How long was your home on the market before it sold?

[NewRVLady]

People with kids tend to buy in April-May so kids finish school year

 

[tcherjen]

We've sold 5 houses and all of them have sold in less than a week for full asking price or more. I think there is some great advice above. Make sure the house is clean and well maintained. Make sure all of your paints are touched up. I would not repaint everything a neutral color but I would repaint anything that is a strange or very bold color choice. Have friends over (the ones with good taste & a sense of decorating style) & ask them honestly what they think you need to do. Replace old ugly curtains, especially shower curtains, & bedding. If a friend or realtor tells you something is ugly, then it probably is. Remove clutter. All of the clutter! Nobody wants to see your collection of ceramic clowns or Disney memorabilia. Refresh area rugs and have any wall to wall carpet cleaned. Clean out all of your closets.

Have at least 3 realtors in & ask them their opinions on what you need to do to sell. You will get 3 different lists and then it will be up to you to figure out which projects you want to tackle. Any items that overlap on all 3 lists should definitely be addressed or your house probably won't sell. Find out the realtors marketing plans. Find out what they have sold in your area & how long it took to sell. Remember that the price of your house is based on the buyers market, not on what you "need" to get for the house. Good luck!

Great idea!

 

[tcherjen]

People with kids tend to buy in April-May so kids finish school year

Yes, I can definitely see that. When we move next year it will be at the end of May.

 

[tcherjen]

I am looking at realtor signs in our area. I want a realtor that is aggressive and that has great ideas on how to market it. I also don't want someone who sits on the listing for 241 days or more. I don't have that kind of time. I want my youngest will be in 5th grade when we move. I want her to at least go to an elementary school in the new area, making friends before middle school. I am optimistic it is going to sell pretty quickly. I have told a few co-workers and they seem to think it will. I certainly hope so.

 

[katie111]

Start going yo open houses in the spring. It is a great way to meet some realtors and see if you can find one you like. Get their card, call them, and ask them to come take a look at your house. Then you'll have almost a full year to get the house ready with a of their suggestions.

 

[tcherjen]

Start going yo open houses in the spring. It is a great way to meet some realtors and see if you can find one you like. Get their card, call them, and ask them to come take a look at your house. Then you'll have almost a full year to get the house ready with a of their suggestions.

Great suggestions. In our area, we will probably need to list it in the next few months or it won't be sold before we move. I am truly praying it is sold by December or January at the latest.

 

[Dentam]

The realtor who said that the most important thing is pricing your house right makes a very good point. Mine sold after two open house attendees competed for it. However, I'm sure that scenario came about because I priced it right in line with the comps for my neighborhood and also had a lot of work done to make it look its best - fresh paint, power washed and freshly stained deck, had it inspected prior to putting it on the market and dealt with those issues as well as advertised that it was pre-inspected, etc.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I am sure it varies by market, but we sold one in about a week. The sign went up on like a Thursday, received and accepted an offer on like Tuesday of the next week. It was "closed" within a month. It was a bit of an easier deal since the guy already had cash and was ready to go and we already had most of the stuff cleared out of the house before showing it.

 

[Zim]

I have watched the houses sell (and not sell) in our community for the last ten years. There is no building standard around me, so some oddly planned homes sit vacant for a long time. I watched the house across from me sit with a for sale sign for about 8 years (no exaggeration, someone finally moved in this past year). Whereas the house across the way from it sold overnight. I agree with everyone who mentioned neutral colors, store every bit of your excess clutter and kitsch, and update appliances if you can afford it. Houses sell faster if the buyer knows they have no unforeseen costs like roof repairs or appliances breaking in the first few years. Curb appeal is important - landscape if possible, and make sure the front foyer is clear and clean... I come from a long line of realtors, and if the first impression upon entry is a negative look, vibe or SMELL - they've already made their decision before seeing anything else. Believe it or not, baking cookies right before a showing sold my last townhouse I swear!

And I know this is a weird one, but make sure items in closets (both bedroom and linen) are all freshly washed. People don't normally rotate their closet linens and sometimes closets acquire an old musty smell you get used to and don't realize is present.

Also, people love updated kitchens and bathrooms - but if you can't do that, even just making sure all the cabinetry works smoothly and recaulking does wonders.

 

[Darcy03231]

I posted upthread about selling our house and the major improvements we made, but here are some other, less expensive things we did to show our house to it's best advantage:

1. We got a POD and emptied out as much as we could (about a third to half of our furniture, furnishings, knick knacks, etc.). I pared everything in kitchen down to just the essentials. All of the bulky, rarely used appliances, excess pots, pans, cookies sheets, Tupperware, etc. went into the POD. Our rooms looked huge and the kitchen looked to have a ton of storage space.

