Testing My Real Estate Theory - A Successful Open House

As I posted earlier, I was going away with my family for the weekend.  That way we would be out of everyone's way and we wouldn't need to worry about keeping our Boston North West house tidy in between appointments.  Telling 2-year-olds to keep the house neat and tidy for potential buyers just doesn't seem to work well.  We were off and the showings took off.  To remind you all of , we wanted to sell our Boston area home the first weekend to save our sanity from having the two small kids, a husband who travels and my spring real estate market right around the corner.  On our way up to Mike's parents house, we got the call that our first offer came in.  We told the agent that we would be reviewing all offers Sunday at 6pm.  We did this because of the amount of interest our house was getting.  There were several agents that had interested buyers.  

That Saturday, we had over 10 appointments and, for the open house on Sunday (which was not advertised in the newspaper, only online), we had over 25 groups of people through our Boston home.  Sunday night, Mike and I sat down, reviewed our options and ended up taking the first offer that came in on Saturday.  The reason for accepting this offer was simple...it was very close to the price we wanted, they were flexible with a close date, but most importantly, they waived their home inspection clause.  We were very happy with the offer and, more importantly, I proved that my real estate theory is solid.  If you price your home aggressively, not too high to leave room for negotiations, you stage the home to perfection and you have a desirable location, your house will sell quickly and for a solid price.  What does the rest of the transaction look like?

We were supposed to sign the P&S the following Monday, but neither party thought there was any need to wait.  Within five days of the offer, the P&S was signed and the appraiser had already been to the home.  Now it is our turn to search for our next Boston area.  It was rather easy since we started this process with our eyes set on a particular property.  It was a home that had more space in a wonderful neighborhood, only two miles from our current home.  We started in with negotiations and instantly thought this wasn't going to be as easy as selling our home.  The standard 24+ hours to have a response came and went without a word from the Seller.  Another day came and went.  This went on for four days.  Then the Seller accepted our offer.  Our offer was very competitive.  We are putting down over 20%, we have our Boston house secured with the P&S and, lastly, we have a closing date out 2 months, giving her plenty of time to find her next home.  The drama continues...

Read my other posts in the "Testing My Real Estate Theory" series:






Testing My Real Estate Theory - Brokers Open