Serendipity in Real Estate

Here’s a Bold Statement: We would never have sold our first house to the most perfect buyer had COVID-19 not thrown the world through a loop.

Let’s back up a minute here. We officially listed the house in February, 2020 during a very busy season in Mazatlán, Carnival Season. Not exactly the best time to try and sell the house, but we figured why not give it a whirl. Since we were doing this on our own, and not with the backing of real estate agency, we didn’t know what to expect in terms of people coming to see the house. Surprisingly, many folks reached out, but turned out to be “tire-kickers,” as they are called in the real estate industry. Next thing we know, the crazy pandemic hits and Mazatlán (well the whole world for that matter) shuts down.

March through June felt like Groundhog Day everyday. While we kept ourselves very busy working at the Hope Animal Sanctuary and overseeing the construction of the Bark Park [click here to view the post], it still felt like we were never going to sell the house. Then on a random Thursday afternoon we received an email from a stranger that he was interested in seeing the house. We settled on meeting that Sunday, June 14th.

What transpired that day seemed almost out of a movie. While we were opening the windows and patio doors for our visitor, we hear the knock at the front door, tap tap tap. We go to open and we find this striking man, behind a mask and all, say “Hola! Soy Ricardo”. Since this Ricardo originally sent the email to make an appointment to see the house in English, we asked, “inglés o español”? We settled on English.

Immediately after, we came to realize that not only were we all from NYC, we were NEIGHBORS in NYC. Just so people can understand the magnitude of being neighbors with someone in the grand city that we call The Big Apple, with 8.4 million people, it’s not common to meet someone who lives within a five blocks radius from your own home. To top it all off we’re in Mazatlan, Mexico of all places meeting with a fellow Harlemite.

What should have been a quick showing of the house instead became an hour fireside chat with this beautiful person who almost seemed too perfect to be real. After exchanging many stories, including the one where we learned Rick got stranded in Mazatlán because of COVID, we all realized that he still hadn’t seen the house so we gave him the tour. We parted ways soon after but not before exchanging additional contact information. Soon after we sold the house to Rick, our new friend.

Selling a house and making a new friend is not something you hear everyday. And we quite honestly, we have COVID to thank for both. Looking back we realize that the whole experience was meant to show us just how incredibly beautiful and serendipitous life can be.

To Rick, who is more family than friend now, we are just so lucky to have met you!