Here's the link:
www.johnlscott.com/24185
Our realtors are a husband and wife team, Rachel and Richard Whaley.
We actually aren't officially on the market until 12 noon tomorrow, the 30th. But we already had a couple drive up and ask us about the house; we could tell they really wanted to come in! But we just weren't ready for that--we didn't even have the sign in the yard yet!
Richard and Rachael told us to expect a lot of lookers and even a sale within the first few days wouldn't be unusual in this market. It would be so great to sell while we're in Denver and be able to bid on whatever we want!
A couple of the pictures the realtors used in our listing are from when we bought the house two and 1/2 years ago--they thought the furniture showed the "openness" better in the main living area. I think they liked the yard furiture on the deck better too--ours is pretty stark.
Everything else is our current interior and exterior, though.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Progress on Home Fix-ups
Here's a copy of an email I just sent to my mom:
Todd and Dad have been focused and going at it with house fix ups, I've been trailing behind packing books, clothes, taping walls to prepare the "library" for painting, and cleaning up their cooking messes.
Thus far, the front porch has been painted (looks gorgeous,) the back deck extended into the hottub (very nice,) bricks laid out where dirt was by the hot tub, and the crown mouldling finished in the stairwell.
Today they plan to paint the library and maybe make steps for the back deck on both ends.
My task is to continue packing and clean out spots on the carpet, organize cupboards to look spacious, and nitpick on the house overall.
Maybe tomorrow we'll do hardwood polishing and I am hoping to talk Todd into doing something with the dirtpile on the other end of the back yard.
Monday, mow the lawn, have the realtor out here, and we'll also fine tune anything she thinks needs doing. We will stay past Tuesday if need be; I really wanted to get the carpets steam cleaned. Sometime midweek beteween Tuesday and Thursday we'll leave for Denver and hopefully list the house.
See you soon!
Jodi
On another less exciting note, our neighbors have soured on us since we reset the price of the house. They have made it clear they think we're asking too much and they are peeved that their friends no longer qualify to buy the house. I'm glad the fence between us is tall!
Todd and Dad have been focused and going at it with house fix ups, I've been trailing behind packing books, clothes, taping walls to prepare the "library" for painting, and cleaning up their cooking messes.
Thus far, the front porch has been painted (looks gorgeous,) the back deck extended into the hottub (very nice,) bricks laid out where dirt was by the hot tub, and the crown mouldling finished in the stairwell.
Today they plan to paint the library and maybe make steps for the back deck on both ends.
My task is to continue packing and clean out spots on the carpet, organize cupboards to look spacious, and nitpick on the house overall.
Maybe tomorrow we'll do hardwood polishing and I am hoping to talk Todd into doing something with the dirtpile on the other end of the back yard.
Monday, mow the lawn, have the realtor out here, and we'll also fine tune anything she thinks needs doing. We will stay past Tuesday if need be; I really wanted to get the carpets steam cleaned. Sometime midweek beteween Tuesday and Thursday we'll leave for Denver and hopefully list the house.
See you soon!
Jodi
On another less exciting note, our neighbors have soured on us since we reset the price of the house. They have made it clear they think we're asking too much and they are peeved that their friends no longer qualify to buy the house. I'm glad the fence between us is tall!
Monday, March 21, 2005
Focusing on the Houses
My dad (a.k.a. "Davey") arrives tomorrow for a week of intensive house fix-ups. Todd and he will hopefully accomplish a lot on the back yard, deck, front deck, etc. Nothing impossible but still a lot of work, and we're thankful my dad is making the drive to do it.
Then, next week, we'll head back to Denver with my dad via convoy (we'll take a car back so there will be two cars enroute), and Todd will job hunt--I'll probably search out massage therapy employment opportunities as well--and also, excitingly, we're going to look for our next home! Hopefully we'll be able to bid on something. I have seen several listings our realtor has sent that I'm in love with.
Also, our appraisal came in at 80K more than we'd asked from the first buyers. Good thing we didn't get a contract going with them.
Then, next week, we'll head back to Denver with my dad via convoy (we'll take a car back so there will be two cars enroute), and Todd will job hunt--I'll probably search out massage therapy employment opportunities as well--and also, excitingly, we're going to look for our next home! Hopefully we'll be able to bid on something. I have seen several listings our realtor has sent that I'm in love with.
Also, our appraisal came in at 80K more than we'd asked from the first buyers. Good thing we didn't get a contract going with them.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Ixnay on the Alesay by Erownsay
That's "Nix the For Sale by Owner"
Todd and I have a connection to a realtor that will list and advertise our home for a flat low fee in exchange for some work that Todd is doing for her group. This means that we'll probably wind up "losing" some of the sale price to a buyer's realtor, but Todd has said that he'd rather do that than add the stress of selling the home ourselves. As his wife/teammate, I am going to have to go with that choice. Give and take, ya know?
We're also going to have a more thorough on-site appraisal done tomorrow. The one we had done yesterday was mainly a comparision of other comparable properties that had sold within the past 3 months. This will be an actual on-site appraisal, so it'll be even more accurate.
Todd and I have a connection to a realtor that will list and advertise our home for a flat low fee in exchange for some work that Todd is doing for her group. This means that we'll probably wind up "losing" some of the sale price to a buyer's realtor, but Todd has said that he'd rather do that than add the stress of selling the home ourselves. As his wife/teammate, I am going to have to go with that choice. Give and take, ya know?
