How We Sold Our House in a Week - Part 2 (Pricing)

As we made our plans to sell the house, we ended up with two priorities: price the house right and make it look as stunning as possible.  I'll break that down and talk about pricing first.

I didn't depend on my realtor alone to price my home correctly.  I wanted to make sure the price was consistent with our strategy, so I did it myself.  I considered the money we were going to pay him as a marketing fee, since he would make sure the listing was put on the MLS and posted elsewhere, and would also do all the showings for us.

When deciding on the list price, we based it on the prices of sold properties close to our home that were very similar to our own, in size and condition.

I Used Sold Prices to Decrease Our Days On Market (DOM)

I knew I couldn't just look at homes that were for sale in my neighborhood and pick a similar price.  That doesn't tell me what the houses are worth - it tells me what homeowners are asking for.  The difference between what a seller is asking and what a buyer will pay usually correlates to how many days it will sit on the market. 


Looking at homes that have sold will tell you exactly what the market says the house is worth, and will cut down your days on market significantly.  You usually won't need to drop your price to compete with the market - you'll come out of the gates priced that way already.

Zillow.com is a great  free tool, and you could use that almost exclusively.  You can enter your home address and on the side bar can choose to look at similar homes for sale, or similar homes sold.  Look at homes SOLD.  We also used our county assessor's website, which happens to be one of the best in the country.

Finding Comparable Homes in Size & Condition

So I used Zillow, and found several properties in my neighborhood (within about a square mile) that had sold in the last year (more recent is more accurate).  I only looked at houses that were similar to mine in size: number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage and square footage.

Next, I looked at the condition of the homes on my list.  This is the trickiest to do, but also the most important.  Whether a house is old and ugly or modern and new makes a huge impact on the price, and therefore on the price of your house.  You want to price your house based on houses that were basically in the same condition as yours.

To find our comparables ("comps"), we picked the houses with conditions most like our own home.  Our home was remodeled, almost completely redone.  There were more than a few updates, but most of our updates were average and not high-end.  So I looked for houses that looked/sounded about like that. I looked at pictures and read descriptions that are part of each house's profile on Zillow.

Breaking it Down to Price Per Square Foot

Now we had our comps: houses recently sold, in our neighborhood, about the same size and in about the same condition as ours.  Next I figured out the price per square foot that each one sold for.  I took the sales price (e.g. $100,000), divided by the square footage (e.g. 1900 sqft), and got the answer (e.g. $52/sqft).  I did this for each house that we were using in our comps, and then came up with one average price per sq foot.  In our case, most homes that were about 3/2/2 and 1900 sqft and nearly completely remodeled with some new larger items (like roof and A/C) sold for about $76/sqft.

But we were conservative: we priced at $74/sqft.  We made sure that our price was about $5000 lower than any other home similar to ours that recently sold. I think this was the key to our pricing: make it just a little bit lower than other homes.

That's as accurate as we could manage, and it worked out well (when we discussed it with our realtor, he thought it was a good number, too).  Pricing it $5000 less than similar homes were selling for meant that it was a real deal, and we had a full price offer after one showing.  Even though we could have waited 3-6 months and gotten more, it would have been about even, since every month we had to pay our mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities, etc.  Not to mention all the time lost, waiting and having to keep the house immaculate.  We were so grateful that everything came together, and that our part in it all seemed to have worked.

I'll talk about what we did to get the house ready (and "look as stunning as possible" - our second priority), in the next post.

Cabinet Makeover - What Color?

Yesterday I bought this cabinet for $20 off of Craigslist.  I was looking for a cabinet that could double as a bench, but also allow for storage.  I wanted to put it against a wall in our new kitchen.

It looked pretty good in the picture, but it was kind of dirty and the finish turned out to be white (that was yellowing) laminate.

I got it home and took off all the laminate.  It took a couple of hours, the use of a hairdryer and the help of my husband.  But I was so grateful to find that it was made (in someone's shop, most likely) with good quality hardwood plywood.  There's a grain in the wood that shows through.

So what color should I paint it?  I was imagining putting on some short feet on the bottom, painting the whole thing, and adding new handles.  My default is always safe, so I was thinking white.  But I would like something a bit more fun, but also a bold color that won't show if it gets a bit dirty.

Here's a picture of the kitchen I'll be putting it in.  It'll go against that long wall there, but will have to share it with a small, child-sized pine armoire.  I also think I'll run two, white 4 ft floating shelves above the armoire and bench.

A dark vintage blue cabinet

 

A brighter blue, somewhere between baby blue and turquoise

A very bright Kelly Green cabinet

Ah, and here is the 47" tall pine armoire going in the kitchen, on the same wall.













Do you have a vote?  Or a different idea?

How We Sold Our House in a Week - Part 1

When you're a stay-at-home mom, your life might sometimes be lacking that feeling of a job well done.  By that I mean the job never ends (cleaning up toys, washing clothes, wiping spills, making food); but also that you usually won't see the real fruit of your labor for decades - not weeks, months or even years. 

