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Well- I took the big step this week and interviewed 3 realtors regarding selling our home of 31 years.
Very interesting experience I must say. As you may or may not know, I did interview one last month and he was very nice but never followed up with us regarding a ballpark list/sale price or feedback on anything else really, except he thought he could market it as at least a 3 bedroom instead of a 2 bedroom. I just didn't get why he did not followup. He was with Keller Williams and I got his name through a national talk radio host's real estate company. So much for that.
I then yesterday interviewed a man from Better Homes and Gardens Realty local here and he spent an hour and a half with me. He took a lot of notes and so forth. Very nice. Gave me what I thought was a reasonable estimate of $280,000- $320,000 and no higher. He said he does a 9 month contract but if we list it now it could be for 6 months. He then said that he got a 6% commission and when I balked he went down to 5%. He said this is the best time for listing the house.
Next, was a local husband and wife couple with a small company (they have 22 agents). She was in real estate for 16 years and started her own company several years ago and her husband worked for IBM and now has joined her. I liked them a lot. They sold a coworker of mine's home- who lived in the hamlet here in Pine Bush. I remember it sold kind of quickly also. She recommended her to me. They ask for a 6 month contract but said they are flexible about enforcing it. They ask for 5 % commission as well. They seemed to know the local laws and town inspectors and so on. They suggested a list/sale price of $339,000. I was shocked at this as new homes are selling for that, but she felt the house had really nice features and would show very well.
And last but not least was a guy who was also from Keller Williams and came 20 minutes late but did have his staff call to alert me. He has several women who work in the office including his daughter- he is an agent not a broker- and they are very assertive, even sending me Facebook Private Messages and cell phone texts. He used to work in retail (lowes) and also worked as a car salesman as he started to build up his real estate business. He had that car salesperson style, if you know what I mean. He operated differently from the other ones. He asked to see our home first on his own without me escorting him, as a buyer would view it. So I told him to help himself. Then he sat down with me and went over everything. He would ask for 5 % commission and a 6 month contract. He said he would start high in pricing to see what kind of bites we got within a 2 week period and lower the price accordingly until we got one. He stated $350,000- $400,000. I think this is way too high. The town assessor has the market value at $266,000 listed on our tax bill. He seemed to think this was how the taxes were calculated, but I believe he is wrong because also on my tax bill the assessed value is listed at $175,000. He also did not seem as knowledgeable about the town inspectors here and so on. He has only been doing this for 6 years. But he was pretty forceful.
I asked him what the weaknesses in our home were. He said having 2 bedrooms but because we have a room that could be another one or 2 bedrooms, if we got a good offer and the buyer wanted it converted we could get a contractor in to build a wall in it and make the 2 extra bedrooms. Unmmm.....I don't think so. So we would wait for the house to sell until we could rebuild this room? SMH....
Then- he suggested we replace our upstairs bathroom oak vanity, mirror, chandelier and toilet, and sinks.(These are outdated- but in excellent condition and years ago we decided to keep them as to not spend any more money on the house- especially for a bathroom we do not use. We did do some work at the time and removed the wallpaper and painted and put in wainscoting, and a seamless, clear glass shower/bathtub door and a modern mirror lighting and shelving. We also put new faucets in and also new handles on the cabinet.). Said it should only cost around $1500. Really? And I should do this work while the house is up for sale? I don't think so. Why couldn't the buyers just redo what they want?
I mean- I know these are the weaknesses but to me they are not a big deal considering what the rest of the house has to offer in terms of upgrades. I also know our home is on a slab and some people want basements- but nothing we can do about that and we do have a huge 500+ square foot 2 car garage and a big walk up attic for storage.
Opinions varied as to where the buyers would come from. The last guy said more than likely from areas within a 20 mile radius. The couple said maybe people from NYC who would want a weekend getaway or just to get out of the city altogether. Or whoever would value privacy. The first guy said maybe someone like my husband- a hunter, a hiker, etc. Or maybe just a family like ours and who want a lot of land.
All said it is a sellers market right now and now is the best time to be on the market. They said the end of summer it slows down and then kicks up a bit in the Fall until it dies around the holidays and winter. And who knows what the market will be like next spring?
Essentially all these realtors seem to do the same thing marketing wise. And a lot of them are in cahoots. We were going to try to sell the house ourselves and if that didn't work get a realtor. Now we decided to try it in the opposite first. try the realtor and then if no good results try ourselves.Not sure what is really best. I hate paying that commission, especially since anything we purchase is going to be more money then the proceeds from the sale..
So- I am experiencing a lot of FEAR. Maybe it is telling me to put the house up for sale NOW. My husband thinks we should. I told the realtors we have several vacations coming up we will not cancel - not just our VT and NH timeshares but our big UTAH trip- so we have to work around that. I am, of course, worried (what else is new?) because we go to UTAH the week after Labor Day week. (therefore after school starts)
And-If the house sells we will have to find a local rental to move to and put our stuff in storage before we can buy our forever home wherever it might end up being. I keep going back and forth as to selling the home or not, even though that has been the plan. But now that reality is setting in I am having second and third and fourth thoughts.
When you have something to move into that you want, it is one thing. When you don't know what you are getting into- it is scary. Essentially I am freaking out! Once it is sold- there would be no going back. Our home will be gone. Not even to mention all the logistics of moving and then knowing we will have to move again pretty quickly after that. OMG....
