How I sold my own house.

How I sold my own house in a rough market.

January 4, 2008 I listed our house at 1374 Eastview for $196,000. A price I thought was too high, but my wife wanted to try it. In the Summer of 2007 two agents approached her, before they knew I was licensed, and told her the house was worth $220,000.

January 8, 2008 I was getting far below the internet hits I wanted and lowered the price to $189,000, a price I thought was more realistic. Of the 6 agents who showed it the next week 3 of them gave me feedback of “The house shows poorly.” This really bothered me, two years ago we added on a beautiful $40,000 kitchen.

I drove over to see what showed so poorly about the house. The schedule I keep kept me from spending much time at the house and I was busy getting our new house in shape. When I arrived I saw the leaves really needed raked and the floors needed a shine. We had hired a cleaning service to clean up the house so the floors were clean, but had no shine. We needed our furniture so the house was empty. A friend who is a home stager told me I could stage a vacant house with accessories. I spent that Saturday raking leaves and polishing the floors before an open house on Sunday. Before the open house I set out some wine bottles, glasses and fresh flowers in the kitchen.

People responded well at the open house and that next week I had 3 showings. I made sure all the lights were on for all of the showings and the house was warm. There is no worse time of year to show property than in the middle of winter in Columbus, Ohio, it’s cold and dark. It impresses people so much to walk into a bright warm house.

Of the next 3 people who showed the property, 2 of them gave me feedback and said their buyers had interest. Yet no offers. I knew there was one more thing I had to do.

On one wall in the house we have wall paper and it happens to be the first wall people see when they walk in the front door. When the house is full of furniture and decorated it looks fine, but the pattern is a red, green and beige floral pattern and it shows poorly on an empty house. I spent from 5:00 pm to 10:30 pm repapering that one wall, that includes the drive to Lowes.

Of the next 5 people who showed the property, yes I still kept the lights on and the temperature up for all showings, the second person was a repeat visitor. The agent called me afterward and said he was putting together an offer and asked “Did you repaint the downstairs?” I answered honestly and said “No.”

His client made an offer and after some negotiations we were in contract. The house closed less than 60 days after I listed it. We didn’t get the price we wanted, but few people are in this market. We took about 6% less than asking price. I have to wonder; where were the two agents who told my wife the place was worth $220,000? They could have bought our house for far less than they thought it was worth and made some easy money on the resale.

Raking leaves Cost: My time

Floor cleaner Cost: $4.89

Wallpaper Cost: $22.00

Less than $30 in material created an impression in our house a $40,000 kitchen couldn’t.