Rocky is under contract!

Greetings all and welcome to Real Estate Secrets where we talk about everything involved with flipping and renting properties. I’m you’re host Linda Harley and today’s topic is…negotiation.

I’m super excited to tell you that Rocky is under contract!!

Yes, that’s right, in less than 24 hours from going back up on the market I had an offer that we negotiated and I accepted.

Now, the buyers had 3 stipulations to their offer:

First they wanted a termite letter. That’s no biggee for $75 and a 48hour turn around time, Northwestern Exterminating will provide me with a termite letter. I call them the terminators because I often forget the full name.

Next, the buyers wanted a garbage disposal installed. This is a bit of a bigger project, fortunately my contractor is on speed dial and within 15 min I had a quote for the job $450.

Lastly, the buyers hated the tile in the kitchen, and they wanted it to be retiled with tiles they will be providing.

Okay, so I’m not a sensitive person and I understand that people have different tastes, so I tried very very very hard not to be offended that they did not like my choice in tile.

It is a lovely sea green glass subway tile… Mermaid tile from Flor and Decor. It fit the house perfectly…. Or so I thought.

My agent talked me off the ledge and informed me that the buyers were an elderly conservative couple and didn’t like the modern feel that the kitchen tile created.

Alright, then… I thought…. I won’t take offence, but deep inside of me a little part was sad that I’m going to potentially be tearing out perfectly good tile.

But in the end… what the buyer wants the buyer gets… so the tile will go out… since they’re basically paying for it.

Contractor said around ~$800 for the tiling job.

Great!

I countered the buyers offer to account for these additional expenses, and viola the deal is under contract.

Now a few lessons that I’ve learned from previous closings:

1. Don’t perform ANY of the stipulated work until AFTER the deal is HARD… meaning the buyers will loose the earnest money if they do. If they pull out the earnest money is there to cover any expenses of the changes you made to the property for them.

2. A deal is never finalized until both parties have signed on the dotted line and the funds have been transferred and received. It's never over till it's over.

Flipping houses can be stressful, but it can also be rewarding when you realize you’re creating a home for people that will be sharing many family memories there for years to come.

That’s it for today. If you found this info useful, drop a comment below to let me know your favorite backsplash tile.

Too da loo

Linda