Reflection at the Closing Table

I had a closing last week, and as I sat at the closing table I reflected on the entire process. It was then that I realized that I may have just represented the . Let me explain.

I first met this family when they called me after reading a few of . Now keep in mind, when I show up for a listing appointment, I never know what I am walking into. I never know what kind of condition the home will be in. I always wonder, will the house present well? Will we be able to price it right? Will the sellers be enjoyable to work with? Well, in this case, I showed up and the house was immaculate and I knew immediately that it would look great online. As I went through the listing presentation and started to converse with my new clients, I felt comfortable that they would be great clients to work for.

So, I took the listing and we did all the usual things to make the house show well. The pictures looked great online, the virtual tour looked as good as I thought it would and my clients kept the house in perfect showing condition. My only concern was that our selling price was a bit high, but we agreed to list at $185,000 and review our pricing and showings at a later date.

After about two months and a few showings, we ended up getting an offer for $175,000. My sellers were realistic and felt that was a fair offer. They were awesome throughout the document signing process and super cooperative dealing with all subsequent requests from the buyer. After the inspection, the sellers had all inspection items fixed immediately and forwarded the receipts of all completed work. Then the appraisal came in and the home only appraised for $167,000. Once again, the sellers understood this market and remembered the conversations we had previously had. After they moved out, they cleaned the home so that the new buyers would be moving into a perfectly clean new house.

As we got to the closing table, the sellers were impressively prepared.  They brought a box full of information about the neighborhood, appliance warranties, instruction manuals, extra house keys, garage remotes, etc.  As the closing progressed, they openly shared additional information about the home and the neighborhood. The closing finished without a hitch and the buyers seemed very pleased. In this case, I know I did my job in marketing the house and getting a great offer, but I also reflect now on how awesome it was to have sellers that seemed more like partners in the process, eagerly helping and going above and beyond in all that they did.

It is a credit to my clients that this transaction went so smoothly and I hope the buyer of that home knows how fortunate they were, as I am perfectly aware of how fortunate I was to work with them. I know my clients are reading this now (yes, you know who you are) and I just wanted to say GREAT JOB!

About this column: Scott Lacy is a real estate agent with Keller Williams. He is also the author of the Suwanee Real Estate Notebook, a real estate column with news and advice about the Suwanee housing market. You may reach him at 770-722-5129 or scottlacy@kw.com. You can also visit his web site, www.homesinhamiltonmill.com.