This can be difficult, especially if you happen to be the type of creature, like me, who is doing all these things without much enjoyment of the tasks, but mostly out of a committed love for your children and husband.  That being the case, it's a wonderful thing when a stay-at-home mom like myself finds something else - an activity, skill, hobby, business - she happens to be good at, enjoys, and can actually stamp FINISHED! 

This is what I discovered when my husband and I decided to sell our house last year.  I found that I was good at doing that sort of thing, and loved (mostly) every minute of it.  We ended up selling our house in a week, even in a tough market, with a full-price offer.  I thought I'd share how we did that.

The very first thing I did was research like the dickens.

I've always liked the shows about anything real estate-related: flipping, renovating, finding, selling, landscaping, redecorating - doesn't matter, I love them.  So I already had some general knowledge (or at least familiarity) with some of what we needed to know.  I've also been involved in real estate investing since 2009, so that helped too.

But all that really wasn't enough to be informed.  I'm a big fan of the phrase "informed consent", and pretty much take it to heart in everything I do.  I want to know all about what I am doing and why, and take responsibility for the outcome.  This is a not-so-great philosophy in some areas, but works out really well when selling your house.  After getting my bearings with a humble "what to know when selling your house" Google search, here's what I eventually did to prepare:


Watched lots of episodes of Get It Sold, featuring Sabrina Soto. I liked the show, and appreciated the emphasis on real current market value for pricing, and the practical tips on staging it gave you.  Their formula seemed to work to get the homes sold (and jived with what I knew from investing), so we basically used this approach to selling our home: price it right, and make it look as close to perfect as we can.

Looked at tons of home staging principles, tips and pictures.  They're everywhere on the internet, and I gobbled them up, especially noting features and problems that were also in my house.  Take note of the tips you see most common (like de-cluttering, cleaning, etc.) and know that those are your priority.

Only used a realtor we found by way of referral from someone we personally know.  The realtor we used when we bought our house was also a friend, and the previous property manager of a house we rented.  He referred us to our selling realtor - they were acquaintances and both former Marines. 

Made sure the realtor posts high-quality pictures in their listings.  Something like 80% of home buyers look on the internet first.  They won't want to look at your home in person if the pictures they see are fuzzy, dark, have awkward angles, don't show full rooms, etc.  Your realtor should have a high-quality camera or hire a photographer - a regular ol' digital camera won't cut it.  We looked at our realtor's current listings and saw beautiful, inviting pictures with great lighting that highlighted all the best aspects of the house.  Here's a great blog of ugly house photos: how NOT to do it!

Next, I'll post about how we priced our house, and what we had to do to get it ready to sell.

Reality Checks

Then everything started coming up.  In that state of silence, there was room now for everything hateful, everything fearful, to run across my empty mind.  I felt like a junkie in detox, convulsing with the poison of what emerged.  I cried a lot.  I prayed a lot.  It was difficult and it was terrifying, but this much I knew - I never didn't want to be there, and I never wished that anyone were there with me.  I knew that I needed to do this and that I needed to do it alone.

This is like Advanced Counseling for Patients.  It's what happens after you start to unravel yourself a bit and understand that stillness and solitude must come and reveal the rest.  It's the entering into pain, after finally having someone introduce you to it, and tell you its name.

I don't talk much about what it's been like for me to go to counseling the last two years.  For many people, it's simply too embarrassing (or possibly shameful) to hear.  I'm also not entirely convinced it's useful to explain the complexities, depth and sheer intensity of emotions, memories, connections and insights; they're mine, after all. 

But I do wonder at what it is exactly that draws some of us into this particular stage of growth: why do we willingly enter into this suffering and pain and hellish torment of the soul, despite having descriptions like the ones above, to warn us?  What prompted me?

Well, it helps that I didn't understand exactly what I'd be getting into until it was too late to back out.  I came to Bruce, our counselor, because our marriage had finally come to an impasse: I wasn't moving and neither was he.  Thankfully (by God's merciful grace), this was simply too painful for either of us to bear. 

But what actually drew me into the Mystery that she describes above - that strange, voluntary hell as we go through the process of looking at ourselves, at Reality - was a promise I read in a book, given to a woman who was just like me, standing at her own crossroads and faced with a choice to walk down the path or not: "you will have a better life than you could ever imagine".

Well, it sounded like another promise that Jesus gave, about life and, really, abundant life.  Obviously: yes, please.  So down I went into the rabbit hole.  And this woman (who I will reluctantly admit is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love) describes it well in the quote above.

I'm becoming a Reformed Mystic, I suppose, and marveling at all the mysteries in this world, and also at the funny joke God plays on us by giving us hints of the divine but also giving us bread, and wine and pudding and roller coasters and beaches.  The Incarnate and the Transcendent, together.

2011 Wrap Up

This post is also found on my investing blog, Flipping Oklahoma, so it may be a duplicate if you read both!

