by Alexander Clark
If you’ve never seen an Ultimate Fighting Championship match you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about, and I know it’s a stretch comparing writing an offer to stepping into the Octagon and taking on the likes of Chuck Liddell, but to some of my clients, they truly feel they are getting kicked while they are down and they just want to get a place to stop the bleeding.
Our story of 636 Steiner, a 3 bed, 1 bath, 1582 sqft. condo in Alamo Square, asking $869,000, is quite a doozy.
I’ve put this picture of the kitchen in so you all can see what kind of kitchen near $1,000,000 buys you these days, and illustrate a big problem (among others) I had advising my clients to go much higher in their offer price.
This all started a couple weeks ago when my clients said they’d found a place they want to write an offer on. (This would be the third offer they’ve written, the other two being 218 Cole, and 256 Page).
The seller decided not to do the typical pre-contractor and pest inspection in order to promote super “clean” offers, so we thought we’d get a leg up on the competition and do them prior to the offer date…the seller said no, because we weren’t the only party requesting to do this. So we waited until Monday.
Offers were due at noon, and I was continually calling the selling listing agent to find out how many were coming in, so that we could adjust our asking price and submit an offer at a price that we thought would keep us in the game. Our first offer was at $915,000, which I submitted at 12pm. I called the agent and asked how many offers he had received…the answer “four so far, but I expect 9 total.” My thought…”F*ck!, what the hell!”. Called my clients, told them the story, and said we better put our best foot forward. So at 2pm we revised our offer, told them to burn the other one, and submitted our max offer at $950,000 pleading the selling agent to keep us in the game. So we are now $81,000 over on a home that has tiny tandem parking, a trek down the stairs to the washer/dryer, really no easily accessible outdoor space, a kitchen that really has no counter space, and 8 other interested buyers. I told the agent to give it to me straight, so we don’t waste any more time. His answer, “I have three offers higher than yours, and they’re very ‘clean’.”
That’s it. Throw in the towel, clean up the blood, lick our wounds and move on. The property was in contract that evening, so I’m thinking there wasn’t too much in the way of counter offers and I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells north of $985,000, which to me, is absolutely nuts.
The score: my clients 0, the market 3. These clients need a knockout on their next offer and we’ve asked Mr Liddell for some help, so steer clear.
Happy house hunting.
–218 Cole: Damnit it happened again [theFrontSteps]
–Why’s this keep happening to me?! [theFrontSteps]
–636 Steiner [MLS]