Downsizing To Las Vegas After 35 Years In a Rural Home

Main house, guest house, and barn · 1.33 acres · Listing agreement to closing in 102 days

After 35 years on the property, the seller was ready to move her family out of state. Before she could, there was a neighbor dispute over the property line, unpermitted rooms, two forgotten loans on the title, and a buyer whose financing collapsed a week before closing. The home listed at $975,000, sold for $1,100,000, and closed on her timeline.

The Results

$1,100,000 sale price, 12.8% over the $975,000 list price
In contract 5 days after it hit the MLS, after a month of pre-marketing
An all-cash backup offer at the same price, with no loan or appraisal contingency, signed within hours of the buyer’s loan falling through
Closed 5 days ahead of the extended deadline, with a free week after closing for the seller to move out

A Happy Place for 35 Years

The seller bought the property with help from her father. After her husband died, her mother came to live with her. Later her daughter’s family lived in one house on the property and she lived in the other. Over the years she replaced the roofs, remodeled both kitchens, and kept up the rose gardens and white picket fences that made people slow down as they drove by. To her it had always been a happy place, and it still was, full of good memories from three generations of her family.

But she was getting older, and the property was a lot to manage. She wanted to simplify her life, and free up more time for other pursuits. Accordingly, the whole family decided to move out of state, all together, to Henderson, Nevada – a suburb of Las Vegas. She knew the property would soon belong to somebody else, and she wanted the sale to go as well for the new owners as it did for her, so she worked hard to leave the place as nice as she could for them.

The Property

Parcel: 1.33 acres, in unincorporated county land
Main house: single-level, with an updated kitchen and a remodeled bath with a clawfoot tub
Guest house: 2 bedrooms, about 600 sq ft, a permitted senior unit with its own address and electric meter
Outbuildings: barn, carport, gazebo, laundry shed, and a large covered deck
Grounds: rose gardens, picket fences, and a back meadow with valley and slough views

The Worries

When we first met, the seller was excited to sell and anxious about everything that could go wrong. She wanted to know whether buyers would still pay the price I was suggesting, even with a disputed easement in the picture, whether all the issues made her property a big red flag, and whether she’d have to pay for expensive and time-consuming “as-built” (retroactie) permits out of the house money. Those were fair questions, because the property had real issues:

The neighbor’s fence and the driveway had been off the true property line for decades.
A bedroom added long before she bought the house had no permit, and neither did the barn.
There were termites (a lot of them).
Both houses held 35 years of belongings.

She was afraid all of these “irregularities” would cut down significantly on her proceeds. I told her nobody was going to be paying for any permits, and that all she needed to do was disclose the permit status. That answer became our plan. Problems that are found, documented, and disclosed up front don’t cost a seller money. What ends up costing a seller is lack of full disclosure, and surprises when under contract that blow deals apart.

What We Did

1. Settle the property line before going public

The day after we met, I called the seller’s attorney. I stayed involved while the neighbor’s attorney negotiated the easement and reviewed every draft with her. When she worried it would scare buyers away, I explained that the easement was almost a selling point, because it effectively added to her parcel size. We kept the sale quiet so the neighbor had no reason to raise his price. The easement agreement was signed and recorded about three weeks later. Buyers saw a recorded document and a survey, not an open question.

2. Find every problem first

Before any buyer saw the property, we had:

Both septic systems pumped and inspected
A termite inspection and a full home inspection
A plumber’s bid to repair a failing guest-house sewer line
A homeowners insurance quote
The county permit history, which I requested myself

When the inspection report came in, it was about what I’d expected and nothing especially out of the ordindary. Everything went into an online disclosure package before the first showing.

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3. Clear out 35 years, one truckload at a time

The property contained tons – literally tons – of furniture, machinery, and all sorts of clutter and bric-a-brac accumulated over the decades that needed to get gone. I suggested three junk-hauling companies. The one the seller chose charged about 30% less per load than the first quote she got, and it took roughly five truckloads out of the barn. Her family packed their belongings into a storage pod.

4. Build demand before the listing went live

We started a coming soon campaign a month before the listing went public, and 23 buyers inquired in the first two days. We shot professional HDR photos, drone stills and video, and a 360° tour, and a bespoke listing video. Two days after the listing went live, Redfin flagged it as a “hot home,” with 91 buyers tracking it. Open houses ran that weekend. The next day we were in contract, with an offer well over list price.

5. Untangle a family surprise on the title

The title report showed two small loans from decades earlier that had never been cleared. Both were tied to the seller’s own family, and the people named on them had passed away. The seller was stunned. That same morning I connected her with the title officer and explained how a lost-note bond clears a loan like this.

