We recently closed on one of our single family home listings in Briarwood, Queens. This one was listed for $750K and sold for $761K in less than 60 days. The seller of this property was actually referred to us from another agent down in Florida who was helping her find a home down there. The owner’s first language was spanish, so the agent was looking for a spanish speaking agent in queens who could assist her with the sale of her house in Briarwood. He called us and immediately felt comfortable sending us the referral since we know Briarwood very well, and more importantly, we always stress to agents that we will take care of their referrals as if they were our very own family. This is 100% true, and I think people sense that…
We called the owner, set up a meeting, and spoke to her about her selling options. When we first met her I felt like I was speaking to a person that could be one of my Aunts. This was one of those people who could easily be taken advantage of by one of those immoral and unethical agents. We love meeting sellers like this because we know that they’ll be in good hands with us. On top of that, she lived alone and recently had hip surgery. She lived in this house for close to twenty years and was finally ready to move to Florida so she could escape this cold. She was also tired of the stairs in her house because of the hip surgery. Now that we knew her goals, we were ready to go to work and help get her to Florida! We made sure she felt comfortable with the process and assured that one of our team members would be at the showings to make sure she had us on her side at all times…
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Now, the biggest selling point for this house was the fact that she just renovated the entire property due to a small isolated fire in the living room. Fortunately her insurance company wanted her to renovate the whole house so they paid for a large scale renovation instead of just the living room. In other words, the condition of the home was excellent! In addition, the house was much larger than your standard one family in Briarwood, and it also had room for 8 car parking (3 in front, 3 in driveway, and 2 in backyard). The downside was that it was right on Main St close to the intersection of GCP and Main St. We knew that we would likely get some negative feedback about the busyness of the area but we felt confident that there were enough positive selling points to overcome that objection.
Pricing was a little difficult because the highest sale price in all of Briarwood at the time was in the mid $600s. However, there was a large one family within a quarter mile (in Kew Garden Hills) which was listed for $749K and recently went under contract. Considering the fact that this one was similar in lot size, livable square footage, and condition, we suggested a list price of $750K. We scheduled the photography session, staged the property, and hit the market. We have an extremely aggressive marketing plan for our Queens’ listings so as soon as we listed it, our phones and emails were blowing up. We pushed all first showings to the first open house in order to create urgency, and we ended up having a huge turnout. After the first weekend showings, we had multiple offers on the property. Most were below asking price, and one very close.
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We ended up negotiating a full price offer for our client and got a deal going. This was great news, and our client was very excited since this would be the highest sale price for the entire neighborhood. After accepting the full price offer, the buyers asked if they could see it one more time, this time with their parents. Once the parents came to see it, they ended up backing out on us due to the fact that the parents didn’t like the street noise. Luckily we know to not stop showing even if we have an accepted offer so as soon as they backed out on us, we were already negotiating another offer very close to asking price. Now, being that we already had a full price offer on the previous deal, our client was not accepting anything below full price. This can happen sometimes, but frankly, we don’t mind because if one buyer was willing to pay it, then surely others will, it’s just our job to get them there.
So, we ended up negotiating another full price offer, but before we could get the deal going, something happened. One of the owner’s neighbors saw that she was selling and knocked on her door to express her family’s interest to buy the property. Now, this was great news because we offer our clients discounts on the commission if they are able to find us the buyer. That means that with this new offer, she would end up netting 2% more money from the sale! So naturally, we accepted the offer. The owner was so happy to be selling to the neighbor, and also to be netting more, that she said we don’t need to show the house anymore. We advised against it, but she felt confident that they were buying it since she knew them personally. They decided to bypass the inspection since it was recently renovated, but a few days later, the buyers said they wanted to see it again, this time with their parents (sound familiar?). As you can probably guess, these buyers ended up backing out on us as well because the parents didn’t like it. The bad news this time is that we stopped showing, so we lost out on several potential buyers while we were waiting to go into contract.
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We started from square one, relaunched all marketing activities, and got to work. After a few weeks, we had some new traction. Two buyers who really wanted the place! This time we were able to negotiate the prices over asking price, and on top of that, they were all cash offers which means no bank involved. We were worried about appraisal issues so this was a huge relief…
Ultimately, the owner ended up taking the second highest offer, because there was no selling contingency. We got the deal going immediately, and this time the buyer looked very serious to go into contract immediately. They scheduled an inspection which didn’t turn up anything alarming aside from a leak in the basement that the owner quickly resolved. We finally went into contract and were on our way to getting our client to Miami where she longed to be.
Contract to close was fairly smooth, a few speed bumps here and there, but nothing we haven’t experienced before. The owner needed an extra month or so to get things ready and the buyer was happy to accomadate… Once the closing date drew closer, we scheduled the final walk through on the morning of the closing date. This was one of the most pleasant walk throughs we’ve conducted because the buyer’s whole family came with them (mom, dad, kids, etc). The owner was almost done clearing the house out and it looked great, even bigger than the buyers remembered! Baby was running around the house, apparently marking her new found territory:) The buyers looked so happy to be moving in, and they had a certain gittyness that you rarely see from working NYC professionals! They asked us to take a picture of the family in front of the house, and it felt like we were in a real estate commercial. These are the times when we really get a lot of fulfillment in what we do… Most importantly, our client was packing up everything for the drive down to Florida and she was just as happy to be nearing the beginning of her retirement. Her daughter (who lives in the Bronx) was driving her down to Florida and she looked as if she was contimplating the move as well:)
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We were so happy for her, and when she got her net proceeds check at the closing (over $500K), we were excited to see that she had a nice chunk of change to retire with. As we grow, and as we continue to get more seller referrals, we are starting to realize that there is a large amount of empty nesters and baby boomers who are relocating to the south. We hope to find more of these families so that we can help them get the best return on their investment while making the process as smooth and hassle free as possible. Congratulations to our client as she begins this new exciting chapter of her life! Another fulfilling sale for the Queens Home Team…
Courtesy of George & Abigail Herrera w/the Queens Home Team at Keller Williams Realty
BUY: www.exclusivequeenshomes.com | SELL: www.queenshomeselling.com
