This home looked great, but still needed extensive repairs: Retaining Wall needed rebuilt, windows needed replaced, concrete needed repoured, deck needed rebuilt, kitchen needed updated and appliances, master bath needed updated, some siding needed replaced, trees needed trimmed, walls needed painted and flooring needed redone, plus all the usual renovation items.
Every house has a story and this one starts with being built in 1985 and purchased by some deserving home owner. Along about 2010 or so, it looks like it’s down fall started with a foreclosure and it was bought and sold a couple of times until we ulitmatly purchased it for $70,000. Then a flurry of contractors, heavy equipment and checks later and we had it almost ready to list for $189,900.
We had anticipated it being completed and having an open house on February 10th a Saturday. So we placed the house in MLS so we could start promoting the open house and getting that out across the internet to all potential buyers as this was one awesome house. The day we put in MLS, it was still not quite ready to be shown, so we did not have it set up for Realtors to get in yet. A Realtor in the area saw it and sent her buyer over to take a “drive by”, he took it a step further, got out of the car and asked the contractor for a tour. He got the once through around all the tools and boxes that accompany that last 3 days of the rehab of a house. He loved it.
Open house day, the interior looked awesome, the back yard and deck were not complete and we had dirt everywhere outside from all the retaining wall repairs. But we marketed the open house well to the entire neighborhood and the buyer’s Realtor came over to see all these people walking through the house, it was packed by neighbors and 2 very interested buyers. She called her buyer to let him know that she thought the house would go fast and he agreed. With a listing price of $189,900 and everything all brand new, this beat the $220,000 to $260,000 houses in the area hands down. Note that the higher priced houses did have finished basements and or 3 car garages, so we were not that way under value, but while the others were lived in, ours looked brand new and right out of a magazine.
So on February 13th the buyer and the agent made us a full price offer if we will spend the money to purchase and install a fridge in the kitchen. We signed into contract on the 14th. We have had our ultimate buyers fall in love with our houses the first day they are available for showing, but never had our ultimate buyers fall in love with the house before it was finished.
We actually had the buyer stop by this week while we were working on finishing items on the renovation to see if he could see the house and to see this sun room the flyer talked about, it seems he had missed a few rooms on the walk through. Lucky for us, he still loves the house.
We had two appraisals, both that came in at $189,900 and it closed in 2 weeks. From start on December 14th to contract on February 14th and closing on March 8th or 9th, we will have bought and sold in less than 90 days.
We love it when a plan comes together.