Selling Our Home

Jul 23

Since we are all blog readers and stalkers, it should come as no surprise that the agents I interviewed unanimously agreed in today's market, selling a home is all about the internet. Gone are the day's when people open the Sunday paper to find an open house....well, maybe a few do, but most of us know how to search and stalk homes online. And that makes it all about the picture.

My agent's company has an in-house photographer that shoots all of their listings. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the company photo's and included hiring a professional photographer as a requirement to earn our listing. The photographer she hired was amazing and I really liked working with him. The goal is about selling open space not personal taste so nothing on the counters, all lights on, and shoot from the furthest point possible.

I told my agent that I only had one chance to get this right. We purchased our home in a hot real estate market and it looked like we were headed into one again....fifteen years later. I left nothing to chance the house was about to have its biggest audition. The home went on the MLS's on a Monday with specific instructions, "No showings until the Realtors Tour on Friday". There was an open house on that Sunday.

That Friday, the Realtors Tour broke our agents record of most agents to attend. The previous record was set in 2009. Six agents brought clients with them, as well. That night we got our first offer. They say your first offer is your best, but that was not the case for us. Because our listing stated a company relocation, this potential buyer thought we were desperate for a quick sale. According to the letter that accompanied the offer, he is a Neurosurgeon with a very pregnant wife. Not only did they want to buy the home at a low price, they also wanted us out before school ended. We chose not to counter his offer.

There were non-stop showings from Friday through the open house on Sunday and shortly after the open house, we got our second offer. It was from a professional couple and unlike the first offer, it was a good place to start. Meanwhile, the Neurosurgeon's agent was begging for a counter offer. We counter both offers at the same price.

While couple one and two were contemplating our counter offer our home was being shown at a steady pace. It was exhausting to keep the home looking perfect and ready for show at a moments notice.

You can see that this picture was taken before Jennifer's artwork arrived.

I was told that a 'New York' couple was seriously interested in our home. They came to see the home multiple times. One time was in the pouring rain so they asked to come back again the next day. They submitted a good clean offer that gave us the terms we wanted. We accepted.

The entire sales process was a little over one week. I met the couple during the home inspection. They were lovely and she even brought her father along to see the home. He and I had an interesting chat about covering a/c units in the winter :).

The only thing that I regret is that I won't be able to be their neighbor, although that would be impossible because we would want to live in the same home.