It Took 235 days to Close: How We Turned a Nightmare Escrow Into $100,000.
This deal took 235 days to close.
You read that write. Not a typo.
A few years ago I helped a first time home buyer purchase his first property, and it turned into one of the longest escrows I’ve ever been part of.
The property was a small house in Central Point with a permitted studio ADU, a perfect setup for a house hack.
The reason it had been sitting on the market for over 9 months?
The tenant.
She had stopped paying rent for over a year. This was the main reason why the seller was needing to sell: they were out of time and resources to keep the property afloat with no rental income. And it seemed like the tenant was doing everything possible to slow down the sale process. Showings were extremely difficult to schedule, and most buyers simply moved on to easier opportunities.
But sometimes the deals that look the worst on the surface are the ones worth looking at a little closer.
A First Investment/House Hack
The buyer in this story was a 23 year-old first time homebuyer who wanted to start investing in real estate early.
He focused on one of the most powerful entry strategies available to first-time investors: House Hacking.
The property was unique in that it had a permitted studio ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit), which created the opportunity to live in one unit while generating rental income from the other to help offset a monthly mortgage payment.
After nearly a week of coordinating schedules and working carefully with everyone involved, we were finally able to get inside the property and evaluate the opportunity.
Structuring the Deal
The buyer was pre-approved with Grant Schroederusing a 0% down HomePossible mortgage.
That financing structure allowed him to pursue the property without needing a large amount of cash upfront.
Because the property had been sitting for so long and the eviction situation made it difficult to sell, we were able to negotiate a much stronger deal than most buyers would typically see. The seller credit covered the majority of the buyer’s closing costs, making the deal far more accessible for a first-time investor.
But the most important part of the contract wasn’t the price.
We negotiated that the tenant had to be fully evicted and the property delivered vacant before closing.
That’s when the story took another unexpected turn.
The 7-Month Escrow
The sellers agreed to evicting the tenants prior to closing, a request that hardly gets accepted as it leaves a huge risk for the sellers to have no income if the buyer backs out. It made sense for this deal though since the seller had no rental income and no offers in hand to argue otherwise.
Evictions in Oregon typically take around 90 days. This was already going to take 2-3 times longer than normal, as most escrows take about 30-45 days. But my buyer was willing to be patient to make this deal work in his favor.
The eviction process began once we were officially under contract and everything appeared to be moving forward. Then, just a few days before the eviction was to be finalized and executed, something happened. The judge decided that the eviction was null and void. But why?
The tenant gave the seller a rent check.
And the seller accepted it and cashed it.
And unknowingly created a new month-to-month lease.
The entire eviction process had to start over.
What should have been a three-month process turned into at least another 100-day delay.
Most buyers would have walked away long before that. But our buyer didn’t. He understood something important about real estate investing.
Patience Creates Opportunity
While the eviction process dragged on, the buyer stayed patient.
He trusted the process.
He stayed prepared.
And he knew that messy situations often create the best opportunities.
From the day we went under contract to the day the deal finally closed, the transaction lasted a total of 235 days. This was an opportunity for our buyer. to re-enter the negotiating table.
During the extended escrow, we were able to renegotiate concessions to $9,000 and the purchase price to $91,000 below the original list price.
Our buyer knew that at the price point we were able to negotiate and the amount of seller concessions he was receiving, he wasn’t going to find another deal like this plus it being a house hack.
Why Most Buyers Miss Opportunities Like This
Real estate investing isn’t just about finding good deals.
It’s about identifying problems, creating solutions, and how well one can navigate from start to finish.
Many buyers want clean, simple transactions where everything goes smoothly. But the reality is that the best opportunities often come from solving complicated problems.
In this case, the obstacle was a difficult tenant and a massively delayed eviction process.
Most buyers would have backed out.
But patience, preparation, and persistence created an opportunity that simply wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
The Real Lesson
Messy deals scare people away.
Evictions.
Difficult tenants.
Long escrows.
Legal complications.
Investors who learn how to navigate and solve those problems often find the biggest opportunities and wins.
This deal lasted 235 days.
But that patience turned a difficult listing into $100,000 value on his first investment property.
In real estate, the deals that look the hardest are often the ones worth solving.
Because sometimes the biggest opportunities don’t come from perfect situations.
They come from being the person willing to stick with the process and focus on the finish line when everyone else walks away.
Looking for Opportunities Like This?
As both an agent and real estate investor, I work with investors to:
• analyze deals objectively
• identify opportunities others miss
• challenge bad assumptions before they cost you money
• and structure offers that actually get accepted
Because the goal isn’t simply to buy more property.
The goal is to buy better deals and do more.
If you're looking for someone who understands both the numbers and the strategy behind successful investing, I’d be happy to connect.