Need advice, please: first time seller here (Houston, El Paso: hardwood floors, sale)

[carryyourbooks]

soon, i will become a first time home seller. i am seeking advice from others who have sold their homes.

what obstacles did you face?

how did you handle the home inspection correction phase?

how far did you have to negotiate from your original asking price?

any and all advice is much appreciated!

[deckhanddavy]

From recently selling my condo:

soon, i will become a first time home seller. i am seeking advice from others who have sold their homes.

what obstacles did you face? Insulting offers and demands. Potential buyers you will think are just plain crazy...in the end, don't let your emotions take over. It's just business.

how did you handle the home inspection correction phase? I fixed most of the small things myself. Everything else that was big money was settled as a deduction to the sell costs.

how far did you have to negotiate from your original asking price? We dropped the selling price from 130k down to 116k. Their initial bid was 105k. So, we met in the middle. The upside to this was that they were 100% cash buyers. No closing costs, no fees. Plus we closed in 2 weeks. If we were dealing with a financed buyer, so many issues could have come up, such as failed financing, moving delays, re-negotiations, etc.

[carryyourbooks]

Originally Posted by deckhanddavy

From recently selling my condo:

soon, i will become a first time home seller. i am seeking advice from others who have sold their homes.

what obstacles did you face? Insulting offers and demands. Potential buyers you will think are just plain crazy...in the end, don't let your emotions take over. It's just business.

how did you handle the home inspection correction phase? I fixed most of the small things myself. Everything else that was big money was settled as a deduction to the sell costs.

how far did you have to negotiate from your original asking price? We dropped the selling price from 130k down to 116k. Their initial bid was 105k. So, we met in the middle. The upside to this was that they were 100% cash buyers. No closing costs, no fees. Plus we closed in 2 weeks. If we were dealing with a financed buyer, so many issues could have come up, such as failed financing, moving delays, re-negotiations, etc.

which market were you in?

[deckhanddavy]

Deerwood Gardens - 77063. Just south of Piney Point Village.

[jtothemak]

It just all depends what neighborhood you live in and what upgrades you have in your home. For example I have a family member that sold her home for full asking but the house was decorated and staged perfectly. Granite, Stainless Appliances, and wide planked rich hardwoods. The same floorplan in the same neighborhood without the upgrades sat on the market for over 6 months and listed for 30k less in the 150k range.

Have a Realtor pull comps for your neighborhood, look on HAR to see what homes are going for and most importantly be realistic. Curb appeal is the biggest selling factor for both the outside and inside your home.

[Houston_2010]

Originally Posted by carryyourbooks

soon, i will become a first time home seller. i am seeking advice from others who have sold their homes.

what obstacles did you face?

how did you handle the home inspection correction phase?

how far did you have to negotiate from your original asking price?

any and all advice is much appreciated!

Try to look at your house with buyer's eyes. Do you have a realtor that will be listing the house? they may help.

We sold an older home in Bellaire in 2011 with lots of remodeling. Our biggest challenge was that people were looking at the house as an older home and comparing prices to "tear downs." Also the house didn't have a garage and was near I-610 so even though you don't really hear much noise that would bring lower offers than expected.

We look at many things about the house that we knew would come up during inspection, open houses, etc. We painted all the walls, re-finished hardwood floors and changed kitchen cabinets which were old and dated. The house was listed "as is" but even still, we were prepared to provide allowance or fix things if it would be something that would be a deal breaker.

The buyers ended up being people much like we were at the time we bought the property. They wanted to move in within 30 days b/c they were selling their old place themselves. They didn't request any fixing or allowances for repairs. I think it was because the buyer realtor for their own home was a real pain and didn't want to deal with more negotiations. The buyers knew that they were moving into a older house and some things were good/excellent, some were not so good. It took us about 10 days to negotiate price, inspections and sign papers. Closing was done within 30 days.

I would recommend you get a real estate agent. They will coordinate taking professional pictures of your house, listing in HAR and promoting it with flyers, open houses, staging etc. Make sure your agent is someone that is always available day/night (don't get a part time agent). And someone that is ready to work on your behalf. First impressions are very important. Clear out your space as if it were a model home...clear surfaces, have less furniture if you can, and stage the house if you can. Having a real estate agent with interior decoration background is a plus! They can stage the house for you to make it inviting and highlight the best of your property.

The market is still tough but don't accept the first low offer that comes about. Market your area, schools, if you live in a quiet street, etc.

[modster]

One thing I would say is expect two rounds of negotiations. You will have the round when you sell, and then another round in inspections. So leave yourself a little bit of wiggle room at the initial round so you have at least some flexibility during the inspection/option period phase.

[piyf]

I've sold 2 homes since 2008. The first one I sold was the end of 2008 here in Dickinson. I got close to asking price and at the last minute (at closing no less) the buyer wanted 1200 for a new fence that was perfectly fine. Realtors split the cost with me. I fixed all the issues that came up during inspection. All of it was nit picky to be honest. They even put in the list to remove the piece of food in the garbage disposal and paint a few holes from tacks that were in the wall from pictures. Sold the home in less than 30 days.

2nd home was in El Paso and sold it for 5k more than I paid for it but had to come out of pocket for about 11k. Was in it less than a year and buyer wanted closing costs. Sold in less than 2 months and just wanted out since I moved back to Houston.


You should expect to pay most of buyers closing costs because they usually ask for it. If they don't consider yourself in the minority. Inspection is a crap shoot since we don't know the condition of the home or how well it was built. Expect the buyers to nit pick on everything and ask for it to be fixed or to cough up money at closing to have it fixed.



Obstacles: Use a Realtor and they will schedule the showings for you and do all the leg work. Keep the house perfectly clean and uncluttered. Make sure the garbage disposal is clean. When it's time to haggle over price don't budge to far if the house just came on the market.

[d2mini]

Just sold mine for 5% less than asking, which was right where we wanted to be because we knew it wouldn't appraise for much more. No fixes during inspection and no closing costs other than my title policy fee.
West of the 610 loop.
60-ish days when the offer came in.

It's worth the money to get an appraisal before listing. And have your realtor pull comparable comps.

[asonnier]

Make sure your home is staged well and it helps to have made some updates, esp. if its an older home. We bought our home in Pearland in 1998, sold it 12 years later after updating kitchen and bathrooms and floors. It showed very well and was priced right. We sold it in 17 days for asking price. We had very nice appliances and our $2500 frig was only 3 months old. We were thrilled! With our full price sale we were able to put down $90,000 on a new, bigger house.

Get a realtor, clean it up, stage it well and you should do okay.

As far as what inspection found; it was all minor and my husband fixed most everything. What he couldn't fix, we had someone else do for a total of less than $1000.

Good luck!