Signed, Sealed And Delivered in North Los Angeles
Listing agents in North Los Angeles are using a new tactic to sell homes. Joyti Goundar, our agent who covers North Los Angeles, has seen a lot of competitively priced homes come on the market with agent-only remarks saying they’ll review all offers on some day in future, usually 10-14 days after the listing date.
Here’s how things work according to Joyti:
Interested buyers have to deliver their offer in a sealed envelope to the listing agent. Buyers often have to include a pre-approval letter and their FICO score as well. On judgment day, the listing agent will open the offers; sometimes they counter the top few, but often they’ll counter all offers. In the counter offers, buyers are told to come back with their best and final offer. The listing agent will ask for no appraisal contingency, a shortened inspection period (7 – 10 days rather than the standard 17) and says the seller selects escrow.
Joyti’s Four Tips
If you’re buying in Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Cañada, San Marino or Arcadia you’re more than likely going to run into this kind of listing. If you do, take a look at Joyti’s four tips:
- Have your agent check the agent only remarks. These deadlines are generally not made public, but your agent can look to see if the listing agent is doing this.
- Know what are you comfortable paying. If you get beat out by $5K, would you be o.k. with that?
- Submit offer at the last minute. Have you agent call to find out how many sealed envelopes are in so you have an idea of the competition.
- Be patient. 2-3 day response time and it’s hard to predict what will happen, there’s no negotiation.
Have you dealt with any situations like this?
