Agent Lady team member Brittany Loeffler writes about the reality of buying a home in Philadelphia through a series of short stories.
Negotiation is Everything
The Tuckers had no idea how fast a real estate transaction could go south. With just one email, their dream home in Mt. Airy, a quiet neighborhood in Philadelphia, was in jeopardy. Just yesterday the newly married couple had made a list of repairs they wanted to have done before settlement, as per the report their home inspector gave them.
Their amazing real estate agent, Cherise Wynne, who was known around town as the Agent Lady, had walked them through the inspection report. Since they were first time home buyers, she was especially patient with them and answered all and any of their questions. So, when they were on the phone with her, all of them reading through the inspection report, they came up with a list of repairs.
“Now, the sellers can choose to fix these repairs themselves if it doesn’t require a professional or they can offer to give you a credit for the repairs. That would mean that you will bring less money to the settlement table and use it instead on the repairs. Do you understand?” The Tuckers confirmed that they understood and looked over their list. There wasn’t too much, some minor fixes around the house that included repairing shingles on the roof and a doorknob.
The sellers had two days to come back with what they will do for the buyers. “Remember, this is just a wish list. Real estate is all about negotiation, so you may not get everything on this list done,” Cherise reminded them. Well, to her surprise the listing agent gave her a call as she was eating her lunch and dropped a bomb on her.
“The sellers are refusing to fix any of these repairs. They claim they are selling the house as-is and that the inspection was solely for the buyers information.” Cherise couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She looked over the listing beside her computer for the condition.
“There is nowhere in this listing that says it is being sold ‘as-is.’ So either your clients are being lazy or whoever put the listing up forgot to put that. My clients are expecting some of these repairs to be made or at least have a credit given to them.” Cherise was getting frustrated.
“Look, I’ll talk to my clients and see what they are willing to do. I’ll explain the situation.” Cherise had more to say to this guy, but bit her tongue. They hung up and Cherise waited for him to call her back. She didn’t want to bring this to her buyers until she had an answer.
Days went by and the Tuckers emailed Cherise asking about the seller’s reply to inspection. Cherise emailed them back saying things were still being negotiated and not to worry about it. She had it under control.
Without hearing from the listing agent for a couple of days, Cherise finally decided to give him a call. If he was going to ghost on this deal, she was going to make him say it. “Have your sellers come up with anything yet?”
“Cherise, I was just about to call you. Yes, they came up with the repairs they will do and the rest they will give a credit. I’ll tell ya, it wasn’t easy to get them to agree to this.” He wanted a pat on the back, but definitely wasn’t getting one.
“Great, how much are they giving in the credit?”
“Well, they are still waiting on quotes about the roof.”
“They’ve had days to get this quote! What do you mean they’re still waiting? We have settlement in a week and a half and the inspector has to go out for a reinspect.”
“I know, I know. They should be getting the quotes back tomorrow.” Cherise knew this was a lie and she would have to chase him down until they were sitting comfortably at the settlement table.
Cherise called her buyers and explained the situation. “I never knew real estate was such a waiting game,” Mrs. Tucker commented.
“You have no idea,” Cherise sighed into the phone.
The day of settlement came and went with no issues. The sellers had agreed to give them a considerable amount of credit to go towards the roof and some other repairs. Maybe it was just laziness or they didn’t have time to fix anything, but the buyers couldn’t have been happier. Since Mr. Tucker’s father was a contractor, they knew he could get them a great price for the repairs rather than going through a stranger. They couldn’t thank Cherise enough for her help and the negotiation she had to go through to get them their dream home.
About Brittany: Brittany is the super organized (and awesome) marketing assistant that helps home buying and selling clients have the best experience possible. She also shares her creative side by writing compelling short stories about the home buying process that are loosely based on actual client situations.
