It's been a couple of weeks since my last confession.... Ooops, I mean post and lots has happened...
We've now had a total of 46 groups of people through the house - all for the first time.... we haven't had any return visits which is somewhat disappointing because a few people said that they'd be back and I (naively??) got a little excited...
Nevertheless... we've powered on.
The most difficult thing has been getting the house ready on inspection day - 2 small boys and full time work makes it somewhat challenging.
So far we've had the house open for inspection twice a week, on both Saturday and Wednesday. Of the 46 "groups" we've had a total of 6 through on the 4 Wednesdays we've opened the house. 2 on each of the first 2 Wednesdays and 1 each on the last 2 Wednesdays.... It shouldn't come as a big surprise to learn that we've decided that we're not doing that any more... Too much effort for too little reward. Instead the compromise position is that I've added my (prepaid) mobile number to the ad with an invitation to "inspect as advertised or by appointment". That should weed out anyone who's not really interested and save us some stress!
This week is probably the best I've felt about the house actually. Of the 5 groups through (1 on Wed and 4 today) 4 actually seemed quite interested. Mind you, the woman on Wednesday said she's bring her hubby today and didn't show - so it shows what I know...
One thing my sister pointed out that I think is a great idea is that we're keeping track of how long people stay in the house when they are here... This is a pretty small house and if you're not interested 5 mins will suffice (and has, for the great majority of visitors)... today 3 of the 4 groups were here over 15 mins... and the couple who were here for 15 mins asked the right type of questions and were taking pics both inside and out....
2200 views so far on the web - on average 1 group come to inspect for every 50 views.... I'll see if that changes....
The most interesting story from today - apart from having my good friend Kylie helping instead of my sister (she had other commitments), was about the last group through.
Young couple come up and pepper me with questions before they've even been inside - mostly concerned with mould and damp... They stay about 20 mins (they arrived 5 mins before the inspection was due to finish) and then leave. I mark them down for a follow up call... I go into my bedroom and whip off my suit and put on a pair of jeans... Kylie and I were about to debrief and compare notes when she says "they're coming back up"...
So they come back up with her mother and their son... to show them around. I didn't think they were ready to buy - she said that they have to sell their place, and some investment properties and that they are keen on a house in Wahroonga (further north) that goes to auction in a few weeks... But they are doing all the interested type things... She says the house is "unique" and has lots of "interesting" things and that she really loves the "feel" of it... He says something about taking a chainsaw to it (then clarifies he means the garden)... She talks about needing to spend about $100K on it... I've learnt to be quiet and not defend the house - that's my emotional connection but it strikes me that maybe I've found that someone with the emotional connection!
Time will tell.
Stay tuned!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
More hiccups... there's no one you can rely on but yourself...
I'm gradually learning that there's no magic was of doing things better than you'd do them yourself and relying on any other way is hazardous.
Take for example, this company "forsalebyowner" that I'm using to help with the listing of my property. Their website has this fan dangle portal for vendors that allows you to do all sorts of things - or at least that's the promise...
After our first inspection I log on and duly enter in all the details of those who attended. It's a bit clunky - there's no spot for comments and you have to include an email address in order to save the person's details. I wasn't collecting email addresses, just mobile numbers so I just thought I'd give people the default email of either interested@nonegiven.com or none@given.com so that I could follow up those I marked as interested after the open house.
Yesterday I logged in to try and sort through the interested vs not interested only to discover that although I've put in the data I can't actually access it! The website refers to a "contacts tab" that isn't there but just to make sure I'm not going blind, I email the owner to ask him how to get that information. You can imagine how impressed I was when he confirms that no, I'm not blind, and no, there's no way for me to access the information. He can of course, so if i want a particular person's phone number just let him know and he'll retrieve it for me..... So I take a deep breath....
Guess I'll go back to the trusty excel spreadsheet and do it myself! Seriously there should be a warning brochure when you sign up:
Take for example, this company "forsalebyowner" that I'm using to help with the listing of my property. Their website has this fan dangle portal for vendors that allows you to do all sorts of things - or at least that's the promise...
