The Story of 10633 Highstream and 10905 Magic Hollow - CLOSED in Raleigh, NC

WHERE IT ALL STARTED: The heart of this story goes back to 2020, when my clients sold their home in Falls River. They wanted to stay in the neighborhood, but needed something a little bigger. It was the early months of Covid and inventory was beginning to tighten. Until we found them the right home, we sold their house over Easter weekend and they temporarily lived out of town doing virtual learning. They took a big risk in selling when they could in hopes of finding a home before school started. Their priorities in a new home were a bigger kitchen, a flatter driveway to play basketball, and a home office.

Highstream had been on the market for about a month and didn't have broad market appeal, with a lack of kitchen and bathrooms updates. The exterior was a little so-so as well, but the floorplan felt right and it was near the Greenway and neighborhood parks. My clients had a great vision for the home and were able to see past what many others couldn't. The transaction itself was a bit rocky and the roof needed a complete replacement. 

I was able to figure out a way to get the roof done with an insurance claim but the sellers insisted on using their own roofer, which happened to be their family member. They were an actual roofer, so how bad can it be, right?!? Learning the hard way, that is something we no longer tolerate. After closing, and a new roof, the exterior was painted, some trees cut down, and the front porch railings were opened up. In the months that followed, they picked out granite counters and had the high kitchen counter lowered, as well as new backsplash and painting the interior. Neighbors would often stop to say how much they loved the work that had been put in and how great the house looked!

The second home we made an offer on was in Wakefield and it had a basketball court in the basement. It had an amazing kitchen, great yard, a decent floorplan but not being in the Bedford/Falls River area was something that they weren't sure of. They also didn't love the curb appeal. After three showings, we felt confident on submitting an offer but didn't quite go all-in. When we weren’t chosen, the reality of not getting it really hurt... more than the others. We submitted a backup offer and waited to see what would happen through the due diligence period. 

The same day, the end of due diligence for the home we had a backup offer on, 10905 Magic Hollow hit the market in Bedford Estates. We decided to see it as a backup and the backyard was a very pleasant surprise.

The floorplan and the upstairs bedrooms worked well, probably the best of all the homes we had considered. The kitchen was huge, complete with an amazing commercial fridge. It felt really good, not perfect, but what house really is? The driveway was steep, but it did level out at the top and it already had a basketball hoop! We offered, went in strong from the get-go, with the caveat if they used our offer to try and solicit others, we were out.  In some ways, this is the first home that the floorplan worked well and would be generally broad liked by the market in the future should they need to sell it.

The seller was working with a relocation company who technically owned the house, so we negotiated with the seller and they accepted ours even though they were expecting another offer. Then, we had to wait almost five days for the actual paperwork to be signed by the relocation company. It was grueling, with a line item added here, or a word changed there and adjustments to our state contract made based on their corporate rules. Having it take so long and get hyper analyzed tried all of our patience, the listing agent included, but we persisted.

Here we are now, with their new house under contract, so we had to get 10633 Highstream on the market quickly. We weren't doing back-to-back closings, since we had a bridge loan lined up, but we were trying to keep the closing timelines close.

My client had mentioned a small staining in the garage.  Trying to make sure we had no surprises, we sent Sal over to take a look. He discovered the roofer, way back when, hadn't done the flashing correctly and we would need to redo the flashing and replace some exterior siding in order to really solve the problem—UGH! We had one week to get the house on the market. Sal worked hard into the evenings, several days in a row but got it done right. My clients wanted to sell the house knowing we had done the right thing and not simply covered up a problem for the new buyers to inherit. That good karma came back to them, with the closing being relatively low-drama, ending up closing early, and for full price.

Welcome home to the Hines family....I think we finally found the one that suits your family for now and for the foreseable future. I know that Magic Hollow will be a blessing to you and your family. Let's play ball!

CHECK OUT THE FULL CLOSED LISTING

Update: They moved in and it's been a bit of a shit show. They had extra driveway pad poured and it broke the sprinkler head and then the back of the basketball hoop got broken (those are expensive!). Then the third, and final straw hopefully, the plumbing backed up into the home. Upon having the home scoped, there is a T line at the street that runs under the driveway that is broken. UGH! What bad luck. We've discussed that all the big bad stuff is hopefully out of the way and that will clear the way for a long happy life in this home.