The first bonding company stalled, so the title company switched to another one. Title management also agreed ahead of time to hold back funds at closing if needed, so the bonds couldn’t delay the sale. I told her all was well, and that if it weren’t, I would tell her.

6. Keep the deal alive when the buyer’s loan failed

The offer we’d accepted was contingent on the sale of the buyer’s home – which happened to be a manufactured home, which was already under contract with a buyer at the time the offer was made. Then they waited on park approval, and then on an appraisal that went into formal review. All that time the seller was packed, her movers were booked, and her hotel in Nevada was reserved. I followed up with the lender, the appraiser, and the buyer’s agent every day. When the underwriter asked for rental comparables, I pulled them the same morning. Each extension I granted came with a Notice to Buyer to Perform, so the seller kept the right to cancel, and kept the pressure on the buyer.

But then, just after the buyer got the sale of his current home completed, a week before the scheduled closing, the buyer’s loan fell through – a total calamity! Fortunately, that evening, another agent sent over an all-cash offer at the same $1,100,000 we were on contract for, and within hours I had it countered and signed as a backup. The backup offer gave the seller a free week after closing, so she could rebook the movers she’d had to cancel due to the delays from the initialbuyer.

Knowing that we had a backup offer, and were chomping at the bit to move to it, the buyer’s agent had the buyer switch to a private hard money lender, one I had worked with a few times in the past. With quick-funding and reliable private money financing, the original buyer was able to move forward, and the sale closed the following Friday, five days ahead of the extended deadline.

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7. Finish the job after closing

A week after closing, the seller drove to her new home. I let in the cleaners and the carpet cleaner and handed the keys to the new owner. Before she left, I had introduced her to an agent in her new city. Within a month she bought two homes there: one for her daughter’s family, and one with a pool for herself just across the street.

What It Meant to Her

About two weeks after we met, the seller told me her family felt blessed to have me as their REALTOR® and that they knew they’d gotten the best. By the week the listing went live, she was calling me her REALTOR® and her friend, someone who went above and beyond. The night before she moved, she thanked me from the bottom of her heart and said none of it would have happened without me.

Photos – barn and guest house

Back garden with roses, the green barn and hills beyond

Timeline: First Meeting to Closing in 102 Days

Prepare

June 14: First meeting at the property. Prep plan and timeline sent that afternoon.
June 15: Called the seller’s attorney about the easement.
June 16: Listing agreement signed at $975,000.
June 23: Requested the county permit records.
July 9: Easement agreement recorded. Termite inspection.
July 13: Pre-listing home inspection.
July 29–30: Junk hauled out of the barn.
August 2: Final walkthrough of the prep list. Both houses cleaned.

Market

July 10: “Coming soon” campaign begins. 23 inquiries in two days.
August 10: Photos, drone, video, and 360° tour.
August 11: Live on the MLS. Sign goes up.
August 12: Full disclosure package published to buyer agents.
August 13: Flagged as a “hot home,” with 91 buyers tracking it.
August 14–15: Open houses.
August 16: Offer received, countered, and signed the same day at $1,100,000.

Close

August 17: Old family loans found on title. Bond process started the same day.
August 20: Buyer’s deposit received in escrow. Title company switches bonding companies.
August 24 – September 14: Two extensions while the buyer sells their home and waits for park approval.
September 15: Rental comparables sent to the lender’s underwriter.
September 17: Buyer’s loan falls through. All-cash backup offer signed that night at $1,100,000.
September 20–22: Buyer switches to a private lender. Loan approved.
September 24: Recorded and closed. Seller’s funds wired the same day.
October 1: Seller moves out of state. Keys handed to the new owner.

The Takeaway: A Complicated Property Doesn’t Have to Sell at a Discount

The seller’s biggest fear was that the easement, the permits, and the paperwork would cost her money. They didn’t, because we found and solved each problem before buyers could use it as a reason to offer less. The pre-marketing meant the first weekend of showings produced an offer well over asking. When the buyer’s financing collapsed, a signed backup offer at the same price kept the sale from falling apart.

Most of the work in a sale like this happens outside the contract: finding a junk hauler, reading a title report, chasing an appraiser, letting the carpet cleaner in after the seller is gone. She and her family drove off to their new home knowing it was handled.

Being a REALTOR® it’s more than a job for you. You have your clients best interest at heart. You will go above and beyond to try and make their dreams come true. This is who you are! -The Seller