Cathy’s $60,000 brother-in-law listing has closed in scratch time. All cash, opened escrow Monday morning, recorded this afternoon.
In theory, you can transfer title on a house in Arizona same day, but I’ll bet it’s been a few decades since anyone got the job done that fast.
How about you? What’s the fastest you’ve ever closed on an MLS-listed home?
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Ann Cummings says:
My fastest time was 7 days and that was a sale with a mortgage. That was quite some time ago, but the seller pulled off moving out in 7 days and we got the mortgage and title work done in 7 days. Makes one wonder why that can’t seem to be done these days………
April 4, 2008 — 4:17 pm
Ann Cummings says:
Congrats on that closing, by the way! 😉
April 4, 2008 — 4:17 pm
Brian Brady says:
“Makes one wonder why that can’t seem to be done these days………”
it’s the short sales…the short sales
Nice work, Greg
April 4, 2008 — 4:52 pm
Louis Cammarosano says:
How timely Greg, A HomeGain Agent just posted an article that covers your question!
http://blog.homegain.com/wayne-long-hooked-on-homegain
Don’t forget to read the comments too!
April 4, 2008 — 6:40 pm
Greg Swann says:
Louis, 184 hours is seven days and 16 hours. Ann Cummings has bragging rights in this thread. We have sold a bunch of houses in four or five days, but to actually close in seven days — in Ann’s case with a loan — is hard to do. I don’t see us ever again coming close to that number. Good on the folks in Columbus, in any case.
April 4, 2008 — 6:48 pm
Tom Vanderwell says:
Greg,
I’ve closed at least 4 transactions in 7 days. It takes cooperation from everyone, Realtor, title company, buyer, underwriter etc.
It can be done, but it’s not easy. My favorite one is the one where we closed the day before the buyer’s wedding. If we got it done in 7 days and closed the day before their wedding, they could move in when they got back from the honeymoon. If not, they’d have to live with Mom and Dad for 2 weeks. We got it done. 🙂
Tom
April 4, 2008 — 6:52 pm
Louis Cammarosano says:
Greg
But I would imagine you should be thinking of the severe disadvantage the HomeGain customer had-he had to use, *GASP* a HomeGain lead-its amazing he closed the deal at all 🙂
Yes, indeed congrats to Ann C.!
April 4, 2008 — 6:57 pm
Greg Swann says:
> But I would imagine you should be thinking of the severe disadvantage the HomeGain customer had-he had to use, *GASP* a HomeGain lead
The disadvantage is the cost, Louis. 😉 And I’m sure he would say it was worth it in time-savings, so everybody wins.
April 4, 2008 — 7:04 pm
Louis Cammarosano says:
Hey Greg
Will you be seen anywhere near The Palace in mid July?
We will have to meet someday.
Louis
April 4, 2008 — 7:08 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Will you be seen anywhere near The Palace in mid July?
I don’t see that happening.
> We will have to meet someday.
Indeed. Come to Unchained. I’ll show you a business plan for making money on a free product.
April 4, 2008 — 7:14 pm
Louis Cammarosano says:
That’s an option but first I’d have to get an advertiser to pay my airfare, room and board so I can go for free, then there’s that pesky full Unchained conference fee I would have to pay….
April 4, 2008 — 7:19 pm
Allen Butler says:
Sold an REO property all cash in Maryvale to an investor. Closed ascrow in three days. Got paid today.
Yipee!!
April 4, 2008 — 8:30 pm
Richard Nikoley says:
No more than three days on a Sacramento house I purchased for cash around the same time you represented me in the purchase of those three Phoenix rentals.
The best part? I did it through a title company, but by fax and I believe it was a total of six signatures. Perhaps the seller had to come in and have things notarized, but no requirement for me.
April 5, 2008 — 7:31 am
Greg Swann says:
> The best part? I did it through a title company, but by fax and I believe it was a total of six signatures.
Not to set off any alarms, but I have thought for a long time that the title business was the arm of real estate that was most ripe for the Expedia/Travelocity treatment: Outsource the plug-‘n’-play back office work, with a few highly-paid abstract officers for the tricky stuff — with the title insurance fees based on estimated risk of loss rather than purchase price. For platted subdivisions, the chances of an undiscovered title defect are very low. Title insurance fees could easily reflect that fact, and the whole process could be streamlined to an amazing extent.
April 5, 2008 — 7:48 am
Greg Swann says:
Also, just to be clear and to defend Cathy’s accomplishment: The house that closed yesterday at 4:30 had gone into the MLS system less than 184 hours earlier. She found a buyer, negotiated a contract, opened and closed escrow in seven days and 16 hours. With a septic tank inspection, no less.
April 5, 2008 — 7:53 am
Richard Nikoley says:
Yea, that makes a big difference. Mine was a rather distressed probate property that some fellow investors got under contract but then decided they had their hands full with another rehab. I paid them a decent amount for a finder’s fee and transfered the contract to me, awaiting the sale of my own home.
I think I had it under contract for about three months, but once I had cash in hand it was lickety split.
I then rehabbed the thing for about $30k and was going to flip it, then the downturn, so I’ve had it as a rental the last couple of years.
April 5, 2008 — 7:59 am
Greg Swann says:
> I then rehabbed the thing for about $30k and was going to flip it, then the downturn, so I’ve had it as a rental the last couple of years.
With luck, we’re almost to the turning point.
April 5, 2008 — 8:23 am
Louis Cammarosano says:
Greg
“Not to set off any alarms, but I have thought for a long time that the title business was the arm of real estate that was most ripe for the Expedia/Travelocity treatment”
At HomeStore, where I was European General Counsel, they embarked on a project of this nature back in 2001 designed to provide an automated end to end solution to the homebuying/selling process.
I was not involved in the project and am not sure why it never got traction:
http://www1.move.com/Company/PressArchives/PressRelease.asp?pr=20010125a&poe=homestore
April 5, 2008 — 8:59 am
Richard Nikoley says:
Something we use in our company (www.provanta.com) to sign up clients all over the country without mail or overnight shipping (though we still have to for some people) is a company called DocuSign:
http://docusign.com/
Most individuals don’t have the ability to print a PDF, sign, scan and email back. At best, they have to run to the local copy store to get docs back. This company makes it easy, all done right on the computer with no printing necessary.
We’ve used them for several years and never a hitch that I’m aware of.
April 5, 2008 — 9:10 am
David Patterson, Broker CRS ABR says:
The one transaction that comes immediately to mind is my relocation client from suburban Chicago. He was being relocated by a major grocery chain in our area. We started his search, found him a home, financing it and closed escrowed all within about 14 days.
It can be done! Having a good team of real estate professionals has been one of my strengths in this business. It has allowed me to do things which seemed impossible to some of my clients.
April 5, 2008 — 11:12 am
Gary Petrison says:
6 days —– here in Hawaii that’s a miracle, since the property was on Kauai, the deed records on Oahu, and state law requires that funding & recordation cannot occur on the same day. Whew!
April 5, 2008 — 1:11 pm
Carey Goldberg says:
My record for closing is 24 hours (in the mls only two days). Received the contract on a Thursday from a very part time agent. I rewrote it got it accepted and closed it on Friday. The owner was an investor so we already had title cooking and the buyer paid cash. The buyer worked at a frozen yogurt place– I never did hear where the money came from.
April 6, 2008 — 10:19 pm
Greg Swann says:
Carey: You win! Wow… Very impressive.
April 6, 2008 — 10:24 pm