My clients were out walking the dog in their Greenlake neighborhood when they noticed a homeowner packing a Pod with furnishings. They had been looking for months for a larger home for their family, within a six-block radius of their current house. It was a tight search in an even tighter market, in a micro-neighborhood known as Tangletown, where very few homes larger than theirs even exist. This one did...though it had never been on the market before.

A legacy property, the owner had grown up in a modest bungalow on this land, inherited it in the 1980s, and in 2000 had torn it down to build a larger family home. Nearly 25 years later, after emptying the nest and going through a divorce, she was finally moving on. This was a very rare opportunity.

We jumped on it immediately. The home was in rough condition cosmetically, but was a sound build with the perfect size, floor plan and yard, in the ideal location for my clients. A delicate approach and negotiation ensued, where we convinced the sellers and their agent to abandon their plans to complete a light cosmetic refresh and come to market, and instead sell directly off-market to my buyers.

This secured the house, allowed us to avoid the near certainty of competing with multiple offers and ending up at a higher sale price (if we even won), as well as giving my clients carte blanche to select the new colors and finishes they really wanted, instead of getting stuck with (and paying for) the design scheme the seller's agent was selecting.

Meanwhile the sellers got immediate certainty (multiple offers are never guaranteed!), a strong sale price, lower market prep costs, and the gift of halting all the work they were prepared to do to get the home ready for market. Truly a win-win!