Luck Is a Good Friend When Selling
When you decide to sell your house, it’s so very important to have it “parade” ready - that is you won’t put a float in a parade if it was only half done. Before your home hits the MLS, you should have all your cleaning, painting, and staging done in advance.
W of Because I Can wrote that he and his wife worked on their home for a couple of weeks before putting it on the market. He added that someone must be looking out for him because,
So the for sale sign went up Monday evening. Tuesday afternoon the realtor calls to tell me that the listing has just gone live on Realtracs, but he already has a tour set up for someone who just saw the yard sign. Wednesday morning I was on the way to work and I noticed my engine temperature redlining and steam coming out from under the hood of my car. Two hours later I’m in line at the mechanic and the realtor calls me again. He has an actual valid offer in his hand. For our full asking price.
Fortune did indeed smile on Mr. W. However, I’m going to throw something out here - something wild and crazy. The market is really kind of okay unless you’re living in Michigan, Florida, Nevada, or California. Even then I suspect that pockets of those markets are pretty good. So homes are on the market for a little longer than they were this time last year and prices have dropped a little. But if your home is in good shape and priced RIGHT, it will sell.
Foreclosures are up to 2% you hear? That means that 98% of people are able to keep up with their payments. Not everyone is losing everything. I heard yesterday that a stigmatized neighborhood in my town (because it was overbuilt by greed) is actually the BEST SELLING neighborhood in my entire MLS area.
It’s the little things we need to recognize that can rebuild our confidence in the real estate market.
Did you hear about the woman who went to a foreclosure auction to help her son buy his first home? She sat next to a woman who was crying. As she prodded, she learned the woman’s house was about to be auctioned. She had fallen behind on her payments after losing a job and though she was again employed, it was too little too late. The stranger bought the house and gave it back to the homeowner. They’ll work out payment options later. From CNN.com:
“She said, ‘I did this for you. I’m doing this for you,’ ” Orr says. “When it was all done, I was just in shock.”
“I thought maybe her and her husband do these types of things to buy them and turn them. She said, ‘No, you just look like you needed a friend.’ ”
“All this happened within like 5 minutes. She never even asked me my name. She didn’t ask me my financial situation. She had no idea what [the house] looked like. She just did it out of the graciousness of her heart, just a ‘Good Samaritan,’ ” Orr says. “It’s amazing.”
See? Things aren’t always as bad as they seem.
