we can get this done easily and quickly I would take 265K (net).
They agreed and we should have been off and running but, they came back a few days later with some kind of reasoning and said “Gee—would you take a net of 263K?” I almost killed the deal right there but, I said sure—I will take it as long as nothing else comes up. Wrong move—in fact most of the things I did in this deal were wrong and I knew it when I was doing it---why did I do it? At some level I underestimated the agent---older lady (3 grandkids) and I was essentially just chatting with her.
OK—I made some really basic negotiating errors and they are getting a good deal. They should be happy and I should be taking my lumps. The question is why are they now coming back to the table and wanting more??? The really crazy thing is that what they are asking for is essentially just pennies. They came back with a junk’d up inspection report from a guy who after looking at a 2x4 would say---“observed rough wood, that is not square---consider having an engineer provide additional report”. This guys report is a joke----and to top if off they agent then went and got an estimate from a heating guy who gave them an estimate that was about 5x actual costs. Geez!
So---no these guys are coming back and asking me to reduce the price to a 10K premium over what the last house sold for---remember—that my house is twice the size!! 2100SF compared to 1280SF or so—and then seriously want me to sell it to them for 10K over? Either that or put an additional heating unit in----(I just put one in?!?). So-instead of blowing up---I guided the agent to an online site and showed her that her clients could buy a wall unit for 400 bucks and that all the piping and venting is already inside the wall----------I had a 80 minute conversation with her about a 400 dollar line item? Nutty—she kept going over and over saying “I want you to say that you will put a wall unit in”. Boy—did I ever underestimate this lady----pit bull---1. see target, 2. Bite 3. Dont let go till you taste blood. That is OK---she is doing a great job for her client although, maybe a little too good.
For me—I easily knocked off 15 thousand dollars from this transaction just to make it easy and now they are quibbling over 400 bucks? OH yeah—this is a VA loan and MY fees are 24,0000 dollars because I have to pay for their whole escrow and promised to give them 9,000 dollars at the end of escrow-----and they are complaining about a 400 dollar wall heater? Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees—in their defense---they are newbies---never bought a house and are probably scared to death -----I am sure they are thinking that renting is so much easier----no decisions to make.
So---what is the moral of this story---the lesson? I think it is this 1. never underestimate your other (opponent) 2. Dont step into the ring unless you are ready to fight to the death and 3. For every item you ever give up make sure that the other party gives up something in return.
About a week ago two of my properties went into escrow. One is a
The other property is a 3 bedroom---2 bath condo. In this unit i pretty much only put in new wood flooring and carpet----new paint and granite in the kitchen and bathrooms.
The prices for these two properties are as follows 287K for the 5/3 and 178K (I think—ned to look) for the condo. Here is the funny thing----if you look at the values based on Zillow which are always low---the 5/3 has a Zestimate (Zillow Estimate) of 295K. The condo on the other hand has a Zestimate of 143K.
So---I am selling the condo at 35K over the estimate and selling the 5/3 at a little less than 10K under the zestimate. From just looking at the zestimate—it looks like the buyer of the 5/3 is getting a great deal---which is true. The question is why am I having problems with these buyers?
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