Our house, that I mentioned in the previous post, looks like it will sell, and sell pretty quick.  We had the house on the market for 5 days and got our first offer.  Last night, we had a couple come and look at the house for the first time and make us an offer.  So, we have had 2 offers on the house in a week’s time.  We should be signing a contract today one way or the other.  After a year and a half, we will be walking away from this house with a nice profit, receiving pretty close to our asking price.

There have been a few things that I have learned about real estate through this process that I would like to share.  Our home is in a starter neighborhood, where a lot of people by their first home.  That being said, there are always people moving in and out of the neighborhood.  At last count, 3 days ago, there were 13 houses (out of about 150) in our ‘hood for sale.  The house next door to us has been on the market for about a month and a half; others, even longer.

Why did our house sell so quickly?  I have a few thoughts.

1. My wife ROCKS!  She is awesome at negotiating, showing the house, and basically selling it.  She was our real estate agent in a sense (she is actually a second grade teacher) and was in control of the entire situation from the beginning.  I was just there to be ”eye candy.”
2. New Paint.  Sounds simple enough.  In the year and half that we had the house, we painted all but 2 rooms in the house.  Both bathrooms got new paint, as well as the kitchen, all 3 bedrooms, and our tiny hall.  New paint just makes the interior of the house pop and gives it a “like new” look and feel.
3. Cleanliness.  There wasn’t a person that walked through our house that didn’t say something about how clean our house was.  We had several people compare our house to others in the neighborhood they had been in and commented how much cleaner ours looked.  Clutter in your house can be a huge deterant to someone being able to mentally place their things in your house.
4. Accuentuate the positives.  If you house if special in some ways, make sure to point those out.
5. Curb appeal.  Probably the most important aspect.  If you can’t get people in the door, then they can’t be persuaded to  buy the house.  Making sure your house is appealing from the road, will go along way in getting it sold.  The more traffic you have, the more potential buyers you have.  So get out the lawn mowers and weed eaters and get the yard looking good, if nothing else.

I, of course, am not a realtor nor do I have much experience in selling and buying real estate.  This was our first house and we did pretty well financially on it.  We put in a lot of hard work and did updates to most of the house which helped the overall process.  In the end, it was a great experience and it kind of makes me said to leave the house.  But, there are other things calling us.  The bright lights of the big city are waiting and we are getting ready to make our way there.

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