The trick these homeowners used to act fast on an in-demand Collingswood rancher with a pool | How I Bought My House

The buyers: Brandon Balcom, 44, vice president of product operations at BCD Travel; Dane Cox, 39, owner of Dane Cox State Farm Insurance Agency

The house: A 3,767-square-foot, ranch-style home in Collingswood with three bedrooms and three baths built in 1955

The price: Listed for $695,000; purchased for $735,000

The agent: Amy Telfair, Space & Co.

The Ask: Brandon Balcom and Dane Cox were not looking to buy a new house. They had just purchased a fixer-upper on a beautiful oversized lot in 2021. “It was in the perfect spot,” Balcom said, “and they always say, ‘you can’t move your house.’”

But it turned out their perfectly located house needed to be rebuilt from the foundation up and the lengthy zoning process was wearing them down. Two years into a renovation with no end in sight, their friend, real estate agent Amy Telfair, suggested they buy a new house instead. In fact, she knew just the one.

“We chuckled and rolled our eyes, because she’s a Realtor with vested interest,” said Balcom. But the couple agreed to check out the listing anyway.

The appeal: The house was designed in the mid-century style they loved, and, unlike their current place, it didn’t need any work. “We started dreaming very quickly about skipping all these steps,” said Balcom. The new house even had a pool, which Balcom said was part of a “years-down-the-line vision” for their current home.

Balcom’s favorite thing was that it was perfect for entertaining, from the bar in the finished basement to the grand fireplace in the living room. When Cox heard his husband gasp at the fireplace, he knew the deal was done.

“I was like, ‘There’s nothing I can say at this point that’s going to convince him otherwise,’” Cox said.

The search: To get ahead of other potential buyers, the couple used a trick they learned while selling their previous house in Minneapolis: They brought their inspector to the showing.

“We wanted to know when we left that day if there was an issue,” said Balcom. Knocking out the inspection early allowed them to waive it as a contingency, which the couple knew from experience would appeal to the sellers.

The couple’s inspector gave them the go-ahead, so they went to Cox’s office and “started scheming,” said Balcom.

The deal: The couple called Telfair, whose first instinct was to get the house off the market. She didn’t want the sellers to show it over the weekend, so she asked what it would take to get the listing taken down that day. They requested an all-cash offer of $735,000 — $40,000 above the asking price. Cox and Balcom agreed, and a legal contract that required the seller to cancel upcoming showings was speedily signed.

The money: Balcom and Cox didn’t have to hand over $735,000 in cash the day they signed the contract. They just needed to “give up any contingency on the need for financing to buy the home,” said Balcom. Documentation showing that they could pay in full would suffice.

They had over $400,000 in savings and brokerage accounts that they could show as proof of funds, and a letter from their parents confirming another $300,000 was available if needed. “You have to have a promissory note or something from your family that says, ‘I will give this amount for the purchase of the home,’” Balcom said.

But they didn’t end up borrowing money from their parents. “We just needed it for a moment to show we’ve got cash,” Balcom said.

Instead, they took out a home-equity loan on their fixer upper, which they decided to keep as an investment property. “Between when we signed the contract and when we closed, we had time to pull the equity out of our existing house,” said Balcom. The loan provided them with enough cash to cover the remaining cost of their new home. The fixer upper is currently rented to an “amazing tenant,” said Balcom.

The move: Balcom said the actual close was anticlimactic. The sellers were out of town so they pre-signed everything for the couple, who left for a family vacation the day after the paperwork was done.

By the time they returned, the sellers had officially moved out. But they left several items that excited Balcom and Cox — including a pool table and a hot tub.

The couple moved in over two months, taking their time to bring each room “online,” said Balcom. “Once we got the furniture, it was like, ‘OK, now we’re using this room.’”

Any reservations? Balcom was surprised that several of the house’s nice-looking appliances were 20 years old. The previous owners “kept such good care of things,” he said.

Some amenities, like the infrared sauna with wireless speakers in the basement, were actually pretty old.

To listen to music, Balcom has to use the sauna’s built-in CD player, because the speakers were made before Bluetooth technology was common. “It’s like a circa-2000s car stereo,” he said, laughing.

The hot tub is 20 years old, too. “It ended up failing at the end of winter,” Balcom said. “I was hoping we’d get two years out of it.”

Life after close: Cox and Balcom haven’t changed anything since they moved in.

“This house doesn’t need anything,” said Cox. Indeed, that’s why they bought it.

Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear about it. Emailacovington@inquirer.com.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct name of the Realtor’s agency.