Today we had a hearing to confirm the sale of real property located on Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks, California. Before the hearing, we always qualify any over-bidders to make sure that they have followed the exact instructions. In order for a potential buyer to purchase a property in court, the buyer must provide:
- A cashier's check for at least 10% of the opening bid amount made payable to the Estate.
We cannot accept anything less... we cannot accept a personal check... we don't like to take cash... and, very importantly, we cannot accept credit cards.
So today we had two potential buyers in addition to the original buyer who put in the accepted bid. One of the buyers presented to the attorney and the seller a check for $76,175 (exactly 10% of the opening bid amount) made payable to the estate. The second buyer presented a cashier's check for only 3% of the opening bid - $22,853.
Whenever we get inquiries about court hearing, we fax or e-mail instructions on exactly the terms of the sale and how to over-bid in court. It states clearly that in order to bid in court you must have a cashier's check for 10% of the opening bid price made payable to the Estate. We provide the opening bid amount and the name of the Estate, Trust or Conservatorship to which the check is to be payable.
As we are re-explaining the process to the buyer with the 3% check, we notice that behind the check he is holding the instructions on how to bid we had sent to him and his agent for this property. His agent was standing there holding the same piece of paper. Obviously they had not read the instructions.
Unfortunately we had to turn down this buyer. However we did sell the property to an over-bidder for much more than we expected.
When you work with The Sanborn Team, we make sure that all potential buyers, whether at the intial stages of the sale or as an over-bidder in court, have all the information on how to write an offer or over-bid in court as well as the terms of the sale.
We know that selling real estate can be time consuming and overwhelming. What we do is SAVE you lots of time when it comes to your real estate needs. Please visit our website at http://www.sanbornteam.com/ or call us 310-777-2858 directly to find out how we handle Probate & Trust Real Estate Sales and how we are different from most agents.
