A local probate attorney asked for our help with her client, a Michigan-based representative with a condo they needed to sell. We spoke with the representative on the phone, exchanged a few emails, and set up a meeting at the condo the next time he was in the area.
We met with the representative at the property for our unique Max The Estate™ Consultation. The representative was a step ahead in that he had had the entire contents of the unit removed by a cleanout company. There were a couple of things we noticed at the walk-though; 1.) a part of the linoleum floor in the kitchen was missing and the gypsum subfloor in that area was cracking, and 2.) there were these odd patches of blue painter’s tape in four locations in the condo’s ceiling, right next to the fire suppression sprinklers.
The representative said he was looking for a sale sooner rather than later and that he already had an offer from someone he knew for $215,000. We felt that he could do better.
The representative also didn’t want to invest a ton of money into the unit, so we noted that our target buyer would need to be either a verified investor buyer with cash using our InvestorMax™ strategy or a cash sale to a retail buyer. With those parameters, we moved forward.
It turned out that the blue tape patches covered large holes left by a sprinkler contractor whi was hired by the condo association to replace the defective fire sprinklers throughout the building. It seems that the condo association and the management company had left it up to each individual unit owner to fully repair the holes that were left in the contractor’s wake – the holes that were inches away from the sprinklers. That kind of sounds like a bad idea, right? It turns out it was – the complex subsequently had an abnormal number of fire sprinkler damage claims, and their insurance company dropped them. ANYway, back to the story…
It wasn’t possible to pass the town inspection needed to sell the unit to a new buyer without patching the holes in the ceiling (they’re considered a fire hazard). And the condo management company representative wanted two additional things to pass HER pre-sale inspection: 1.) She wanted the cracked gypsum floor repaired using a special-ordered fire-rated mortar, which costs about ten times as much as regular mortar, and 2.) She wanted the empty unit treated for mice because she claimed she saw a mouse in the unit previously (and she had reported that sighting to the town’s health department as a part of the overall goings-on at the unit before the representative took over).
We got a few quotes to fix the holes in the ceiling; the lowest one was for $900, and THAT contractor wanted the spinklers shut off for the entire building prior to proceeding, which would have been a HUGE and expensive hassle. So, we rough-patched the holes using our related renovation contractor arm. While we were at it, we also patched the floor in the kitchen with the special mortar. The representative had the empty unit treated for the non-existent mice (his only out-of-pocket expense), we did some small work required by the town, and we were ready to hit the market
Our Silvina Foley placed the home on the market using our InvestorMax™ strategy, and she received 14 offers. After some back-and-forth negotiating, the representative chose an as-is, no-inspection cash offer of $280,000.
So that was $280,000, an increase of $65,000 over the offer the representative was poised to take before our meeting. To be fair, that offer carried $14,000 in sales costs that wouldn’t have been incurred had the representative gone with “his” guy. So that’s a net increase of $51,000 as the result of our crossing paths. As an aside; we only met the representative is person twice – once at the initial meeting and then again at closing. We took care of everything, freeing the representative up to do other things with his time.
More money to the estate. Less hassle to the representative. That’s what we do!