« A Referral Success Story For a Client and Me! »

Now this was a great transaction! It all started on my first day on Active Rain (www.activerain.com/marvindelavega), a networking site for real estate agents and a great place for consumers to get an inside scoop on how agents think. Check out the chronology:

Feb 10 - Joined Active Rain feeling like Bambi on ice. Set up my profile and posted my first blog entry - Welcome to My Blog. Received a referral alert from Jack Torres of the Homefinding Center in Corona CA. Jumped on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich, interviewed and got the referral. Thanks, Jack! Thanks Active Rain!

Feb 12 - Met buyer Ron W. at first house. Thus begins the happy house hunt. We start inland with new townhomes. Turns out Ron is a fellow surfer so we end up using surf spots and proximity to the ocean as primary criteria for his home; bonus for me, I get to see the ocean while showing homes.

Feb 18 - 4 days of showing, 22 homes, a Surf Burger and 3 fish tacos later I showed Ron a bank owned condo in Carlsbad its first day on the market, offer written. It's near great north San Diego County surf spots, 4 blocks from the beach.

Feb 21 - Offer accepted! Scha-WING!!!

Feb 23 - Escrow opened on a 30 day escrow.

This is where the normal stuff happened. We reviewed disclosures, surfed, did inspections, surfed again, wrote the request for repairs, surfed yet again. What? This IS normal in Southern California right down to my jeans, Hawaiian shirt and flip flops. Just kidding, I wore shoes most of the time...

March 26 - Loan is funded. 

March 27 - Scheduled to record and close TODAY, essentially a done deal. I know, it was supposed to be a 30 day escrow. So we went over by 2 days due to small issues not even worth mentioning.

Here's the best part. I just found out from the listing agent that 3 offers came in AFTER ours was accepted, HIGHER than what Ron paid, those buyers were hoping we would bail out. Fat chance. Right now Ron is smiling.

Thanks again Jack! I'm goin' surfing now...

Aloha,

Marvin