Behind the Sale: 1408 251st Street, Harbor City, CA

Some sales are about creating immediate competition.

Others are about refusing to give up until you find the one buyer who understands exactly what makes a property special.

1408 251st Street was the latter.

We knew from the beginning we had a gem: a fully updated Mid-Century Modern home sitting on an incredibly rare double lot. It wasn't a cookie-cutter property, and we weren't going to treat it like one.

We went into escrow twice.

And twice, uncertain buyers ultimately couldn't get across the finish line.

After the second cancellation, I made the decision to pull the property off the market for a month. My sellers loved the house so much that they began considering keeping it, moving in themselves and making it their home.

While they were deliberating, I was working.

I continued quietly pitching the property off market through my agent and buyer networks. The goal wasn't simply to find another buyer. It was to find the right buyer—someone who saw the same thing in this house that we did.

And we struck gold.

We found a buyer off market who immediately understood what made the property different: the architecture, the updates, the enormous lot, and the opportunity that came with it.

They knew we had a gem.

The home sold for $1,150,000—$52,000 over the $1,098,000 asking price.

More importantly, the sale established a new all-time neighborhood record, and by a significant margin.

The home deserves much of the credit. It was special. Our job was to recognize that, never lose conviction in it, and make sure its story eventually reached the buyer who valued it accordingly.

Two cancelled escrows could have changed the strategy. They could have created pressure to discount the property or simply take the next offer that came along.

We went the other direction.

We stayed patient. We protected the value. We kept marketing when the property wasn't even publicly for sale. And ultimately, we found the buyer who loved the home as much as we did.

Two cancelled escrows. One month off market. A buyer found through off-market networking. A final sale price of $1,150,000—$52,000 over asking, and a new all-time neighborhood record.

The house was special. We believed in it. And we didn't stop until we found the buyer who believed in it too.

From Start to Sold.