After our first inspection I log on and duly enter in all the details of those who attended. It's a bit clunky - there's no spot for comments and you have to include an email address in order to save the person's details. I wasn't collecting email addresses, just mobile numbers so I just thought I'd give people the default email of either interested@nonegiven.com or none@given.com so that I could follow up those I marked as interested after the open house.
Yesterday I logged in to try and sort through the interested vs not interested only to discover that although I've put in the data I can't actually access it! The website refers to a "contacts tab" that isn't there but just to make sure I'm not going blind, I email the owner to ask him how to get that information. You can imagine how impressed I was when he confirms that no, I'm not blind, and no, there's no way for me to access the information. He can of course, so if i want a particular person's phone number just let him know and he'll retrieve it for me..... So I take a deep breath....
Guess I'll go back to the trusty excel spreadsheet and do it myself! Seriously there should be a warning brochure when you sign up:
- Your inspection times might drop off at any time, please check regularly
- Don't input any data you ever want to have access to in the future....
- Oh, I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as I go on....
Maybe I should charge him a fee for finding and reporting all the faults with the damn website! Or maybe I should just shut up until I've sold my house and then refer him to my blog for constructive feedback... What do you think?
In the meantime that bloke came over on Sunday to inspect the house - Nathan (2 yrs) was here and did some talking. He told me everything he didn't like about the house (apparently a good sign?), told me the house down the road that sold earlier this year was a better house (why didn't he buy it??) and then asked if the price was negotiable... He was a bit older than the other prospects, probably late 40s, early 50s, said he might bring his wife back but had to think about it...
Today I had a call from another bloke asking about the measurement of the street frontage (maybe interested in knock down rebuild?). I sent him the contract because I wasn't sure what I was reading... told him about the "right of way" and the shared driveway, then he asked how many "old" trees were on the land... I told him I wasn't an aborist and he'd have to get a professional and speak to council for that sort of info... invited him to the open house tomorrow - we'll see if he shows up.
It's going to be a wet old Wednesday so I'm not sure we'll get a bit turnout tomorrow... but we're still tidying up just in case....
By the way - I know there are a few of you who check in regularly - if you've got anything to say leave me a comment, convince me I'm not talking to myself (thought it won't be the first, or the last time that happens!).
Back with more news soon!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Hiccups with advertising, sunshine and here goes week 2!
The sun was out today for our 2nd Saturday open - I started with all the blinds up in the family room but then the beautiful sun highlighted what a bad job I had done cleaning the inside of the windows.... so I put them back down and settled with having them open. It was a cool brisk day today but for the first time the sun was out - perfect for highlighting what a sun drenched house this is.... and for reminding me why we bought it in the first place.
It's interesting I was thinking as I stood out front on our deck enjoying the sun, how much I actually love this house - and it takes selling it to get me to appreciate the things I love about it. At least we've got some time to enjoy the things we love before packing up and letting another family make some memories here.
The day started with a little bit of confusion, stress and crankiness if I'm to be frank about it all.
I logged onto the Internet to check my email and found an email from a potential buyer asking about inspection times... At first I thought it must be someone who's stupid because I had inspection times for the first 4 weeks listed in the advertising - this was after I got a feedback mid week that there wasn't a floor plan up on domain.com.au (there was). But just in case I wasn't dealing with stupidity I responded to the email with inspection times and jumped online to check out the ads and make sure I wasn't mistaken.
And boy was I in for a shock.
Neither Domain.com.au nor Realestate.com.au had the inspection times listed at all.
I logged onto my portal on forsalebyowner.com.au only to discover that they had disappeared.
I quickly recreated the listing times, hoping that they would be uploaded quickly (they update every 2 hours, and this was just before 8am), and then sent a cranky email to the bloke who runs "forsalebyowner" just in case they weren't aware of the problem.
Now - can you imagine how cross I was when I got an email back from the bloke who runs the shop telling me that they knew about it! And while I appreciated the apology what sort of business does he run where it's OK to know about something like that on a Saturday inspection day and not immediately notify their vendors with a suggestion that they check their listing and update if necessary.
The smoke was coming out my nose and my ears when I read that one.
Fortunately for me, someone actually contacted me and asked for the times so I got it fixed quickly. Not knowing how long it was down for means I've no idea if it affected the numbers today or not. I'm hoping it was the lack of inspection times combined with a long weekend that kept the numbers down to a respectful (?) 7.
