Scary (personal) real estate stories!

Happy Halloween! 

In my eight years as a realtor, I've collected enough thrilling stories for one lifetime. 

(I don't think I know many realtors who like haunted houses and it's likely because the work is scary enough.. lol) 

Here are my top three scary real estate stories. (Most of which did thankfully have a happy ending.) 

1. The Creature in the Attic

One ominous evening my clients and I scheduled an appointment to visit a home in West Orange. It was a property set all the way back into the woods, at the top of a hill. 

When confirming the appointment, the listing agent told me the house was vacant, so he gave me the code and we entered. 

The home had a funny smell, along with having worn floors and creaking floorboard. 

None of the lights in the home worked and this was in October, so it was starting to get pretty dark. 

As we continued through this already eerie home, we heard a sound. "What was that?!"

We neared the staircase to the attic and the sounds got louder. 

"Hello?".... 

When we got to the top of the staircase landing, the sound was clear, it was a TV on full blast and someone was in there laughing! 

We all ran down the stairs and straight out of the front door... We were not curious enough to know what or who was in that attic and now it's their new home !!... I'm just kidding... (definitely a dealbreaker)

2. The Earnest Money is in the Incinerator!

One of the main milestones in a real estate transaction is getting the earnest money to the attorney or title company. This is essentially a good faith deposit that shows you will commit to all of the transaction's contingencies. 

When it came time for my buyer clients to submit their earnest money, the followed the attorney's instruction, FEDEx'd what would be tens of thousands of dollars in funds in a cashier's check for trackable delivery to the attorney's office. 

They did everything right. 

A few days later a seller's representative asks about the earnest money.

They proceeded to say that the attorney's office had a fire and they were worried the earnest money was mixed in with the office contents that had burnt. 

It was. I could not believe it. 

They sent us an image of the attorney's office that resembled Freddy Krueger's melted face. 

My heart sank.

And, since this was a certified check, that money was already taken out of my client's account. 

It was a nightmare that delayed closing, but somehow, in the end, my clients got their money back, we closed and it all worked out. 

3. The Nightmare Before a (Dual) Closing 

It's always tricky coordinating a sale with a sales contingency on both the selling and buying ends, meaning you must sell one home to fund the purchase of a new one.

This situation is tricky not only because the home must sell, but also because getting an offer accepted with a sales contingency is a challenge in this market.  

A lot can go wrong.. boyyy can it.

My clients and I put together a strategy that would put them in the best possible position to get their home sold and get an offer accepted without also leaving them homeless. 

It was all going great. 

We had multiple offers on their home, a flexible buyer who would wait for them to find a place and waived inspection. We then found a home and got their offer accepted with the contingency in place all within about a two week period! 

We were winning you guys, homerun!!... Until it wasn't... 

Three weeks later, just days before our scheduled closing, I got a call that the buyers of their home couldn't qualify for their mortgage. They needed to kill the deal. 

Omg. They are supposed to close on this new purchase next week and need the funds!

I frantically went back to the 4 backup offers we generated on their home. 

Every single one of them was no longer available. 

I couldn't believe it. We had a Plan A and Plan B in place and we were still left in a position where we might need to kill their deal to purchase. 

Going back to market in this situation, as you can imagine, is Plan C, which is not ideal by any means, but that's what we had to do. 

I called the listing agent for their purchase, broke it down for her and by some miracle, they wanted to see how to still make this purchase happen. 

I texted her the morning we went back to market - "Hoping for a Hail Mary here. Will keep you posted." 

Maybe one hour into the listing going back to market live, I get a call. 

"Hello Alex, This is Mary, I have a cash buyer looking to see you listing this morning. Can I show?" 

Was this really JUST a coincidence? 

It turned out she had a buyer whose deal did not work out just days before we spoke. I told her to go and show and by end of day, we had another accepted offer that would close in 10 days.

It was a miracle if I had every witnessed one. 

My clients were able to sell their home, have the funds for their new home and everyone lived happily ever after. 

Thank you Mary. 

On that more positive note, Happy Halloween!!

Wishing you a safe weekend, and hopefully I don't have more real estate scary stories for you next year, but stay tuned, because more likely, I will! 

Best, 

Alex 

Single Family Open Houses to check out in Lyndhurst, Rutherford, E. Rutherford this Halloween weekend! 

Click Link to Listings Here: https://portal.onehome.com/en-US/share/1186234T78805

Reach out if you're curious about any!