The best thing that happened to us this year happens to be named Madelyn Ruth Payne, born on February 12. It was a complicated, intense and scary birth but that was the worst of it. She cooed, she slept, she smiled and we all adjusted much better than my fears and plans allowed.
Praise God!

She is 10 months old now and I have decided I was right, after all, in giving myself an entire year for an adjustment period. Not the standard 6 weeks or even 6 months. I gave myself 12 months before I would think of losing weight, of making plans, pursuing adventures, or have the house running smoothly. This is surely not necessary for everyone, but for me? with my third child? Yes, it was, and the grace has been life-giving.
Without even realizing what was happening, in the last eight weeks or so I found myself wanting to organize the laundry and meals and what-nots in the house, and talking to Aaron more often about our debt and goals and dreams and brainstorming ways to move forward. Just like that, my time of adjustment has ended all by itself, gradually and organically, without judgmental pressure or condemning “should haves”.

At the beginning of November, I was chatting with a friend of my husband’s family and discovered he and his partner overwhelmed with their real estate ventures. They had leads coming in but not enough time or a good enough plan or system to follow-up. I asked him if he’d ever considered having someone come in to help him coordinate his deals, to take over the tedious process of follow-ups, negotiations, comps, contracts and closings. They had, and in fact were looking for someone!

I emailed my friend, Shae, a veteran investor, asking if she thought there was an opportunity to partner up with or offer a sort of transaction coordination service to busy investors. She did!

Then, around Thanksgiving, I paid an outrageously cheap price to try my friend Shae’s Financial Freedom GPS. Aaron and I have read books and articles like it before, and are familiar with many of the principles in it. But we needed a new starting point, and boy did we find it. Although we were familiar with most of the budgeting concepts, Shae’s approach to getting out of debt and pursuing financial freedom were the first of their kind, as far as I know. The entire e-book has been intriguing, innovating and inspiring. Just the ticket!

We have a good plan, with aggressive and smart ways to earn quick cash to pay off debt and start focusing on the next stage of our plan: develop that passive income!

I’m hoping it works out to partner with these two investors, but if not, I already have a marketing plan to find other investors to work with in the area. We’ll see how quickly this can work, and where all the cards fall in the next few weeks.

Here’s to 2012!

Mama, Growing Up

I was pushing Maddi through Target the other day and a series of thoughts popped into my head as I realized that, by the time the third child comes...well, you've learned a thing or two. Maybe, like me, you might not realize it at first, but here are some examples for you:

-Don't dig yourself an early grave by saying "uh oh!" every time your baby drops something. You now know you will regret this later if you do, when that baby discovers her most favorite game.

-A baby toothbrush, or carrot or celery stick, is a better teether than anything you can buy labeled "Teether".

-Just let them slobber on anything and yes, pick it up and give it back to them.

As you push this third baby through the store, you might just find yourself wondering at it all. How did you make it this far? How did you finally learn to relax enough to really soak in some knowledge and even a bit of wisdom?

You think about the suffering you've gone through. With a pang of guilt, as images of third world countries flit across your mind, you think of your own long nights, nonstop crying, shrill screams, needs so numerous you couldn't possibly meet them all at once, and you realize that suffering is relative and of course, you've suffered. Quite a bit, actually.

You've learned what a failure you are, and realized that in the middle of that failure is the grace that you were working so hard to achieve in conquering motherhood. Your oldest child isn't accomplishing the academic goals you set out for, but he has seen your tears as you apologize, and you now feel that little eternal lesson is more signifiant than whether he can read yet.

You are able to forgive yourself - even if only a moment here, or a moment there - for being confused about yourself and your life, for even hating it sometimes. You realize most people are really like you, after all, and struggle to stay put in their mind.

And just like that, bit by painfully slow bit, you change. And wake up one day realizing that you have something to share, and the bulk of it isn't advice.

Autumn Veggie & Rice Soup On the Fly

Unlike my great friend, Kelly Rose, I am not comfortable cooking intuitively, or on the fly. But somehow, when I do, it ends up being my tastiest meals. I'd like to re-create this soup, though, so here's the recipe (since my recipe box and cards are still packed up!).

Autumn Veggie & Rice Soup

1. Saute one large red onion in 3T olive oil over medium heat.

2. Add 3 celery stalks, 4 carrots and 1 turnip, chopped into large chunks.

3. Add 1/2 yellow bell bepper, 1/2 green bell pepper, 4 med. yellow tomatoes, chopped.

4. Add 2 cups beef broth/gravy and 2-3 cups water. Season with salt, italian seasonings, dash of cayenne, garlic powder, and a splash of white wine vinegar.

5. Simmer 1-2 hours on low or low-medium heat.

6. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, some chopped frozen or fresh spinach, 1/4-1/2 cup peas and 1 1/2 cup cooked rice. Simmer at least 45 minutes or as long as you want.

Serve with fresh parmesan cheese and perhaps a bit more salt. Substitute freely with whatever is in your cupboard, freezer or refrigerator. :)