Be Careful What You Wish For (Part I)
Remember my condo clients and our day at the Circus Montage? Well it turned out that our roller coaster ride with the Montage condos wasn’t meant to end where we left off.
When we left ‘sale day’ on December 3rd, we were told my clients’ names would be put on a backup list for a two bedroom condo and if any of the people who had signed a contract to purchase a two bedroom could not fulfill their end of the deal, they would begin contacting people on the backup list to see if they would want to purchase instead. Because my clients were so interested in this condo complex (we had visited 20 or so other condo complexes in the previous weeks and none of them measured up in location or amenities), we made several calls to the sales office over the next few weeks trying to determine where they stood on the backup list and whether there was still a chance to purchase or not. We even began watching the MLS for the condos that had been purchased to be resold (or ‘flipped’). I was surprised to see that even though none of the condos had officially closed escrow yet, several appeared for sale. I contacted one of the agents on a condo (she also works for Century 21 Arizona Foothills and we had met before) and she explained to me that a property can be sold before it changes hands the first time. The buyer actually purchases the interest the previous buyer had in the property. (Yep, it’s confusing to me, too.)
Anyway, the point is that the condos that were appearing on the MLS were being listed for $50,000 to $75,000 more than what we had been expecting to purchase them at from the Montage sales office. This made it apparent that the only way my clients would be purchasing in this complex would be by original contract, not resale. I could tell my clients were pinning all of their hopes on the possibility of that backup list.
In one of the calls I made to the sales office, I managed to find out that we were number 102 on the backup list. This was not a good sign. They continued to tell us that they would call if they had anything for us. Finally, the week before Christmas I received an excited call from my client that he had called the office that day and it apparently had been the right moment to call, because they had just had a two-bedroom fall out of escrow that was available for my clients to purchase, IF they came right then.
For a bit, that call was a dream come true. As a newbie Realtor (I’ll probably call myself that for 10 years or so) I tend to get more emotionally involved with my clients and their hopes than I probably should. Purchasing and selling a house is such a huge, life changing event. I want them to get everything they want. I knew that my clients had seen what else was out there and that a Montage condo was what they had their hearts set on. I had been very concerned it wasn’t going to happen. So for the moment, I felt like we’d won the lottery.
Stay tuned for Part II…