Property
3011 Marina | East End | Alameda
Type of Sale
On MLS
Scenario
The sellers originally reached out to us a year earlier (to make it more timeless) to discuss selling their home. The timing wasn’t right for their lives, so they decided to postpone the sale for one year. When they were ready to sell, the market had seen dramatic shifts due to the rising interest rates that had doubled in only 4 months’ time.
After their marketing period, we received no offers on their home. After extensive outreach to agents across the entire Bay Area, the feedback was clear that the interest rates were deterring buyers from making a strong offer. After encouraging all of these agents to write their best offer, two weeks after our offer date, we received an offer from a San Francisco agent with buyers looking to relocate to Alameda. They loved the water location and were very committed to the purchase. However, their offer was at $1.6m. A comparable home had sold in July of that year for $2m, when the rates were substantially lower, however the rates were reaching 7% by October. Therefore, an offer at $1.6m was actually comparable given the higher rate when considering the monthly payment for the home. Regardless, KMG advised the sellers not to accept this offer and to hold out for stronger offers.
Why did KMG advise the sellers to hold out when it was already 2 weeks past their offer day? As the #1 group in Alameda, we have the largest market share, which provides us with extensive data and market intel; we knew from other active listings that there was still a lot of buyer activity and we were seeing other properties sell for strong amounts based on the comps.
Outcome
Within a few more weeks, we were able to get two more offers, and we were also able to get our initial offer of $1.6m re-engaged and interested in the home again. After extensive negotiations and multiple offers on the table, we were able to get to a final sales price of $1.925m. A very strong price given where interest rates were at this time.
Had the sellers listed their home with another group or Brokerage, they would not have had the extensive insights and data to support a longer marketing period in order to solicit a higher price. KMG provided an advantage to our sellers as we were able to advise them to stay the course and to hold out for better offers. In the end, they made an additional $325,000 over their initial offer by listening to our advice and market intel.
