Sometimes getting a home sold has very little to do with marketing—and everything to do with solving the problem standing between your client and the closing table.
Our sellers were retired and still living in their home. They didn't want to take on a major remodel, move their furniture out for staging, or deal with the disruption of traditional open houses.
So our strategy had to work around their life, not the other way around.
We successfully found a buyer and opened escrow at $3,350,000.
But there was one complication.
When escrow was originally opened, an IRS tax lien appeared on the property.
We were told the transaction could still close as long as escrow received the necessary payoff demand from the IRS.
Everything moved forward.
Then we went into contract.
As closing approached, escrow still hadn't received the payoff demand. Our sellers weren't able to get through to the IRS either.
The buyers did not want to extend the closing.
And suddenly, a $3.35 million transaction was at risk—not because of the buyer, the seller, the property, or the financing, but because we were waiting on one document.
With approximately five days remaining before signing, there was still no payoff demand.
We could have continued making calls and waiting.
Instead, we decided we weren't going to leave the outcome of our clients' sale to chance.
Our seller was in her 80s. We secured an appointment with the IRS office in Santa Rosa, picked her up, and made the approximately two-hour drive together.
We sat at the IRS office until we obtained what was needed.
Then we drove approximately two hours back and immediately provided the documentation to escrow.
The transaction closed on time at $3,350,000.
Had we simply continued waiting for the payoff demand to arrive through the normal process, we don't know when it would have been received—or what would have happened to the transaction.
What we did know was that our clients needed someone willing to keep looking for a solution.
Real estate isn't always about staging, photography, marketing, and negotiating offers.
Sometimes it's getting in the car.
Sometimes it's spending the day at an IRS office.
Sometimes it's doing something that was never written into the job description because it's what your client needs to get to the finish line.
When you hire The Hatami Team, you hire us—and we stay involved until the job is done.
One buyer. One night in the country. Two “no’s.” And an opportunity we weren’t willing to let disappear.
It was Valentine’s Day afternoon when we received a call from a client who was visiting from abroad.
There was a home listed around $4.5 million that he wanted to see—but there was one major complication.
He was leaving the country the following day.
If he couldn’t see the property that evening, he would have to wait until his next trip back. In a competitive Bay Area market, we knew the home might not still be available by then.
So our Valentine’s Day plans changed very quickly.
We immediately contacted the listing agent and asked for a same-day showing.
There was a problem: the sellers were still living in the home, it was Valentine’s Day, and they had not planned on accommodating an evening showing.
The initial answer was no.
We completely understood the sellers’ position—but we also knew this wasn't a casual buyer asking for a last-minute tour. Our client had traveled from abroad, was genuinely interested in the property, and had only one opportunity to see it.
So we kept the conversation going.
For approximately 30 minutes, we explained the circumstances to the listing agent and asked her to reconsider. We promised to be respectful of the sellers’ evening and even offered to bring them a bottle of wine as a thank-you for accommodating such an unusual request.
Eventually, the sellers agreed.
We had our showing.
Our client saw the property that evening and loved it.
We immediately began working on an offer while communicating with him internationally through WhatsApp.
But getting through the front door turned out to be only the first challenge.
When offers were being considered, the listing agent told us there was another offer on the table and indicated that there was little reason for our buyer to revise his.
Once again, we weren't ready to walk away.
We immediately contacted our client, discussed the situation and worked with him to revise the terms he was comfortable changing.
Then we went back to the listing agent and made our position clear:
Our buyer was serious, qualified and wanted the home.
We were prepared to continue advocating for his offer—and even offered to personally present it if that would help communicate the strength and seriousness of our buyer.
Our buyer got the home.
The opportunity could have ended with the first “no” on Valentine’s Day.
It could have ended again when we were told another offer was already on the table.
Instead, we kept communicating, kept advocating and kept looking for a path forward—while making sure our client remained the one deciding how far he wanted to go.
Sometimes the difference between getting the home and wondering what if is simply having someone willing to make another phone call.
To ask one more question.
To have one more conversation.
And to keep advocating when an opportunity still exists.
We can't promise that persistence will always change the outcome. But we can promise that when our clients want to pursue an opportunity, we won't give up simply because the first answer is no.
Personal representation. Persistent advocacy. From the first showing to the closing table.
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