150 Heath Street, Brookline (courtesy photo)
A cursory glance at the sales data for Massachusetts’ top selling residential property during the last week of May is impressive. Michael Carucci listed and sold 150 Heath St. in Brookline for $7.5 million in a single day. Fast, easy money, right?
Not quite. The sale took more than six months to come together and diligence, chance, negotiating skill and 30 years of experience all played a role. And as Carucci likes to say, “I work hard at being lucky.”
Carucci sold a $7 million home right around the corner from the home in question in 2016. He sent a letter to some of the neighbors announcing that sale and asking if they were interested in selling. One of the owners responded and said she wasn’t quite ready to sell yet, but she and her husband were thinking of selling their home within the next year. They invited Carucci to see the house and tell them what he thought it was worth.
“So, I went and the house was magnificent,” Carucci said. “They built it and raised their two, now-grown sons there. I looked at the home and gave them a range of what I thought it would sell for. But while I was in that home I thought it was perfect for a couple – also with two sons – I know well. I knew it was just their style and it was a neighborhood they wanted to be in. I called them and told them about it and they instantly wanted to see it.”
Carucci said he went back to the sellers and told them he had qualified buyer interested in seeing the property. Though the sellers weren’t quite ready to sell their home, they agreed to let Carucci show it.
“I showed my buyers the home and they fell in love with it,” Carucci said.
The sellers raised two sons in that home and the buyers also had two toddler sons. Carucci said the buyers wrote a lovely letter to accompany their offer and the sellers responded with a counter-offer and a letter of their own.
“I think the sellers were touched by the idea that a young family would enjoy the house in very much the same way that they did,” Carucci said. “Of course, that only comes into play if they’re getting fair market value for their house.”
Carucci said it was difficult to find comparable homes for the property because it is unique, but the two parties met in the middle, with no contingencies, and closed right away.
Alternatively, the owners could have put their home on the market to see if another buyer would have paid more. Carucci said they recognized the value of not having all the strangers going through their home and closing quickly, since there was no mortgage. He did not disclose his commission or whether or not the sellers asked him to lower his commission because he wouldn’t have to split it with another agent, as they often do.
“There was a value to that letter,” Carucci said. “The seller asked for a $1 million, non-refundable deposit as well because there’s also a very high value to certainty.”
