What an amazing couple of weeks. We have sold our second property this month within days of listing them within our Realtor Stef Lukas. The first one we listed with Stef on the 11th of this month, he had his first Open House on Saturday and a Realtor showed up about half an hour early with a client. We had an offer back within the first hour of the Open House!
By 5:00 that day we had negotiated back and forth a bit and finalized the sale, for only $2,000 less than we listed it for! The other bonus was posession would be in only six weeks which was perfect for us.
The second property we listed yesterday with Stef and intentionally set the price about $5,000 less than it should have started at, just to create interest in the property. Well we signed at 11:00 in the morning, the first Realtor went through around 2:00 and we had an offer for me to review by 7:30. After about twenty minutes of negotiating, another property sold, this one for $1,900 less than list price, but possession only four weeks away!
We still have a couple more properties to sell off and they might be a bit harder as one is a high end property which means a much smaller market for buyers and the other is in need of renovations, but we simply don’t have the time or the crews to get the work done right now. Know anyone looking for a handyman special? They will take a bit longer, but we understand why.
If it looks like we are bailing on the market don’t worry, we are just cleaning up some underperforming rentals right now and we will be clearing up debt with the profits. Once that is taken care of we will use the remainder to see if we can add two or three new properties to our portfolio that fit our systems better.
In reflection, why did our properties sell so quick when the average days on the market is still increasing from the current 32 days? One technique we used on the first property was hiring stagers to set up the property. Dena and Corrine of Simply Chic did a great job of making the property look fantastic and made a great impression on the few people who were able to see it. I highly recommend their services!
Both properties were just renovated with all new flooring, paint, fixtures and other updates. This made them look great to start with. We also priced the properties at the current market pricing, not at what they worth six months ago. This might be a key factor.
Many properties that are up for sale now, or have been put up for sale over the last several months are simply over priced. Especially with all the inventory available. Sometimes it is due to home owners requiring every penny out of their properties for the new home they bought or is being built. Sometimes it is do to home owner pride. They feel their home is better than the neighbours house that sold for a certain amount and it would damage their pride to sell it for less.
We are in an enviable position as we can remove the emotional aspect and take our profits and move on. The market is currently in a holding pattern, but with the still hot economy it will be a matter of time before we see another run up in prices. Although nothing like 2006, it should still be a good 10% or more for 2008. Since we buy property for the long term we just turn our profit into more properties and continue on our merry way.
