{"id":824,"date":"2013-12-17T23:42:30","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T03:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/?p=824"},"modified":"2013-12-17T23:43:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T03:43:03","slug":"lessons-learned-in-selling-our-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/?p=824","title":{"rendered":"Seven Lessons Learned in Selling Our House"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a long time since I updated this site but it has also been 10 fast paced months. \u00a0In March we quickly placed our house in Georgia under contract. \u00a0It was a breeze to show the house (although it was a busy time) and it did not take much to get a contract. \u00a0Many people made offers on the house and most wanted to bid low and work their way up expecting us to give in at any moment. \u00a0Well, we held out for a strong near asking price and closed things out in April. \u00a0Here is what we learned<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0You should keep your house in good condition<\/em><\/strong> so that it won’t take long to prepare to sell. \u00a0Our house was like a showcase house and all the potential buyers were impressed. \u00a0Buyers commented that they had seen many homes that were poorly kept and really turned them off.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0You CAN sell the house yourself<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0A great house WILL attract lots of buyers AND realtors with their customers. \u00a0If you know what is involved in preparing a contract, and it is not really a lot of work, you can sell a house like you sell a car. \u00a0You simply need to know what you will negotiate, have your disclosures in order and available, make copies of utility bills available, and have a flyer about the house handy. \u00a0Then work with your listing people or lawyer to get the contract signed. \u00a0I am probably missing a few things but my point is that selling is simple.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Make sure buyers are really buyers<\/strong><\/em> and not just lookers. \u00a0You don’t need to waste your time. \u00a0It is your house so don’t let just anyone look at it but make sure they have a bank letter saying they qualify as a buyer.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Protect your valuables<\/strong><\/em> when showing your home. \u00a0You don’t have to let buyers out of your sight as they tour your home. \u00a0We had no problem with this but you should be away of potential problems. \u00a0Even those touring your home with a realtor could take small items.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Be prepared to point out issues<\/strong><\/em> you have had with your home or that currently exist. \u00a0People appreciate honesty and inspectors will discover problems\u2026at least they should! \u00a0Some of those issues will be selling points such as a new roof, new heaters, or repairs that lead to upgrades.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Don’t trust buyer realtors are being open and honest with you. \u00a0Buyer representatives are not there to help you or protect you in the sale<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0I had a few who were rather deceptive and even got upset when I would not respond to their ‘low ball’ offers. \u00a0There is nothing that says you have to respond to offers that realtors know are not in the price range. \u00a0A good buyer representative\/realtor will work well with you and you will know it.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Be prepared to move quicker than you think you might need to move. \u00a0Buyers want in soon<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0They often have time constraints on their rental agreements. \u00a0The biggest problem we had was arranging the moving company while making sure the closing happened as planned.<\/p>\n

\"Easy<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a long time since I updated this site but it has also been 10 fast paced months. \u00a0In March we quickly placed our house in Georgia under contract. \u00a0It was a breeze to show the house (although it was a busy time) and it did not take much to get a contract. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marklydecker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}