There was no Plan B, I tellya

The house sale was one of the many endeavors we had which we didn't have a Plan B. You see, we had no choice but to sell the house. Plan B would have distracted us from making Plan A to work.

When we decided to have a new house built sometime in August, we considered 2 options - keep the present house and have it rented once we'll move to the new one or sell it and use the sales as part of the payment for the new house. Obviously, we opted for the second option.

DH is on full time French Language Training. Yup, you guessed that right. DH works for the feds. So the main aim really was to get over the house sale ASAP so he can continue to concentrate on his training and for us to be able to prepare for the big move.

The house sale was a success! I could hardly believe how it turned out, I even asked DH to "wake me up" in case I was just dreaming :). You see, it didn't take very long for the "Sold" sign to be added on the 'For Sale' sign posted outside our house.



The night the 'For Sale' announcement was about to go live in Grapevine's website, the buyers saw the sign outside the house (Grapevine put the sign in the afternoon of the same day) and asked if they could come in and talk to us. It was past 9 pm when they came in so they only saw the main floor and the basement. We didn't bring them to the second floor because DK was already getting ready for bed. "Besides," we told them, "it is about to go live and you will see the pics." They, however, fell in love with what they saw. I didn't know there is such a thing as love-at-first-sight in houses. :)



We were non-committal. Afterall, it was just the first night. We wanted to see how it would go and if we'd get calls from other interested buyers once it would go live. We told them that we'd want to go ahead and post it but that they get the first shot at buying the house. You see, they requested for us not to post it live anymore because they didn't want others to see it :).

We didn't cancel the announcement, and went ahead with the original plan to have interested buyers come in on Sunday. A big load was already lifted from our shoulders because we knew that we already have potential buyers. The Sunday showing (not an Open House, but a viewing by appointment, which I'll explain later) was quite a success. Thirteen couples viewed the house, 9 of which told us right away that they were very interested to put an offer. One even said, after seeing the condition of the house (it's a 10-year-old house btw), they are very confident to do an "unconditional offer." We told them that we have an on-going negotiation with a potential buyer and should that fall through, we will entertain their offers, and go from there.

The selling part was a cakewalk. The long and short - the house found its buyers on the first day or should I say, the buyers found the house on the first day. We only had to show the house to potential buyers once and didn't have to do an Open House. It was the preparation that required some work. Like I said, we didn't have a Plan B, so we very carefully planned for Plan A (the only plan) to work. So how did we prepare for it?

1.) De-clutter. This part didn't really require a lot of work (except in the basement) as we live by the rule that once something goes in the house, something has to be taken out. The exception is my chinaware :). I loooove to collect china.



2.) Use neutral colors especially in common areas. Majority of the colors we have in the common areas are quite neutral (Benjamin Moore's Cable Knit and Alexandria Beige). The only "glaring" color we have is on the accent wall we used in the dining room, which was a hit with the buyers.



3.) Make it spotlessly clean. You want your buyers not to feel eeky when they look at your kitchen and bathrooms. Even better, make sure the entire house is clean and does not smell something weird.

So when did you change your carpet?
~ Potential Buyer

Oh, we never changed it? That's the original, installed 10 years ago.
~ DH

What? How did you manage to keep it looking new after 10 years?
~ Potential Buyer

We vacuum it at least once a week and steam clean it every year.
~DH

WOW!
~ Potential Buyer

Yes, you want to wow them on how clean your house is. This gives them an idea that the house is well maintained.

4.) Emphasize the good features of the house. If you have a whirlpool tub in one of the bathrooms, tell them that. If you have a gas hook-up in the kitchen, tell them that. If your house is Energy-Star, tell them that. In our case, we told them that all windows and the patio doors have been upgraded to have Low-E Argon. Ten years ago, to have this was an upgrade. An Energy-Star home would have cost us an arm and leg. We couldn't afford it.
Are there parts of the house that are South-facing? Point that out. That is definitely one feature most informed homeowners would love to have.

5.) Never underestimate the power of Home Staging. It is important that buyers are able to see themselves living in your house. You do not need high-end stuff to do this. A simple re-arranging of furniture pieces may do the trick sometimes.



This was a big hit with the viewers -


6.) Finish unfinished business. If there are unfinished projects lying around the house, put in all efforts to finish them. The buyers will use those to bargain for the price of the house.

7.) Be upfront. If they ask you questions about the house, be honest. Your buyers will find out about it sooner or later. Worse if they will find out during the home inspection and may use it as a reason for them to back-out. You certainly do not want that to happen after anticipating for the sale to go through.

8.) Price it right. There are 2 main things that can influence the success of the sale of your house - its condition and the price. For the condition, you can do steps 1-7 above (plus more). The pricing of your house will require good research (i.e. look at prices of houses comparable to yours). For our part, we look at 3 main things - we wanted to sell it ASAP, we didn't want real estate agents to be involved, and we considered the condition and age of the house.

9.) Hit them with your best shots. Take beautiful photos. If you are not confident doing it yourself, ask a friend or hire a pro. Pictures paint a thousand words and they are the first things that your prospective buyers will see.



10.) Use technology and free online services to your advantage. You can create a website, open a Flickr account (to post your photos), advertise in Kijiji. The list can go on and on. Be resourceful! And oh, pass the word that you're selling your house. You'll never know, that someone you're talking to may know someone who's actively looking.

11.) To hire an agent or to sell it on your own. This part is really up to you. If you are comfortable doing the selling yourself, there are quite a number of services out there that can help you with the process with just a nominal fee. Just be prepared to do the legwork yourself. If you are not comfortable doing it on your own, you can certainly hire a pro to do the selling on your behalf.

12.) Open House vs Viewing by Appointment. We opted for the second one as we wanted to minimize showing the home to the "not-so-serious" buyers. We figured, if they go through calling you and arrange for an appointment and will show up during the appointed time, they must be serious. In our case, we asked for their names and gave them the day and time (between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) to view the house. Fortunately, we only had to do it for one day for the 13 couples who asked for an appointment to view the house.

13.) Be proud of the house you are about to turn over to the new owner. And set yourself ready to say goodbye to your current house and look forward to building another fun memories in the new one.

Good luck!

Mar 21, 2010 @ 0:57