We sold the house!
The building and pest inspection didn't turn up any nasties and we had a bit of a stressful end to last week getting the contracts all signed off.
We exchanged contracts Saturday morning a week ago, about an hour before the house was due to be "Open for Inspection". I pulled out the "SOLD" sticker that the "For Sale By Owner" mob had sent me and advised them up update the website ad to say "Sold".
We've agreed to a shorter settlement period - 30 days, although they want to settle far quicker than that if they can... and they've agreed to rent the house back to us until we find somewhere to live.
The house that I had my eye on last week is on a busy main road - and unfortunately that rules it out... even though in every other respect it would have been perfect. That's OK. We'll find the right place - and we'll know it when we find it.
While it's been a stressful 3 months we've saved ourselves the best part of $20K - and it was worth the effort. I think I'd probably do it again (famous last words) - even though I don't plan on selling another house for oh... 30 years!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
OFFER!!! The high after the low....
Well what a weekend!
It didn't begin so well - my usual helper, Ilana called to say her son was very sick and she'd been up all night with him so wouldn't be able to help me....
Our "For Sale" sign blew down on Friday in the windy conditions so we needed to have 2 people so that people would know the house was indeed open for inspection. My backup plan was also in bed sick... What to do?
Mum to the rescue! My lovely mother called to say that we could drop the kids in with her and Mark could come back to help. This is a big deal given the past 3 Saturdays she's evicted them due to overwhelming noise...
We had 7 groups through which was slightly lower than expected - but with the cold wintry conditions it was probably to be expected. What wasn't expected though was the first group through who made us an offer to start with at $850K. I told them that we weren't prepared to sell at that price and by the time they left they had upped their offer to $880K. A bit of to and fro through the evening and by dinner time we'd agreed to accept an offer of $900K. This was the lowest that I'd initially been prepared to accept but well up on the first offer of $834K we'd had just a couple of weeks ago.
The buyer is a young woman who was here with her parents - she came back today with her sister and brother and parents and offered us a holding deposit to take the house off the market. I told her that I'd updated the website to say the house was "under offer" and that I hoped we'd be able to exchange contracts before the next scheduled open on Saturday - but that I was reluctant to forgo the open until we'd exchanged contracts. I did flag the option of her asking for the conveyancer to waive the "cooling off period" which we would agree to do as well.
In the meantime I've found a house that I really like that might work for our extended family - so hoping that this all works out we've got a real shot at getting all of our housing sorted out in the next few months... I just hope this isn't too good to be true and that the building and pest inspection doesn't turn up any nasties!
Stay tuned as we move into the next phase of this journey!
It didn't begin so well - my usual helper, Ilana called to say her son was very sick and she'd been up all night with him so wouldn't be able to help me....
Our "For Sale" sign blew down on Friday in the windy conditions so we needed to have 2 people so that people would know the house was indeed open for inspection. My backup plan was also in bed sick... What to do?
Mum to the rescue! My lovely mother called to say that we could drop the kids in with her and Mark could come back to help. This is a big deal given the past 3 Saturdays she's evicted them due to overwhelming noise...
We had 7 groups through which was slightly lower than expected - but with the cold wintry conditions it was probably to be expected. What wasn't expected though was the first group through who made us an offer to start with at $850K. I told them that we weren't prepared to sell at that price and by the time they left they had upped their offer to $880K. A bit of to and fro through the evening and by dinner time we'd agreed to accept an offer of $900K. This was the lowest that I'd initially been prepared to accept but well up on the first offer of $834K we'd had just a couple of weeks ago.
The buyer is a young woman who was here with her parents - she came back today with her sister and brother and parents and offered us a holding deposit to take the house off the market. I told her that I'd updated the website to say the house was "under offer" and that I hoped we'd be able to exchange contracts before the next scheduled open on Saturday - but that I was reluctant to forgo the open until we'd exchanged contracts. I did flag the option of her asking for the conveyancer to waive the "cooling off period" which we would agree to do as well.
In the meantime I've found a house that I really like that might work for our extended family - so hoping that this all works out we've got a real shot at getting all of our housing sorted out in the next few months... I just hope this isn't too good to be true and that the building and pest inspection doesn't turn up any nasties!
Stay tuned as we move into the next phase of this journey!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Ok, so this isn't much fun anymore...
Although I'm not sure that "fun" was ever the right word to describe selling a house, it's certainly past that point.
Last week we had 7 groups through, right on our expectations.
I thought that there might be a little bit of interest and one couple was certainly making the right sort of noises about coming back for a 2nd visit. Unfortunately when I did the follow up calls this week those people weren't answering the phone, nor did they return my call.... The not returning a call isn't a surprise really - I often don't return agents calls if I'm not interested in the property.
But I'll guess only time will tell.
It's been a windy old day today and our "For Sale" sign broke off - our neighbour rescued it and put it in the garage but we'll have to re-stake it tomorrow afternoon.
The hit count for the website has been good this week and we sit at 2363 (420 more than last week). Which should bring us 8 or 9 through tomorrow - a number I'd be more than happy with. But the forecast is for the wind to continue with a bit of rain that might keep people away. I'll make sure the house is nice and warm for the inspection and hope we get some return visitors.
Stay tuned....
Last week we had 7 groups through, right on our expectations.
I thought that there might be a little bit of interest and one couple was certainly making the right sort of noises about coming back for a 2nd visit. Unfortunately when I did the follow up calls this week those people weren't answering the phone, nor did they return my call.... The not returning a call isn't a surprise really - I often don't return agents calls if I'm not interested in the property.
But I'll guess only time will tell.
