Before I talk price on a house my buyer wants, I call the listing agent and ask one question: what does your seller need to happen after closing?
Most buyers skip that call. They go straight to the number, maybe add an escalation clause, and hope. I think escalation clauses are overrated. They show the seller exactly how high you'll go, and they do nothing about the seller's real problem.
In La Mesa, the seller's real problem is often logistics. Around Lake Murray and the streets off Fletcher Parkway, plenty of sellers have owned for 25 or 30 years. They raised their kids there. Now they're downsizing, moving closer to grandkids, or waiting on a unit at a 55+ community that won't open up for another six weeks. Selling the house is the easy part. Figuring out where they'll sleep next month is the hard part.
That's where a rent-back helps. You close on schedule and the seller stays in the home after closing for a set number of days. Under 30 days, California agents use the C.A.R. Seller in Possession addendum. Longer than that, you move to a residential lease after sale, which has more teeth.
A few things I do every time I offer one:
- Check with the lender first. Most owner-occupied loans I work with cap a rent-back around 60 days, so don't promise more until you know. - Hold back part of the seller's proceeds in escrow as a deposit against damage. - Do a second walkthrough after the seller moves out, not just before closing. - Make sure the seller keeps their own insurance on their belongings, because your homeowner's policy won't cover their furniture.
Then there's the price of the rent-back itself. I'll often offer it free, or at the seller's daily carrying cost. Free sounds expensive, but run it out. Thirty days of a seller's mortgage, taxes, and insurance on an $850,000 home might be $5,000 or $6,000. That's less than the extra $10,000 or $15,000 a competing buyer is throwing at the list price, and it fixes the one thing keeping the seller up at night.
What I've seen this year is that a seller with nowhere to go will take the offer that solves the move over the offer that's a little higher. Not every time. Often enough that I make the call on every house.
The question costs you nothing. Ask where the seller is going before you decide what you're paying.