Timing Your Purchase

Here I am, your Main Line Philadelphia Realtor®, up with the birds to catch my hard-working clients on their way to work to discuss the offer they have in on a great house. I got them in the car—always seems a bit dangerous to me to talk about something as stressful as buying a house with someone who is driving. But it is better than a text, for sure. Like many of my younger buyers, these busy, tech-savvy young adults connect in short messages with lots of abbreviations. Not always the best way to go over the fine points of all those Main Line homes for sale, IMHO. Ha ha.

The topic of the day is the timing on the purchase. The sellers want a very delayed closing so they can finish the renovations on their new home. My buyers are concerned about the mortgage rates going up (as well they should be). They have done a good job of contacting 2 lenders to see what their loan options are but neither one will guarantee a rate for more than 60 days. Is there a lender out there that will? We do not know. The lender you know is better than the devil you don’t, I always say. Nothing derails more transactions than lenders who over promise and then cannot deliver the money at the closing. This aspect of a residential real estate transaction requires careful attention and monitoring by experienced agents.

So we decide to change the offer to allow for the delayed closing with the rate risk in trade for what we have determined is a slightly-below-market price. It is always a trick to get a seller to take their bottom line price the first few days they have the house on the market. And this house just came on the market. We wanted to be the first appointment. We have to make the offer palatable. I know this is the house for my buyers, after seeing them discuss and evaluate many Main Line homes for sale over the last few months. And they know it is the right house for them. But so did another set of buyers. So now we are in the dreaded “multiple offer” situation. What’s a Main Line Realtor® to do? In the car, we make an important decision but based on what we believe to be all the facts we need. Will they get the house? I have a feeling they will.

Meanwhile, my email is screaming “IMPORTANT” message received. This is from a client who bought a house 3 years ago and is having an issue with the builder. After-market service is an important part of being a real estate agent, so I will need to help this client solve his problem. Hand-holding and personal connection is top priority. But first I have to locate the file and download all the emails from storage. A Main Line Realtor® also needs to be a tech whiz—electronic signature apps, professional photos and video apps, mapping software, spreadsheets with financial options displayed, etc.  

Off to leap tall buildings with a single bound.

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