Multiple offers
How many of you would love to get multiple offers on one of your flip properties? Normally I would too because that means better offers when buyers are competing over you. But we have had multiple offers on a great house up in Whitfield County that — well, let me just tell you about the situation.
First off, when I say this is a great house, I really mean it. It’s a newly remodeled three bedroom, two bath, ranch style house located in a country setting that overlooks farmland and distant views of Johns Mountain. Not only does it have great views, but it also comes with a two-acre fenced pasture.
We lovingly refer to this project as “The Barn House” because the exterior siding, trim and roof framing are meant to mimic that of a horse barn’s exterior.
The inside features stainless steel appliances and wainscoting in the bathrooms, along with a functioning woodburning stove to give it that extra country feel. (Of course you would only use the stove if you decided to turn off the new heat pump system.) There’s fresh paint, new lighting and new floors throughout.
When we originally put it on market, we received a full-price offer over the weekend that we accepted.
Now, you may be thinking, “But Joey, I thought you said, ‘multiple offers.’” Bear with me.
During the due diligence period of that contract, the home inspector found something very odd. His inspection report read, “There is grass growing in the third bedroom. I recommended getting that issue remedied, or (jokingly) purchase an indoor lawn mower.”
This was no joking matter, though. It scared our buyers and caused them to submit a termination for our contract.
We had never encountered a circumstance like this before. As such, I rushed out to the property to inspect, hoping to find the inspector in error.
But sure enough, there was a beautiful blade of grass growing in the bedroom carpet. From what I can tell, somehow a seed of grass had blown into the house at some point and landed in the expansion joints in the concrete slab. There it lay dormant for who knows how long. While we were rehabbing the house, some water must have been spilt on the seed which gave it what it needed to germinate.
That little seed had pushed itself through the carpet pad and straight through the carpet, all with no soil to support itself.
Can you say crazy? We got rid of the blade of grass, but the buyer was too spooked to continue. We had no choice but to accept the termination.
We put the property back on market and got an almost full-price offer immediately. (Like I said, this is a great house.)
The inspection on this contract went well and we made some very minor repairs.
As we got close to the proposed closing date in the contract, the lender reached out to my agent letting her know we needed to extend. The lender needed to source some of the funds the buyers had reported on their loan application.
Three extensions later and after nearly 60 days of being under contract, we learned the buyers would not be able to get the loan until they got some things fixed on their taxes. That process could take months to complete.
This put us into October, which is not peak buying season. Because of that fact, and no guarantee that the buyers could get the loan, we terminated that contract and put the house back on the market.
This time, we got multiple offers, one of which was over list price and the one we accepted.
To make a long story short, these buyers got hyped up with competing for the house and put in a bigger offer than they were comfortable with. After they cooled off, they realized that fact and got buyers remorse. They then terminated the contract during their due diligence period. UGGHH!
So now, here we are in November, back on market, and buyers are seeing a house that has been on market for months and think they should low-ball us.
All I’m saying is that multiple offers aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.