Very interesting experience I must say. As you may or may not know, I did interview one last month and he was very nice but never followed up with us regarding a ballpark list/sale price or feedback on anything else really, except he thought he could market it as at least a 3 bedroom instead of a 2 bedroom. I just didn't get why he did not followup. He was with Keller Williams and I got his name through a national talk radio host's real estate company. So much for that.
I then yesterday interviewed a man from Better Homes and Gardens Realty local here and he spent an hour and a half with me. He took a lot of notes and so forth. Very nice. Gave me what I thought was a reasonable estimate of $280,000- $320,000 and no higher. He said he does a 9 month contract but if we list it now it could be for 6 months. He then said that he got a 6% commission and when I balked he went down to 5%. He said this is the best time for listing the house.
Next, was a local husband and wife couple with a small company (they have 22 agents). She was in real estate for 16 years and started her own company several years ago and her husband worked for IBM and now has joined her. I liked them a lot. They sold a coworker of mine's home- who lived in the hamlet here in Pine Bush. I remember it sold kind of quickly also. She recommended her to me. They ask for a 6 month contract but said they are flexible about enforcing it. They ask for 5 % commission as well. They seemed to know the local laws and town inspectors and so on. They suggested a list/sale price of $339,000. I was shocked at this as new homes are selling for that, but she felt the house had really nice features and would show very well.
And last but not least was a guy who was also from Keller Williams and came 20 minutes late but did have his staff call to alert me. He has several women who work in the office including his daughter- he is an agent not a broker- and they are very assertive, even sending me Facebook Private Messages and cell phone texts. He used to work in retail (lowes) and also worked as a car salesman as he started to build up his real estate business. He had that car salesperson style, if you know what I mean. He operated differently from the other ones. He asked to see our home first on his own without me escorting him, as a buyer would view it. So I told him to help himself. Then he sat down with me and went over everything. He would ask for 5 % commission and a 6 month contract. He said he would start high in pricing to see what kind of bites we got within a 2 week period and lower the price accordingly until we got one. He stated $350,000- $400,000. I think this is way too high. The town assessor has the market value at $266,000 listed on our tax bill. He seemed to think this was how the taxes were calculated, but I believe he is wrong because also on my tax bill the assessed value is listed at $175,000. He also did not seem as knowledgeable about the town inspectors here and so on. He has only been doing this for 6 years. But he was pretty forceful.
I asked him what the weaknesses in our home were. He said having 2 bedrooms but because we have a room that could be another one or 2 bedrooms, if we got a good offer and the buyer wanted it converted we could get a contractor in to build a wall in it and make the 2 extra bedrooms. Unmmm.....I don't think so. So we would wait for the house to sell until we could rebuild this room? SMH....
Then- he suggested we replace our upstairs bathroom oak vanity, mirror, chandelier and toilet, and sinks.(These are outdated- but in excellent condition and years ago we decided to keep them as to not spend any more money on the house- especially for a bathroom we do not use. We did do some work at the time and removed the wallpaper and painted and put in wainscoting, and a seamless, clear glass shower/bathtub door and a modern mirror lighting and shelving. We also put new faucets in and also new handles on the cabinet.). Said it should only cost around $1500. Really? And I should do this work while the house is up for sale? I don't think so. Why couldn't the buyers just redo what they want?
I mean- I know these are the weaknesses but to me they are not a big deal considering what the rest of the house has to offer in terms of upgrades. I also know our home is on a slab and some people want basements- but nothing we can do about that and we do have a huge 500+ square foot 2 car garage and a big walk up attic for storage.
Opinions varied as to where the buyers would come from. The last guy said more than likely from areas within a 20 mile radius. The couple said maybe people from NYC who would want a weekend getaway or just to get out of the city altogether. Or whoever would value privacy. The first guy said maybe someone like my husband- a hunter, a hiker, etc. Or maybe just a family like ours and who want a lot of land.
All said it is a sellers market right now and now is the best time to be on the market. They said the end of summer it slows down and then kicks up a bit in the Fall until it dies around the holidays and winter. And who knows what the market will be like next spring?
Essentially all these realtors seem to do the same thing marketing wise. And a lot of them are in cahoots. We were going to try to sell the house ourselves and if that didn't work get a realtor. Now we decided to try it in the opposite first. try the realtor and then if no good results try ourselves.Not sure what is really best. I hate paying that commission, especially since anything we purchase is going to be more money then the proceeds from the sale..
So- I am experiencing a lot of FEAR. Maybe it is telling me to put the house up for sale NOW. My husband thinks we should. I told the realtors we have several vacations coming up we will not cancel - not just our VT and NH timeshares but our big UTAH trip- so we have to work around that. I am, of course, worried (what else is new?) because we go to UTAH the week after Labor Day week. (therefore after school starts)
And-If the house sells we will have to find a local rental to move to and put our stuff in storage before we can buy our forever home wherever it might end up being. I keep going back and forth as to selling the home or not, even though that has been the plan. But now that reality is setting in I am having second and third and fourth thoughts.
When you have something to move into that you want, it is one thing. When you don't know what you are getting into- it is scary. Essentially I am freaking out! Once it is sold- there would be no going back. Our home will be gone. Not even to mention all the logistics of moving and then knowing we will have to move again pretty quickly after that. OMG....
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