Hi!
Very busy weekend with viewings and 2 viewing requests from buyers agents- these were all just from people seeing our sign and/or Zillow FSBO posting(posted on Zillow 8 days ago and sign up on Wednesday). 4 viewings-one was a buyers agent who actually came and looked at the house in Feb' with a view to working as our sellers agent, made mostly negative noises and said he would get back to us whe he'd looked at the comps and never did!.
Listed on MLS on Saturday (we went with the cheapest $99 flat fee) and we had 3 calls from CSS yesterday with requests or viewings.
Yesterday we accepted an offer at 98% of the asking price.
Realize of course that we're in the early stages still and have appraisal and inspection still to come.
The flat fee agency were very good. Sent all the paperwork or the MLS listing- (online form submission)- I emailed photos, paid the fee via Paypal and then they sent all the legal documents we needed.
They got the house on the MLS within 24 hrs, sent us a copy and made 2 minor changes within 24 hrs even though it was the weekend. They responded to all emails very promptly and efficiently.
Once we had the legal docs and read through them the process made more sense, plus I asked some questions on a real estate forum (not here) and got some v. helpful answers.
Next step is to go to attorney and get escrow etc.
Things that probably helped to get so much interest and a quick offer.
The price and the unique selling points of the house ie non-waterfront but with lakefront land and dock across the street (good water) large lot, the location. However it's a difficult house to comp because of the unique set up and features below. Asking price was $185 per sq ft. Waterfront home of similar age/size on the street sold for $280 per sq ft in April. No other non-waterfront homes on the street have been sold since early 2012. A REA suggested $295k in March- but since then we've redone the Master bath/new paint and new HWH.
The new Master bath/HWH/ light fittings and paint (interior and exterior)
De-cluttering- not very difficult for us-I'm not a hoarder and even though we have an 18 year son I don't tolerate mess and disorder!
PHOTOS- I think I took about 100 photos to get the 16 for the listing. I have a compact camera, but it does have a decent Leica wide angle lens. I used pixlr.com (free online) to edit the contrast,color saturation,exposure etc and pixresizer (free download) to resize them to 600x480 for the MLS lsiting.
Neutral paint throughout but with consistent small accents of color throughout- eg in pictures, cushions, bedding etc
Originally the exterior of the house was dark brown with no accent colors ANYWHERE. We had previously painted it a green gray color. There's a large (16' x 14") storage building with a catslide roof between the house and the street. We don't mind it as it gives more privacy on the deck and front yard and doesn't block the lake view anywhere, plus it's invaluable as we don't have a garage. We added window boxes, painted the door/window frames the same color as those on the house (black and light taupe). So instead of trying to minimize it's appearance we "beautified" it and made it look like a smaller replica of the house.
With the strong exterior contrasting accent colors the windows look bigger and the house looks less ranchy and 198Os.
Lack of heavy, dark, traditional furniture and drapes- house is only 1800sqt and could be described as a ranch (built in 1980s), BUT we didn't- described it as a bungalow. It has too many non-ranch/80s features such as some antique doors, stained glass windows and loft areas accessed by old oak library ladders.
Good lighting!
New mulch everywhere- we got that when we had tree work (only 2 out of about 250 taken down, but lots limbed up and trimmed back) 4 weeks ago and spread it ourselves.
The yard has some lovely shrubs, grasses, succulents, ground cover etc. We had taken out a lot of (all!) the box and some other evergreen things that smelt like cats pee that were around the house and blocking the view of the yard at the top of the drive. The yard felt too " heavy" with all the evergreens and very few summer flowering plants.
Having said this it's not a manicured yard at all. Woodland paths lined with pine logs etc and the gravel drive is lined with old red bricks. Guess it has a "cottage" feel. Also have a veggie garden and compost heap.
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)just want someone to talk to!
