The Ups and Downs of Selling Our First House
January 14th, 2020 marked the first day that the house was officially on the market. We had a soft launch promoting the house in a local English-speaking newspaper as well as the big banner we hung up in front of the house, Casa Santorini, prior. The house was still in its final stages of completion, but we felt it was ready enough to be shown to those who found us in the paper.
We decided to list the house ourselves for a number of reasons. In Mexico, real estate agents are not essential or a requirement when purchasing or selling a house. The required representative needed is a notario who handles all the paperwork and ultimately helps transfer the deeds from the seller to the buyer. So it felt unnecessary to incorporate an entity into the selling process. We also wanted to donate our commission to the Mazatlan Animal Rescue non-profit organization, one that we volunteer for weekly.
Once we began promoting the house across multiple platforms and utilized online ads, we started getting calls and emails everyday with people wanting to see the house. Acting as our own representative we showed the house to everyone who wanted to see it, mostly out of curiosity. The term tire-kickers succinctly described the majority who came and saw the house. We dealt with many people coming in asking to take pictures so they could replicate many of the designs . Thus, January turned into February and February turned into March.
We had about 150+ people view the house but many were weary that we were not listed with a real estate company. March showed promise when two different individuals came forward requesting to see the house multiple times over the course of several days. They both came forward with offers on the table and before we could move forward with either of the offers, COVID-19 related closures came over the entire country. And while it was not uniquely a problem of ours, it was still a cause for concern as we had hoped the house would have been well on its way to transferring ownership. Both couples decided to not move forward with their offers. The current economic environment caused them to rethink making such a large purchase.
With the entire city and country shut down, we decided to take a rest from actively promoting the sale of the house and focus on other projects, both DIY and philanthropic. While uncertain and stressful at times, we focused on our overall wellness. We knew the odds were stacked against us. April turned into May and finally in June we decided to make a drastic choice. We were going to list the house with two separate real estate agencies, both using non-exclusive contracts.
Paperwork was signed, sealed and delivered. We were in the process of sending images for the agents to use on their respective sites when we got an email from an individual asking to see the house. As we continued to move forward with approving the listings on each of the agents’ sites, they were informing us of interests on the house from potential buyers. But since we signed non-exclusive contracts, we decided to show the house to the individual who sent us the stray email.
We met on Sunday, June 14th. Socrates and I showed up earlier that morning to clean up the house a bit. It had remained shuttered for several weeks due to COVID-19 and folks not going out. We needed to breath some life back into it before our showing. There was a soft knock on the door and we opened the door to a stranger. Casual introductions were made and as the conversation evolved to learn more about this perfect stranger, we started realizing that our worlds overlapped in an intrinsic way.
Our struggles trying to sell the house during a COVID-19 marketplace disappeared in an instant when this beautiful creature came back a couple of days later with an offer. And thus is the story of Casa Santorini getting sold to someone who showed up as a stranger and who ended up becoming a fast friend. The friendship was well worth the wait.