I first met Jud and his wife through my introduction into the neighborhood. When I moved to my house in Clintonville, I visited up and down the street to say “Hello!” and to see if any of my new neighbors needed any real estate help. Shortly after, in August 2011, I received an email from Jud. He told me that he was interested in purchasing their first home, their lease would be up in May of 2012.
I contacted them again, six months later. Although, Jud and his wife initially told me that they were going to renew the lease one more year, they wrote back and told me they changed their minds! After speaking to their lender, they found out their monthly mortgage payment and rent payment were comparable.
With a pre-approval in hand, Jud and his wife came to my house for a buyer’s consultation on March 24. I set a search and found five houses within their criteria; 3 bedroom home, over 1,000 sqft in Clintonville for $150-165k. They were excited to find so many houses in their price range, in the area. We went to visit those five houses on March 29. They decided to write an offer on a home on April 2nd, which had an updated kitchen and some flexibility in the living room areas. After exchanging counter offers on the purchase price and closing costs, they went into contract for $157,000 on April 5.
After an inspection, we came to an agreement on a remedy negotiation. Then, there was a hiccup… April 23rd, the lender notified us that the appraisal came back lower than the purchase price . This was a little surprising. This house had updates and one of the reasons why this home became available, at this price, was that there was still a tenant living in it. (Homeowners, if you have a choice to sell your home after having your tenant move out, chances are high that you get a higher price!! Not every tenant cares how the house appears at the time of showings.)
This is normally the END. However, Navy Federal Credit Union, Cleveland Mortgage (877-522-8023) reached out to both me, the buyer’s agent and the listing agent for our price of opinions!! Both of us quickly got busy. Although, we each, picked different comparables and had different ways to come up with the price of opinions, mine came to $162,700 and the listing agent’s at $161,560. The bank came back on April 30, telling us that they would approve $157,000 with 5 things to repair such as installation of missing handrails, replacement of missing outlet covers, and similar requests to this. Those were the things Jud and his wife requested to repair at the time of remedy negotiation, intitially.However, the seller decided to pay $600, instead. When they asked for the repair, they agreed to do so, in return of taking that $600 back.
The repair work was ordered and finished by Sellers and re-inspection was sent. Jud and his wife got to own their first home on May 25.
【Comments from Jud】
How did you find out about me?
Through your efforts around our neighborhood. We met you in person when you stopped by.
Why did you hire me as your agent?
We liked that you stayed in touch while we were renting and remembered our moving date. We felt we could trust you because you were a neighbor and knew about Clintonville.
What did you like about my service and why?
1. Kept track of our rental move-out date and contacted us about our interest in buying.
2. Did a lot of research right away.
3. Was not pushy in getting us to buy something.
4. Got back to our many emails/calls very quickly.
We also appreciated your extra efforts to give estimates to the bank and make sure we got our house!
