2014  HIKING, CYCLING,

& RV TRAVEL ADVENTURES

 

   
 
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   SELLING OUR HOUSE, p. 4: LISTING, ACCEPTING 
AN OFFER, & ACTIVITIES PRIOR TO CLOSING

THURSDAY, JUNE 26

 
"In the Internet Age, say good-bye to personal privacy when selling your house."   
~ Sue
 
 

Or as one of my nieces observed when selling her last house, I felt very "exposed."

Selling a house in 2014 is much different than it was the previous eight times I sold a house. The internet is good for home sellers in that potential buyers can see what the interior of your house looks like through virtual tours, before actually coming inside:


Professional photo of our open-concept living area  (Graphic Dimensions, Inc.)

The downside is that . . . the whole world can see online what the interior of your home looks like, and can find a lot more personal information about you on the internet.

So why am I putting all these photos of our house in this four-page series?? May as well. They're already out there in cyber-land and they help to illustrate my points.

LISTING THE HOUSE FOR SALE

Our original tentative date to list the house was in mid-April.

However, we waited until the last week of April to start the listing because spring was late in the Roanoke Valley this year. We wanted some leaves to be out and the azaleas, dogwoods, and other spring flowers to be in bloom when the professional photos would be taken.


Photo I took one spring of the pink dogwood in our front yard (old roof shown in picture)

Not only would the property show nicer then in the exterior photos potential buyers would see online, it also gave us an extra week to finish up all of our projects.

SOME CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING OUR SELLING AGENT

Jim and I have each been through selling a house enough times before to know that it's no picnic.

First, we had to chose the "right" agent, which can be an arduous process. Jim and I didn't even consider going the FSBO route. Although I once sold a house with land in north Georgia without an agent, all the other sales transactions we've each been through (endured!) utilized professional real estate agents. To us, a good real estate agent is well worth his or her commission.

We researched criteria of successful agents and decided mutually on our priorities. It was important that we felt comfortable with the person we hired and that we felt (s)he had a successful marketing plan for our particular property.

It can be more difficult to sell country property with land than a suburban or urban house with a small yard. There are fewer buyers who want land or to be farther out from town. For several reasons we chose an experienced agent familiar with property near the lake rather than one from in town.


A spectacular sunset from our back yard; our agent incorporated some of my outdoor pictures
from different seasons into the online slideshow (I take better scenic than interior photos).

Since most buyers do their initial shopping for a new residence online now, it was extremely important to us that the agent we chose would put professional pictures of our house on a wide variety of  websites -- not just industry giants like Zillow and Trulia, but also more regional and more specialized ones featuring homes on land.

We wanted to reach as many of our targeted buyers as possible.

The first impression is the only impression people would get of our house. If they weren't impressed with the photos they saw online, they'd immediately dismiss our house as a contender.

Some agents think the photos they take of their listings are good enough. It obviously saves them money. In most cases, we don't think agents' interior photos look as good as what the pros do. Nor do mine. You can see in this four-page series that the professional interior photos marked as taken by GDI are a thousand times better than the ones I took.

Here's an example:


My photo of the family room = crummy-looking even after tweaking it in PhotoShop   (4-21-14)


Professional photo taken by GDI a few days later = much, much better!

The agent we chose used a professional service (Graphic Dimensions, Inc., or GDI) whose photos and slideshows -- virtual tours -- we really liked on our agent's and other agents' websites.

We highly recommend this company. Their online home tour literally sold our house.

GDI also provided floor plans with the photos online, which is a handy feature. Buyers can see the layout and sizes of the rooms of houses and decide if they want to see them in person. We didn't have a floor plan of our house to show buyers after the previous owners added the great room, deck, and screened porch so this feature was extra-important to help sell our house.

It was fun to watch the GDI photographer use his electronic gizmo to quickly but accurately scan the rooms in our house. This is his rendering of the main floor. There was also a floor plan for the lower level:

Our buyers told us they were impressed with the photos of our house and that's why they called an agent to see it. Many buyers reject houses they might like simply because the photos don't do it justice, so we were very glad we went with our gut feeling about professional photos.

