It’s raining its pouring…Forecast for The Woodlands TX…..A Hail Storm of Showings and Offers Predicted!
Hold On To Your HATs 2013 is going to be a wild ride!
Over the last few weeks, I have been busy meeting with sellers and helping them prepare their homes for market. We have worked diligently to get their homes in perfect showing condition!
Lights, Camera….Show Time!
We are definitely in a seller’s market but it still helps when a seller is willing to take the steps to ensure that their home will show the best that it possible can. By doing this, they are putting more money in their own pocket.
Take for instance a home I listed a little over than 48 hrs. ago. Now, this is not the normal situation and part of me is thankful for that but for my sellers, I am very pleased that this was their outcome. A few factors went into this particular situation but what it created was the “Perfect Storm” for my sellers and has them singing in the rain, of showings and offers of course!
Their home is located in a great neighborhood and the homes are generally well cared for. They do not come on the market often in a normal market and when they do they sell within a few days up to 1 month. This particular home was updated more than the others and was impeccably maintained. Everyone that entered agreed they could tell the owners loved their home and there was a sense of pride you could see from the owners loving it and caring for it. We carefully reviewed the comparable and the sellers wanted to list the home as high as they could. I cautioned them to keep in mind that the home would still have to appraise if the buyer was financing the home and that if you price it too high you could lose some potential some buyers. This is the age old adage we Realtors try to stress with our clients that over pricing has its disadvantage. They agreed. We knew we did have some room to work with and could still place the home on the market within a reasonable amount higher than the others that had sold, still allowing them to get top dollar for their home.
So, we listed the home slightly higher than any other in their neighborhood has been listed or sold for and what happened next was very interesting!
We immediately received phone calls, showings, and even one offer on the property sight unseen. I had a few Realtors ask me, is it really as nice as it sounds in the descriptions and pictures? The answer was yes but I like to think it was a combination of the preparation, marketing, and getting the word out about the property that we did before it hit the market helped drive attention to the home as well. I did have one Realtor ask me about the comparable that they thought we were too high....
Well….others disagreed. We received 5 offers on the property and had to tell a dozen others that there were no more showings and we were not accepting any more offers per the request by my very overwhelmed but excited sellers! We all know a hailstorm can be dangerous and we were trying to avoid any damage including being ungreatful for the offers we recieved and not wanting to end up with nothing!
Every offer we received was over list price and there were many different tactics. The price was not the only thing considered, the terms were also very important. They were lucky to receive cash offers as well as financed ones which was also turned out to be the highest offers, something we know does not always go together. They had to consider the cash offers heavily when it comes to an appraisal as we are in an escalating market and the comparable are lower from the previous months.
My clients are the sweetest couple and tried to be as fair as possible to everyone involved. They considered and listened to everyone who pleaded to why their offer should be chosen and it was definitely a hard decision. The offers were as high as 7-9% above asking price!
Inventory being very low especially in this price range also played a part in this story which is sounding more and more like a fairy tale for my clients but truth be told "Happy Ever After" does happen. I am glad it happened for this sweet couple who think of me more as a Fairy God Mother than Realtor. They are very happy and feel confident about the decision they made. The best part is, one of the terms of the excepted offer is they are allowed to stay in their home for a few months after closing at no cost to them, allowing them to find their next home without panicking! A beautiful and rare gift from the buyers in deed and definitely one that we do not see every day. Kudos to the agent on the other side who so creatively advised their clients and had the forethought to think outside the box to ensure their clients were the winning bid.
Even in a Seller's Market, my clients stuck to the basics, worked hard to prepare their home fore market, studied the comperable homes, and in the end they will recieve top dollar for their home and in the shortest amount of time possible.
If you or someone you know, is considering buying or selling a home in The Woodlands, TX I am here to help you navigate through the ever changing market.
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