On Wednesday this week I listed a house at 1632 Ashbury Place in Eagan (Ashbury Place Blog Entry). On Thursday we had 3 showings. Last night I presented 3 very nice offers to my client and they accepted a very solid offer above the asking price! Needless to say, they are thrilled with the offer and how fast it happened.
Lessons Learned -
- Staging Matters – Our team hires a staging consultant at our expense to come in and advise our clients on how to stage their home for the quickest sale.
- Professional Photography Matters – The photographer did a fantastic job of showing off the special characteristics of the home. One of the biggest draws for this house is the pond in back. As you can see in the pictures below, not only did the pictures capture each room but did a great job of showing the pond through the windows.
- A Pre-Inspection Can Help – The seller hired an inspector to review their home prior to listing to identify problems ahead of time that they should deal with. This allowed them to proactively address issues ahead of any showings so that the house looked its very best. A number of the issues were small cosmetic changes that were easily done by the homeowner at little expense but could easily have been noticed at a showing.
- Cooperative Sellers Matter – I believe that this is the #1 reason they got a fantastic offer. The sellers took the advice of their Realtor, staging consultant & inspector to get their house into amazing showing condition. They worked hard, even taking a week off before going on the market to clean and touch up. This resulted directly in successfully showing an incredible move in ready home and more money in their pockets.
- The Market Lacks Quality Homes – Finally, the Twin Cities market actually has a lack of high quality, move-in ready homes in the lower price points. The inventory of homes has been steadily declining to a point that there’s actually an opportunity to sell for people that have homes that show well. In talking to the buyer’s Realtors (and a few others that didn’t offer) there are lots of multi-bid situations for the few nice homes going on the market.
Yes, the Twin Cities market is down from its peak, but for those sellers that want to sell it may actually be a good time to get out there and get a feel for the market.