PRICING DILEMMA

We narrowed down the original list of seven agents to three and re-interviewed them.

The second time they came out to the house we showed them what we'd done since they were there six to eight weeks earlier. We asked if they had any additional recommendations, listened to their detailed marketing plans, and reviewed the most recent comps they provided. All three agents were in the same listing price range.


One of three types of peonies in the perennial bed along the driveway; they bloom in May.

We had an easier time choosing an agent than choosing a list price. Rural or unusual property is always more difficult to compare than similar houses in a subdivision or city neighborhood. Every time we've gotten comps the last six years, the numbers recommended for our property have been all over the board. At our price point that's not only frustrating, it seems ridiculous -- but there are valid reasons for the variances.

This time wasn't much different. There are just too many variables (size and age of the houses, types and amounts of acreage, distance from town, etc.) and because of the housing crash and time of year, there are not very many comps in the last three to six months.

List prices are more of a moving target than usual at this time and in this rural market.


We weren't there long enough this summer, either, for the peaches to get this big.
I took this picture in 2008, the only time in ten years we spent the entire summer at the house.

We chose a listing price at the low end of the range recommended by the three agents we last interviewed, not because we wanted to spark a bidding war but because we wanted as quick of a sale as possible.

We hoped we wouldn't have to go much lower. It's still more of a buyers' than sellers' market in our area so we assumed buyers would want a "deal" and maybe some closing costs. Jim and I never did have to figure out a rock-bottom offer that we would accept -- we didn't need to.

Fortunately, we got an acceptable offer in only ten days, faster than we thought possible. We didn't make a killing but we didn't feel like we gave the place away, either.

It was a win-win for both the buyers and us.

LIFE IS AN OPEN BOOK WHEN YOU'RE SELLING A HOUSE

There aren't many secrets left in this day and age. Buyers and other curious people can find out an amazing amount of personal information from the internet when you list a house to sell.

I grew up in a family that didn't discuss prices of houses, vehicles, and other big-ticket items except with our spouse. I've never known what my parents or siblings or cousins -- let alone neighbors and friends -- paid for a house or sold it for. It wasn't my business.

We just didn't talk about those things. Neither did Jim's family, in most cases.

We still don't, but it's pretty easy to find out the information online now! Want to know what someone paid for their house? how much they sold it for? what their property taxes are? what it looks like inside, if they listed or sold it recently?

Just plug in their address on Zillow or other similar websites. Those numbers, pictures, and other information pop up in a matter of seconds. (If the information on your own house isn't accurate, good luck correcting it!)


The Roanoke River flows for several miles through Explore Park.  (5-27-14)

Sellers are exposed in a different way when potential buyers come to see their houses.

Even though most buyers now do their home searches online, they still usually want to tour the houses in person that interest them. Whether you sell a house yourself (FSBO) or with an agent, you've got to keep the place clean and looking its best at a moment's notice. That includes things in closets and cupboards, because potential buyers will look into them.

We don't have kids to mess up the house but we were living in it with two dogs while it was on the market so keeping it clean and orderly 24/7 before we had a contract was very stressful. We had our "last-minute" routine prepping the place for a showing down to about 15 minutes.

We thought it was best to make ourselves -- and the dogs -- scarce when the house was being shown by an agent. In this and previous sales the thought always occurred to me, "I wonder if they're looking in our dresser drawers??" Before listing it's best to remove most personal items like family photos or religious/political objects but if you're still occupying the house, you can't remove all of your personal items.

Selling a house has been stressful to me in almost all of my previous transactions. For various reasons this was one of the worst for us. It seemed like all the work and the various decisions we had to make just never ended. We also worry about more things the older we get.

MORE PATIENCE REQUIRED

We were excited when the listing information, photos, and virtual tour hit the internet on a Friday. We just knew someone would want to come see our house that weekend.

Not. We feared déja vu all over again, like only three showings in two months last summer. Fortunately, we got an offer just ten days after the listing was made public.