We're also going to have a more thorough on-site appraisal done tomorrow. The one we had done yesterday was mainly a comparision of other comparable properties that had sold within the past 3 months. This will be an actual on-site appraisal, so it'll be even more accurate.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Sickened but Elated
We had the house appraised and it came in at much higher than we'd been asking, more than than the 10K we thought it might. So the bad news is that we have to tell our potential buyers that it is probably out of their price range. We really liked them and so it's disappointing for us, too, not to mention our neighbors who referred them to us.
But we are happy in that we stand to make a good profit for our next down payment, God willing. The appraiser seemed to know what he was talking about.
So it's back to polishing up this place to ready it for market. My dad is coming up from Denver to help finish the back yard project we began last summer; I have a little carpet replacement project to do, and the hard wood floor should probably be polished.
We hope to put our For Sale By Owner sign out within a month.
But we are happy in that we stand to make a good profit for our next down payment, God willing. The appraiser seemed to know what he was talking about.
So it's back to polishing up this place to ready it for market. My dad is coming up from Denver to help finish the back yard project we began last summer; I have a little carpet replacement project to do, and the hard wood floor should probably be polished.
We hope to put our For Sale By Owner sign out within a month.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
We Have Ignition
The Good News: They liked the house, they want to buy!
The Bummer: They were disappointed that we had to raise the price (I'm sure our neighbors, their friends who referred them to us, must think we're schmucks)
The Good News: They're still interested, as long as we stay within a certain range, which we are fairly certain we will.
We must now proceed with an official appraisal, and hopefully the appraiser won't be biased in any way. We won't want the appraiser to know that we've quoted a price to anyone yet; we do want to use an appraiser that our potential buyers' mortgage broker will be able to accept, so there might be a little crossover there. We are hoping for a fair shake at this for all parties involved.
The Bummer: They were disappointed that we had to raise the price (I'm sure our neighbors, their friends who referred them to us, must think we're schmucks)
The Good News: They're still interested, as long as we stay within a certain range, which we are fairly certain we will.
We must now proceed with an official appraisal, and hopefully the appraiser won't be biased in any way. We won't want the appraiser to know that we've quoted a price to anyone yet; we do want to use an appraiser that our potential buyers' mortgage broker will be able to accept, so there might be a little crossover there. We are hoping for a fair shake at this for all parties involved.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Mounting Stress
We finally got on the ball and called Todd's Aunt Shirley, a realtor in Boise, ID. She knows the business and is helping us get all the documentation for selling this place ourselves.
One thing we must do is get as unbiased an assessment as possible. Tomorrow, if Andy and his wife are still interested in the place, we're going to have to let them know that the price we gave them may be as much as $10K too little, but we want to get an appraisal (one that can be accepted by the broker they're using) to be sure we're in the right ballpark. If we lose them as buyers, so be it. But I won't feel good knowing we sold for considerably lower than we could have, especially with the homes being built down the street. I found out tonight that the median price for those lovlies is $500,000!
Shirley is being immensely helpful, offering up free contracts and guidance. Maybe we should toss her a commission!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow's midday viewing to go well...that they'll love it enough to pay just a little more...
One thing we must do is get as unbiased an assessment as possible. Tomorrow, if Andy and his wife are still interested in the place, we're going to have to let them know that the price we gave them may be as much as $10K too little, but we want to get an appraisal (one that can be accepted by the broker they're using) to be sure we're in the right ballpark. If we lose them as buyers, so be it. But I won't feel good knowing we sold for considerably lower than we could have, especially with the homes being built down the street. I found out tonight that the median price for those lovlies is $500,000!
Shirley is being immensely helpful, offering up free contracts and guidance. Maybe we should toss her a commission!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow's midday viewing to go well...that they'll love it enough to pay just a little more...
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Prospective Buyers
Our neighbor behind us is a mortgage broker. He's been sending us a couple of people who may be interested in buying our house! We had already been considering trying to sell by owner, and so this is perfect.
Two weeks ago a nice couple our age came by to see our house. We didn't hear from them the following week so I thought perhaps they'd decided they would be looking elsewhere. But yesterday the husband (Andy) emailed and said he, his wife, and his mother-in-law would like to come by for a second look. That's encouraging! But a little nerve-racking since his mother-in-law is a real estate agent! She won't be acting as an agent in the sense of working for a commission, but she will be a stickler on their behalf, I bet.
I know that the price we quoted them won't be negotiable, and in fact if we go forward with some of the fix-ups we intended to do to make the house market-ready, we would probably raise the price a little bit. There is very nice new construction happening just five houses down, a whole new neighborhood of very nice homes. That will increase our home's value for certain, and we don't want to sell for too little.
It's a tricky game.
So at any rate, they will be stopping over on Saturday, March 12th at 1PM, and we will be taking a little family trip to Starbucks for 1/2 hour to give them full run of looking and assessing.
Wish us luck!
Two weeks ago a nice couple our age came by to see our house. We didn't hear from them the following week so I thought perhaps they'd decided they would be looking elsewhere. But yesterday the husband (Andy) emailed and said he, his wife, and his mother-in-law would like to come by for a second look. That's encouraging! But a little nerve-racking since his mother-in-law is a real estate agent! She won't be acting as an agent in the sense of working for a commission, but she will be a stickler on their behalf, I bet.
I know that the price we quoted them won't be negotiable, and in fact if we go forward with some of the fix-ups we intended to do to make the house market-ready, we would probably raise the price a little bit. There is very nice new construction happening just five houses down, a whole new neighborhood of very nice homes. That will increase our home's value for certain, and we don't want to sell for too little.
It's a tricky game.
So at any rate, they will be stopping over on Saturday, March 12th at 1PM, and we will be taking a little family trip to Starbucks for 1/2 hour to give them full run of looking and assessing.
Wish us luck!
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