"Where to next?” asked Tianna about our Friday afternoon showing day. “To the secret house” I replied to Tianna, and her and Michael’s eyes lit up. “Oh that’s right!” Tianna said, “we’ll follow you”. Once we arrived at the Secret House, as expected, Tianna and Michael were full of questions of how they were able to view this home before other buyers and I’m pretty sure they felt darn special that day. After a successful showing, contracts were drawn up and their offer was accepted, and in fact Tianna and Michael did feel special because they found the right home for them! How do you find a secret house you ask? It’s all about who you hire as your real estate agent because it takes networking and hard work to find them!
In truth, there secret houses to be found almost every day. Finding them is what is not easy. We here at The Taylor-Made Team try and leave no stone unturned to find our buyers homes. Especially in a market like we are currently in. Believe it or not, not all sellers want the absolute most money they can get for their home. A seller may have other priorities that are important to them. IE – not having to be out of their home for 72+ hours straight for showings, having multiple buyers tour their home (and unfortunately not all buyers and agents are respectful while inside houses), getting overwhelmed by so many offers (especially if their agent isn’t accustom to managing all those offers), the list can really go on. Sounds a little crazy huh? This extreme seller’s market isn’t what every seller wishes for. The seller of the Secret House had many of these thoughts and the idea of selling the house “off market” to well qualified buyers made this seller extremely happy. TMT had connected with this seller last year, there was conversation about what this seller’s priorities were, what list price would cause this seller to accept an offer, and what timelines the buyers needed to be adhere to. Therefore when Tianna and Michael had a harder time finding and securing a home in this recent month of March, Chad knew of this Secret House and started to connect the dots. TMT does many, many forms of what we call “proactive marketing”, I can’t give you all the secrets, but trust us, it’s a full time job.
And a job worthwhile when we can make a fantastic connect like in the case above.
Now being the chosen buyer to view a Secret House comes with many rewards, and a few rules too. Number one most rewarding attribute is not having to compete with 15 other buyers that have all fallen in love with the same house you have. Some buyers are more qualified than others, that’s how the cookie crumbles. But having to compete with 15 other buyers is hard, and you really have to stand out of the crowd to get noticed. Being the one and only well qualified buyer brings the spotlight to you when you offer on a Secret House. Buyers may get to preform inspections. Most purchase contracts currently (in highly desirable areas) are accompanied by an In It’s Present Condition Addendum (aka – taking the property As-Is), many aren’t even doing inspections at all. With the Secret House, an In It’s Present Condition Addendum was part of the offer, however inspections were able to be performed, and the buyers are feeling so much better about what they could be facing as new home owners.
Next is a reward and rule both – there is no negotiation on price. If you are afforded the luxury of seeing and offering on a Secret House, please do not think that you will have much, if any negotiation power. Your win as the buyer is that you are not paying well over list price and you “may” even be able to pay list price, that is case by case. Mainly keep your head on straight as a buyer in this situation because getting back out into the Non-Secret housing market is certainly not a “the grass is greener” situation. Last is be flexible as a buyer as possible. Honestly this is true with on market houses and secret houses. If you have the ability to be flexible with the seller’s timelines, do that and it will be appreciated.
TMT feels like the Secret House situation for Tianna and Michael was 100% a win-win situation and all parties are feeling good about this real estate match-making. That really is the best possible outcome, and we can’t wait to find more Secret Houses for our buyers, so they can also end just like this!