Our first -- and only -- showing was the day before that, a Saturday. We left with the dogs before they arrived. A couple, her parents, and their agent were at the house for two hours, which made us very hopeful we'd get an offer. They went out to walk through the woods twice while they were there. 

The couple wanted to see the house again on Sunday and asked that we be there so they could ask us some questions. They seemed very, very interested in the property. Later that day they made an offer. There were two counter-offers before we all agreed on the terms. We didn't even consider waiting for a bidding war that might never occur. We just wanted out.

Having a solid-sounding contract didn't entirely reduce our stress levels but it did remove the pressure of keeping the house show-ready every day. That was a relief and allowed us to focus on other things we needed to do.


Cody enjoys a swim in the Roanoke River at Explore Park.  (5-27-14)

Our new concerns were disposing of the remaining possessions we didn't want to keep, storing the things we did want to keep, and dealing with potential problems that could crop up before the closing.

We had to wait almost two months for the buyers' VA loan to be approved. Would the property appraise at or above the sale price? What if either the husband or wife lost their job before the loan was approved? Would the home inspector find something expensive that the buyers would want us to fix? Would termites or radon be discovered?

Not to worry -- but we did, of course.

The appraisal came out higher than the sales price, which was good news. No radon or termites were found. The home inspector did find a few things he thought needed to be brought up to code but those were relatively inexpensive and the buyer didn't ask us to do all of them.

And thankfully the buyers did qualify for their loan. It just took the VA forever and a day to finalize everything.

OTHER ACTIVITIES WHILE IN THE ROANOKE AREA.

We've been so busy with the house and household goods the last four months that we haven't been as active physically as usual.

Jim did get out for some good bike rides on the Roanoke River Greenway and other locations.

I walked the dogs several miles every day. If I didn't have time to take them to Explore Park, Chestnut Ridge, the Wolf Creek Greenway, or nearby mountain trails I'd at least take them on several loops of our own woods. I also rode my cyclocross bike on the river greenway several times.


Cody and Casey get some water in a pretty little creek at Explore Park.   (5-23-14)

We look forward to increasing our cycling and hiking miles this summer, now that we don't have a house and yard to keep us busy any more.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

We brought the camper back to the house about a week before closing so we could clean it, do some maintenance, and pack it for our new full-time travel lifestyle.

We emptied the remaining items from the house yesterday and cleaned it thoroughly before the buyers came over to do their final walk-through.


You can see why I sometimes called our house a "tree house."  (6-25-14)

We hadn't seen the house completely empty since we bought it. The large open living area with hardwood floors echoed with no upholstered furniture or area rugs in them any more. Even the carpeted bedrooms echoed.

Since the house -- and refrigerator -- were completely empty last night we ate supper and slept overnight in our camper down in the driveway:

We joked that it was one of our better campsites because it was quiet and private, we had a forest to walk in, we were plugged into the house's electricity and water supply, and we had use of the indoor potties and laundry facilities.

We had no problem leaving this morning with big smiles on our faces. We signed our closing paperwork several days ago. Since everything seemed to be going well regarding the buyers' closing we didn't hang around until they signed all their papers. About noon the closing attorney's office called to tell us the closing was over and the deed would be recorded in about an hour.

Good thing, because by then we were almost in Washington, DC. Our proceeds will be wired to our bank tomorrow. Yay!!!

HOME = OUR RV, WHEREVER IT'S PARKED

The FamCamp at Andrews Air Force Base in metro Washington, DC is our first destination in this summer's trip. Here's our campsite for the next couple of weeks:


(I'll explain the Odyssey van in the next entry.)

But I can't call where we go a "summer trip" and a "winter trip" now, can I? This is our lifestyle, not just a trip anymore.

For six or seven years I've been saying, "Home is where our camper is."

Now we can add, "We aren't homeless, just house-free."

Next entry camping at Andrews AFB, beginning to explore the Washington, DC area, and our tentative travel plans for the summer and fall

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup

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© 2014 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil

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