The claws are retracted once your deal is closed

(As seen in the 9/27/24 Ledger Column)

“Clawback” isn’t a term most home sellers are concerned about or even familiar with. But it is a growing concern for some sellers who are worried the party purchasing their home could later be found guilty of fraud.

Recipients of the tainted money – such as for the sale of a home – are sometimes found to have been unjustly enriched. In these cases, the government will often attempt to recover those misguided funds and return them to the victims of the fraud.

But Mary Littleton, an attorney who doubles as a senior loan adviser, says sellers should not worry about anyone sinking their claws into their bank accounts once the house is sold and the funds are disbursed. The title company will ensure that liens on the property have been satisfied and released, she explains, and the buyers – as full of fraud as they might be – will have clear title to the property and can then defraud at will should that be their pleasure.

Sale of the Week

Like baseball players who wear the same underwear during whatever streak they are riding, real estate agents often price homes in a certain way based on superstition.

Some use the street address as the last few numbers, others their child’s birthday. Perhaps convinced that such shenanigans lead to quick sales, sellers often go along with the game.

Ashley Luther, who has sold an incredible 40 listings in the past 12 months, has a remarkable grasp on what makes houses sell. Luther is the managing broker of CHORD Real Estate and is at an international real estate conference in Malaysia as of this writing.

Despite the distance and the time difference, she shared the reason for pricing 732 Rodney Drive at $1,992,813.

In pricing houses, she determines a main delineation point, which in this property was $2 million, the number buyers might use as a maximum or minimum price in a search and then chooses a number for a list price that is slightly out of the norm. In this case, that number was the 813.

Luther says this often reduces the amount of negotiation in price.

In the case of the Rodney Drive home, she allowed the sellers to choose their own number for the list price. They informed her that they, the sellers, share a wedding anniversary date with her parents and their oldest son, which apparently is Aug. 13. If all of them married on a Saturday, that would rate as a very special date and would be deemed worthy of using in any endeavor.

The numerology in this sale continued with the buyers in a melancholy way. The sellers had closed on the house Dec. 14, 2016. Sadly, the buyers had lost a child on that exact day. During the time between their child’s death and buying the house, the buyers often felt their lost one was communicating with them through cardinals. The sellers happened to have their house loaded with cardinal artwork, perhaps a sign they were destined to buy the house.

Luther noted the house is a luxurious retreat nestled in the woods of coveted West Meade with more than an acre of privacy and a waterfall. With 2,400 square feet of outdoor space, there is ample opportunity to communicate with nature of comforting souls.

Interestingly, the subdivision, which is referred to as West Meade by most of the city, is labeled as “Williamsburg Village” in the listing.

The reason for this obscure neighborhood is that Zillow often uses these names known only to the department where the original plat for the subdivision was recorded. It would be difficult to imagine that any potential buyer looking to live in ZIP code 37205 would use Williamsburg Village for a home on Rodney Drive.

In the case of the Rodney listing, Luther shared she had multiple offers, with actress-turned-Realtor Tamara Tweedy representing the winning party, no doubt utilizing skills learned from her studies in the University of Alabama’s master’s program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

There, she might have heard an “As You Like It” line applicable to real estate: “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich & Clark Realty, LLC and can be reached at richard@richardcourtney.com.