Ed Note – we are pleased to present to you Maria De Guzman. Maria is a licensed real estate agent by day and wants to share her real estate knowledge with you.
Maria, through her stories, will take you through the intricacies of staging, timing, buying and selling properties from a realtor’s perspective. As Maria writes this series for Stittsville Central, we hope you enjoy and find her tips, tricks and client lessons learned to be helpful when you purchase or sell your home.
In the life of a realtor, contracts, price agreements and conditions more or less come after intriguing stories. Sometimes house owners have something to fix before they move, some life issues to resolve not related to the house, but with the home unfortunately having to be sold. This is what happened to Vicky and how we resolved her issues.
Vicky came to me at Church, outside the fall leaves were changing the landscape and rain was cleaning the road. Vicky couldn’t articulate more than two phrases together. She had decided to sell her matrimonial home after living there for ten years with her husband and two adorable daughters; the last four with her boyfriend Brett and the kids. Vicky and Brett were covering the mortgage payments as part of the condition her ex-husband placed; nevertheless, paying the mortgage and services were gradually bringing her into debt, decreasing her house equity.
For the first 24 hours, having decided on her price and the conditions in the contract, weren’t the main problem. It was when I met her weird ex-husband who didn’t trust me, the real estate agent, who asked for his personal address, job title and a picture of his driver’s licence to complete the Fintract form – the proceeds of crime and money laundering and terrorist financing form. His face transformed into a panicked look easily thinking more of a persecution related to him with a crime or drugs, for which he proclaimed innocence and walked away before signing the seller’s agreement.
After Vicky’s ex-husband understood that selling the house was the best idea to get rid of Vicky forever, he signed the seller’s agreement with a big smile while considering his nightmare would soon be over.
The third episode started with Vicky, who realized she would never ever live in a better house, who suddenly changed her mind – suggesting to me to convince her ex not to sell.
Leaving the scene of the show, miraculously the next day Vicky and her ex agreed to sell; however, Vicky didn’t have a house to move into. The sales process had started with the sign in the front garden, the staging, the MLS listing, the video, the set of pictures and the buyers’ appointments over four busy days – ending in a final full price offer being accepted.
Vicky looked happy even to the last day her house was “overlapping” with 17 showings!
Without knowing her bad credit situation, she told me her decision to not leave the house or move her furniture until I find a place for her to live. With the idea of not causing a breach in the sales contract, I started looking for a possible rental. I quickly discovered her low Equifax score. It was then that her adorable parents decided to sign the rental lease.
Today, Vicky is fully free of debt and living in a rental house she calls home. Vicky learned the lesson of fixing her bad credit and assuming the consequences.
I am glad I am a realtor and was visiting Church that fall afternoon.
(This real story was modified to protect the privacy of the clients. Any coincidence is just happenstance.)