2. Cleaned out all the closets. We live in New England. I packed up all the winter coats, boots, etc. I also packed up all of the winter clothes and only kept what was necessary in the closets. I went through and purged out all of our clothes. This was really helpful because it created drawer space so I could put some of the clothes from the closets in drawers to create more space in the closets. I love shoes and handbags and have a lot of both. I kept out the essentials and packed the rest away.

3. We took down all of pictures from the walls, patched the holes and painted.

4. The house had all hardwood floors so we used the restore stuff on them to shine them up. One room needed to be refinished so we did that.

5. Replaced the heavy draperies with sheers. Brought a lot more light into the house.

6. Made sure the landscaping was trimmed. We did have very nice landscaping and flower gardens so we didn't have to do much there.

7. The biggest thing was a deep clean of the entire house. Everyone that came through kept saying they couldn't believe how clean it was. I didn't understand that because there's no way I would show my house without it being clean, but when we started looking at home I couldn't believe how many dirty homes we saw.

 

[eliza61]

South Jersey/Philadelphia area.

Open houses are a must around here. It's an easy way for perspective buyers to see your house at leisure. I went to 50 before deciding on my house and while I didn't make an offer directly after a open house I did gain tons of information.

I did all three, used on line tools, open houses and realtor info to find my house. From the view of the buyer, I enjoy open houses. I'm looking for a beach house in Savannah Ga area, open houses allow me to go in look around and not waste a realtors time

My old home took 60 days to sell. i listed it in November, lol not the optimum time of year

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Tampa florida at the height of the market: 12 hours No marketing necessary as inventory was low and demand was high
San Antonio in 2005 (a very steady market): 6 days. Our agent paid for a stager to set our house up. Honestly when she was done I didn't want to sell lol, but we were moving to Germany. She was very smart. She said "the curb appeal gets them in the door, the staging gets them excited, and the backyard sells the house". We followed that advice and it worked perfectly. We referred her to three more military families and she sold their houses similarly in less than 2 weeks each time when the market standard at the time was 3-6 months. She also priced slightly below market value (no more than $1000 below) to get people in the door.

We had excellent realtors both times.

do you mind if I ask how a stager works? I mean did they come in and just add throw pillows and some artwork and fluffy towels? Or did you take everything out and they put in furniture etc (sort of like on the TV flipping shows?) and how much it cost? Thank you!

 

[Callie]

Both of my cousins have sold their homes this year.
Cousin 1 sold hers in a day
Cousin 2 used the same realtor and her's sold on the first day, even since it needs the carpet replaced. They both got full price offers.
Two Bath, 3 bed homes.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Two days on the market-sold. This was in July 2015.

 

[TxWriterMama]

We just went to contract on our old house. We were able to buy the new house (plus land and barn and shop) without selling the old one so our timeline is kind of wonky. Basically, we bought in April, moved July 1 (after leasing back to the sellers so they could finish out the school year) and then spent July/Aug doing updates and upgrades to the old house. It went on the market in early Sep--and then the local economy (gas/oil/energy) crapped out. >.<

We decided to lower the price by 10K on Feb 1. We had 4 offers in 2 weeks. Two fell apart (buyer issues) and we just went to contract on #4 with a March closing date.

Long story short: 6 months from sign in the yard to closing. But we'll be making a very, very, very nice profit on our little starter home so I think the 6 months was more than worth it.

 

[StephMK]

One thing we did when we sold was to buy a new set of "show" towels, bath mats, kitchen rugs, and a welcome mat. They were stored in each room and when there was a showing, the brand new towels and mats were set out. I think it helped add a clean, fresh feel to the house. Then we had some new, neutral things for the new house once we sold.

 

[tvguy]

I think the first step is to find a good realtor in your area. Reading through this thread, there just seem to be so many regional differences especially on what, if anything, to do to get a house ready for sale and open houses.
One issue I haven't seen addressed here is lock boxes. At least in my area, they are a must. Realtors and their clients want to be able to see your house when they are in your area, not when it's staged for an open house.

 

[BLAZEY]

Not me but my sister. House went on the market on Friday, Open house and privte showing on Saturday & Sunday. Offers on Monday. Accepted offer 80,000 over asking on Monday evening. Conditions removed on the Friday after.

 

[Govols1997]

We just sold in the fall. Sold in four days. We did not use a realtor. Used a service to get on the mls for $500. Then we paid a buyers agent 2.5%. Saved a ton of money like that. We've never used a realtor to sell. Sold our first home in 06 by putting a sign in the yard, no real internet action then.

 

[tvguy]

We just sold in the fall. Sold in four days. We did not use a realtor. Used a service to get on the mls for $500. Then we paid a buyers agent 2.5%. Saved a ton of money like that. We've never used a realtor to sell. Sold our first home in 06 by putting a sign in the yard, no real internet action then.

Who did you hire to handle all the paper work and what did that cost?