Unfortunately again, there were no return inspectors... although, and I'm interested in your thoughts on this - there was one interesting couple.
They pulled up in an expensive car and were older than most of the people who have been looking (the others have mostly been younger with young families or obviously pregnant). My trusty sidekick who was manning the bottom of the stairs reckons that they had a brochure in their hands when they showed up. They picked up a copy of the "recent sales" and asked about price and, surprisingly, traffic... Ilana (the helpful, trusty and clever sidekick) suggested that they might be parents of someone who visited earlier... If so that's a good sign - what do you think?
Of the 7, there were a few potentials - one couple, the woman was obviously pregnant, asked about childcare centres, and a few asked how long it takes to walk to the station...
Late today I spoke to a guy who couldn't get to the inspection who wants to come by tomorrow morning... never say no to a buyer... so it's all on again tomorrow!
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
It's interesting I was thinking as I stood out front on our deck enjoying the sun, how much I actually love this house - and it takes selling it to get me to appreciate the things I love about it. At least we've got some time to enjoy the things we love before packing up and letting another family make some memories here.
The day started with a little bit of confusion, stress and crankiness if I'm to be frank about it all.
I logged onto the Internet to check my email and found an email from a potential buyer asking about inspection times... At first I thought it must be someone who's stupid because I had inspection times for the first 4 weeks listed in the advertising - this was after I got a feedback mid week that there wasn't a floor plan up on domain.com.au (there was). But just in case I wasn't dealing with stupidity I responded to the email with inspection times and jumped online to check out the ads and make sure I wasn't mistaken.
And boy was I in for a shock.
Neither Domain.com.au nor Realestate.com.au had the inspection times listed at all.
I logged onto my portal on forsalebyowner.com.au only to discover that they had disappeared.
I quickly recreated the listing times, hoping that they would be uploaded quickly (they update every 2 hours, and this was just before 8am), and then sent a cranky email to the bloke who runs "forsalebyowner" just in case they weren't aware of the problem.
Now - can you imagine how cross I was when I got an email back from the bloke who runs the shop telling me that they knew about it! And while I appreciated the apology what sort of business does he run where it's OK to know about something like that on a Saturday inspection day and not immediately notify their vendors with a suggestion that they check their listing and update if necessary.
The smoke was coming out my nose and my ears when I read that one.
Fortunately for me, someone actually contacted me and asked for the times so I got it fixed quickly. Not knowing how long it was down for means I've no idea if it affected the numbers today or not. I'm hoping it was the lack of inspection times combined with a long weekend that kept the numbers down to a respectful (?) 7.
Unfortunately again, there were no return inspectors... although, and I'm interested in your thoughts on this - there was one interesting couple.
They pulled up in an expensive car and were older than most of the people who have been looking (the others have mostly been younger with young families or obviously pregnant). My trusty sidekick who was manning the bottom of the stairs reckons that they had a brochure in their hands when they showed up. They picked up a copy of the "recent sales" and asked about price and, surprisingly, traffic... Ilana (the helpful, trusty and clever sidekick) suggested that they might be parents of someone who visited earlier... If so that's a good sign - what do you think?
Of the 7, there were a few potentials - one couple, the woman was obviously pregnant, asked about childcare centres, and a few asked how long it takes to walk to the station...
Late today I spoke to a guy who couldn't get to the inspection who wants to come by tomorrow morning... never say no to a buyer... so it's all on again tomorrow!
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
First mid week open - with a bit of wind, rain and cold thrown in!
A mid-week open house is not for the feint of heart..... A mid-week open house for a couple with 2 kids under 5, and who both work full time is.... well you know the word...
Challenging.
But you know, we're up for a bit of a challenge, after all we're selling our house privately.
So, last night we tidied everything up, read the riot act to the kids about not making a mess in the morning, and hoped for the best. "To Do" lists written for the morning we went to bed hoping that the wild weather that had set in would spare us the worst.
And you know what - that's just as well because after a night of wild weather we woke up to this:
Fortunately Luck was on our side and the only "must fix" before work was re-mounting our "For Sale" sign.
The rain and wind had set in for the day so I wasn't hopeful anyone would show up...
