A CASH BUYER

The role of timing, and/or a little bit of luck, often has a major impact on our lives, and those many pivotal moments where one direction might be beneficial, and the other direction just the opposite.  This was the discussion Patty and I were having yesterday, when we were talking about the sale of our property in Lake Havasu.

On the next to last day that we were at the old homestead, I was in the garage, when I heard the sound of Harley-Davidson motorcycles out on the street.  When I looked up, there were 3 bikes stopped in front of the driveway.  On the lead bike was a couple from Minnesota, who had looked at the house the day before.  They asked if they could take another look at the house, even though they didn't have an appointment.  I said sure, come on in, and let me know if there's any questions.  After they took a second look at everything, we had a nice conversation, and I answered several questions, mostly about the solar system.  When they left, I thought that they seemed pretty interested, but, keeping with real estate protocol, there was no dialogue about price, or anything concerning the sale, or purchase of the property.  The next morning, while the movers were loading everything up, I got a call from Denise, our real estate agent, who said that she had an offer from a cash buyer, and did I want to accept the offer, or counter with another figure.  I told her to write up a counter offer, and present it to the buyer.  Our counter offer gave the prospective buyer until 5pm the next day, which was Monday.  It was about 4pm on Monday, when Denise called us here in Tucson, and said that the buyer had accepted our counter offer, and escrow would be opened yesterday. 

So, it looks like we have a pending sale on the Lake Havasu House.  The buyer has a 10 day period, where he can back out of the sale with no penalty, and having just gone through this scenario a few months ago, these are the days when the seller holds their breath.  Having actually talked to the buyer, I feel pretty confident that we'll breeze through this escrow, and combined with the fact that this guy has the funds to write a check for the full purchase price, Patty and I are both feeling pretty good that any speed bumps will be of the smaller variety.

Back to timing............What if I hadn't been in the garage, and these folks hadn't stopped to take a second look.  Perhaps more importantly, the opportunity to play a little bit of a salesperson while we engaged in conversation, would have been lost, if they hadn't seen me, and pulled over.  Not sure any of that had an effect on the buyers decision, but in retrospect, it sure as heck didn't hurt anything.

The fact that we signed the counter offer just moments before pulling out of town, also says something about timing.  If you believe in fate, or luck, or whatever, it's pretty obvious that we hit the jackpot during the very last hours that we spent in Lake Havasu.