It's been a windy old day today and our "For Sale" sign broke off - our neighbour rescued it and put it in the garage but we'll have to re-stake it tomorrow afternoon.
The hit count for the website has been good this week and we sit at 2363 (420 more than last week). Which should bring us 8 or 9 through tomorrow - a number I'd be more than happy with. But the forecast is for the wind to continue with a bit of rain that might keep people away. I'll make sure the house is nice and warm for the inspection and hope we get some return visitors.
Stay tuned....
Thursday, August 2, 2012
It's been a busy couple of weeks...
So I haven't posted for a while. Things have been both a little slower but we've also had our first serious offer so it's kind of all happening.
On the 21st July we only had 7 groups through so the theory isn't holding up as the weeks go on...
One of the couples was here by appointment and sounded very interested... too good to be true in fact. They were talking about agreeing on a price, getting conveyancing arranged and moving quickly to a building and pest inspection...
Well - you know what they about things being too good to be true.... yes well that didn't happen - which was a little disappointing.
Last week we had an additional 445 hits (campaign count 1667) before the inspection and had beautiful weather but we had a disappointing inspection with only 3 groups through. One was a single woman and her daughter who were interested but not at the price we're wanting. I encouraged her to get in touch when she had her finance sorted and at that point we might be willing to sell at the price she was looking at... $50K below our expectations but that was something I suppose.
Then came the excitement. Saturday late afternoon we got our first offer. It was literally $100K short of our expectations - but the first serious offer - in writing and everything.
In some respects it was sad to have to reject the offer, but on the other hand it was a bit of an insult to be offered an amount so much lower than what we thought was a reasonable price for the house. I called the couple to advise we weren't prepared to sell at that price. Having said that - there's nothing on the market at the moment that I really want to buy either - so we're not really in a hurry.
I spoke to one of the agents who I know through a friend and she advised that we play with the pictures and my sister suggested we change the price to see if that brings us any more interest. Mark and I sat down and agreed to put up an asking price - that way we're less likely to get people offering so much lower than our expectations. We agreed on a price of $929 000 which is probably less than I thought we'd put when we first put it on the market in June - but really a reasonable price by all accounts - I guess we'll wait for the market to tell us if we're in the right range or not...
I got a call then early this week from the couple who made the original offer and we had an honest conversation about ability to pay, the market and our expectations. There was a 4 bedroom house that sold at auction recently not far from us for $895 000. I didn't look at it so I don't know what condition it was in, but said we had an expectation of over $900 000 - given the cheapest house on the street in the last 12 months sold for $930 000. We are a long way apart - he said he wasn't prepared to pay that much - but I said that what he was offering didn't even come close.
He was going to think about it - we're preparing for another open house... a few email enquiries this week. Hoping putting a price rather than "offers over $890 000 brings people out of the woodwork. But it's a waiting game.... We've had 75 people through.... so there's clearly interest. We just need someone to fall in love with it like we did. In the meantime - I'm making the most out of enjoying the house - because I really do like it here!
We're at 1943 page hits so at this stage (276 more than last week) so we should hope for 6+ more couples/groups on Saturday.
We'll see!
On the 21st July we only had 7 groups through so the theory isn't holding up as the weeks go on...
One of the couples was here by appointment and sounded very interested... too good to be true in fact. They were talking about agreeing on a price, getting conveyancing arranged and moving quickly to a building and pest inspection...
Well - you know what they about things being too good to be true.... yes well that didn't happen - which was a little disappointing.
Last week we had an additional 445 hits (campaign count 1667) before the inspection and had beautiful weather but we had a disappointing inspection with only 3 groups through. One was a single woman and her daughter who were interested but not at the price we're wanting. I encouraged her to get in touch when she had her finance sorted and at that point we might be willing to sell at the price she was looking at... $50K below our expectations but that was something I suppose.
Then came the excitement. Saturday late afternoon we got our first offer. It was literally $100K short of our expectations - but the first serious offer - in writing and everything.
In some respects it was sad to have to reject the offer, but on the other hand it was a bit of an insult to be offered an amount so much lower than what we thought was a reasonable price for the house. I called the couple to advise we weren't prepared to sell at that price. Having said that - there's nothing on the market at the moment that I really want to buy either - so we're not really in a hurry.
I spoke to one of the agents who I know through a friend and she advised that we play with the pictures and my sister suggested we change the price to see if that brings us any more interest. Mark and I sat down and agreed to put up an asking price - that way we're less likely to get people offering so much lower than our expectations. We agreed on a price of $929 000 which is probably less than I thought we'd put when we first put it on the market in June - but really a reasonable price by all accounts - I guess we'll wait for the market to tell us if we're in the right range or not...
I got a call then early this week from the couple who made the original offer and we had an honest conversation about ability to pay, the market and our expectations. There was a 4 bedroom house that sold at auction recently not far from us for $895 000. I didn't look at it so I don't know what condition it was in, but said we had an expectation of over $900 000 - given the cheapest house on the street in the last 12 months sold for $930 000. We are a long way apart - he said he wasn't prepared to pay that much - but I said that what he was offering didn't even come close.
He was going to think about it - we're preparing for another open house... a few email enquiries this week. Hoping putting a price rather than "offers over $890 000 brings people out of the woodwork. But it's a waiting game.... We've had 75 people through.... so there's clearly interest. We just need someone to fall in love with it like we did. In the meantime - I'm making the most out of enjoying the house - because I really do like it here!
We're at 1943 page hits so at this stage (276 more than last week) so we should hope for 6+ more couples/groups on Saturday.
We'll see!
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