My awesome sister, Ilana, came over to (wo)man the Open House while Mark and I went to work. She arrived armed with fruit for our empty fruit bowls and a heap of patience at what I anticipated would be a long 45 minutes...
Quite surprisingly 2 people showed up for the open house - one stayed for 20 minutes which I think is quite promising... The other asked the price but didn't stick around very long.
I suppose we'll see if anyone comes back on Saturday for a 2nd look... now that would be promising.
Meantime we've got just shy of 700 hits on the ad on realestate.com.au - and from what I've heard that's not bad for the first week on the market - a sale would be better.
In good news, interest rates have been cut today by 25 basis points and the house across the road sold prior to auction for a massive $1 437 000 (or thereabouts). It's much larger than our home, but at $500 000 less, you're getting a bargain!
If you're in Sydney, feel free to pop by for a sticky beak - the more people here during the open houses the better!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
First inspection day comes... and goes...
Yesterday was our first inspection day...
I've been watching a reality show on TV in Australia called "The Block" (www.nine.com.au/Theblock) where contestants renovate a rundown house and then sell them at auction. The couple who gets the highest price above reserve wins $100K. Now our house ISN'T a run down house, but it's interesting watching how the couples "dress" their rooms for the judges. I tell you all this because we've gone to a lot of trouble to remove "clutter" from our house and to try and make it appealing for a buyer - but still livable for us...
So yesterday the first couple through commented:
"It's so refreshing to see a house that hasn't been "styled" and actually looks like people live in it"
So I ask you - compliment or insult... because we think the house looks much less lived in than it has since we bought it... yet we're trying to make it appealing... I think I'll go with compliment for now...
Another gentlemen commented:
"I like the house, I'm just not sure about the stairs" to which I replied:
"That's why it's in this price range. You've got to compromise on something"
"That's why it's in this price range. You've got to compromise on something"
I wonder if he'll decide the stairs are good for his heart?
Yet another comment:
"If you cut down all those trees you'd have a great view".
Yes you would. But this is Kuringai and council permission might be a little difficult - that and, the small problem that all those trees you'd like to remove aren't actually on this land. I didn't share those thoughts - bit my tongue.
One gentleman seemed genuinely interested - he came alone and was telling me he has a 4 month old son and was asking how we managed with small kids. I pointed out the car port at the top of the stairs and the garage at the bottom. I hope he comes back with his wife.... might be a real chance.
We had 14 separate "groups" through yesterday - quite a few with small kids or obviously pregnant... the last couple arrived after "closing time" and we'd turned the coffee machine on. In retrospect it was probably a little weird for them to walk in then... you know we'd turned off our professional seller hats and were winding down - with some strangers.
Last comment I want to share:
"You're doing a good job posing as agents"
Compliment or.... ?
Stay tuned!
Go!
Our house is officially on the market! The ad went up and after a couple of small issues with the copy (like the ad saying we had a heap of features that we didn't actually have) it's all systems go.
The ads are here if you're curious:
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-roseville-110650641
and
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Roseville/?adid=2009729876
The difficulty with sleeping has began as well - it's all nervous excitement I suppose.
My sister is going to help with the open house tomorrow and between the 2 of us I'm sure we'll be fine. I'm not sure what's "normal" for page views but we've had 400 hits on www.realestate.com.au which I hope will translate to lots of people coming through tomorrow. Having said that I don't know what "lots of people" really means and what is a "good" number... I suppose just one person who wants to buy would be good.
The weather report isn't great but I'm hoping the rain holds off.
Don't think I'll get much sleep tonight but we'll just wait and see!
The ads are here if you're curious:
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-roseville-110650641
and
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Roseville/?adid=2009729876
The difficulty with sleeping has began as well - it's all nervous excitement I suppose.
My sister is going to help with the open house tomorrow and between the 2 of us I'm sure we'll be fine. I'm not sure what's "normal" for page views but we've had 400 hits on www.realestate.com.au which I hope will translate to lots of people coming through tomorrow. Having said that I don't know what "lots of people" really means and what is a "good" number... I suppose just one person who wants to buy would be good.
The weather report isn't great but I'm hoping the rain holds off.
Don't think I'll get much sleep tonight but we'll just wait and see!
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