Case Study: Laura Gaither

Laura Gaither loves helping and serving others in her local community. It’s what got her motivated to leave behind photography and social media management to get into the real estate business in 2013.

“My goal is to give back to my community. I'm also a broker, so my biggest goal is just to pour back into my agents,” says Laura. 

Laura has become a successful agent and managing broker in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee where she became a member of the Crye-Leike and Memphis Area Association of REALTORS (MAAR) Multi-Million Dollar Clubs after generating over $31 million in sales since the start of her career.

No sign of cooling down in the Memphis market

Like many local markets across the U.S. the Memphis real estate market has been growing a lot in the last year. Homes in the Memphis market are getting multiple offers the same day they’re listed and are regularly selling for more than the asking price.

The median sales price in Memphis has increased year-over-year by 14% and they’re only on the market for an average market time of 40 days in April, which is down from 14.9% in March. Total sales, pricing, sales volume—everything is up across the board this year.

“I don’t think there’s an appropriate word to describe it. It’s exciting,” explains Laura. “Every day is a challenge, but I think that is the exciting part about it. There are challenges but nothing that can’t be overcome.”

Competing with out-of-state investors

In Memphis, local housing inventory dropped by 35% in 2020, which was a hit for a market that was already tight on inventory. According to the Memphis Business Journal, this shortage has been partially fueled by out-of-state investors buying up local homes for the rental market.

“Agents in my office and homeowners in the area have been complaining about investors coming in and buying property,” Laura states. “They're not able to be competitive, even when they have really strong offers.”

Laura explained that even when her buyers were putting down 20% on a conventional loan and putting in a strong offer against an investor, sellers were going with the safer and more sure deal, the big business. “You typically have three main contingencies, and the investors were able to knock out two of those: the financial and the appraisal,” Laura adds. 

To help her clients going up against investors in a competitive market, Laura turned to Ribbon.

A guaranteed closing with Appraisal Protection

Ribbon’s Appraisal Protection removes the appraisal contingency on cash offers to guarantee closing, making an owner occupant offer just as sure as a big-time investors.

Laura is already seeing results. Recently, her client was able to win with a contingency-free cash offer against an investor. “It really is helpful for the buyers but it also answers a lot of the concerns that the sellers have as well,” she claims. “It helps the sellers feel confident about someone moving into the home that's going to stay there and care for the home and the community and it also gets the seller top dollar that the investors are able to offer them.”

Even after a low appraisal — $12,000 under — Appraisal Protection kicked in to help Laura’s client. “They were both just so happy,” explains Laura. “When you remove those main stress triggers in the contract — the appraisal and the financing — it's so interesting to see how we can all collaborate and work together.”

It was a particularly exciting moment as her sellers knew they were coming in with a lower offer— even with RibbonCash Offers. By removing that appraisal contingency they were able to be taken seriously as a possible deal for Laura’s seller. “If you don't appropriately explain all these other deal opportunities to your client then it’s hard to look at those much larger numbers and not want to gamble. At the end of the day, they ended up making considerably more because they went with [the Ribbon offer] even though the selling number was lower,” says Laura.

Having Ribbon’s Appraisal Protection gave Laura’s buyers and sellers peace of mind and a guaranteed closing. Removing that stress made it a positive experience for everyone. Have a client we can help? We’d love to chat.