Young House Love

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How We Sold Our Second House By Owner

Holy cow, did we just sell our house?

(I’ll pause while Sherry flails around since that sentence is a trigger).

Now that we’re through the inspection & the appraisal (and the closing date is officially on the calendar), we’re finally at the point that we feel safe enough to shout it to the interwebs (we waited until this point to share the “we sold our house” news last time too). Of course nothing’s guaranteed until we’re all signing on the dotted line in early June, but so far, so good…

Selling Contract

First, some background: Sherry was set on selling our house FSBO (For Sale By Owner) again. She argued that we stood to save nearly ten grand – or even more – by not owing a Realtor the 6% commission. Even if we sold to a buyer with an agent (like we did last time) we’d only be out 3% instead of 6%… so the numbers were pretty compelling. But I still wasn’t so sure. I remembered the stress that we felt last time and was also curious to experience selling with an agent. We came to a compromise. We decided we’d try straight up FSBO for a week. If that didn’t work, we’d list it on MLS for a few hundred bucks ourselves (which is what got us a buyer last time) and if there still weren’t offers a few weeks later, we’d think about engaging a Realtor.

Now for the timeline details:

Friday, April 26: The Realtor who helped us buy our new house (Anne) checks in to see if our current house is on the market yet (she knew we were hoping to sell it sometime this spring). Turns out she has some buyers looking for a ranch and she thinks ours would be perfect. We tell her that we’ll be sharing the news/putting it on the market in four days. She says she’ll call us back if they want to see it then. This is a reenactment. And it makes Sherry cry laugh. 

Reenactment

Saturday & Sunday, April 27 & 28: We spend the weekend furiously getting last minute projects done, on the off chance that we get any quick interest (we’ll write up a whole post about what we did to “stage” our house for a showing soon).

Now here’s where the days become a bit more action-packed…

Monday, April 29

  • 2 pm: Anne the Realtor calls. Her buyers are very excited about seeing our house. She wants to bring them by the next day at 2pm. Yikes!
  • 2:30 pm: Come down from the high of our first scheduled showing to realize we haven’t made a flyer or decided on a sale price. Uhh…. better get on that.
  • 3 pm: Begin frantically cleaning the house. Since when did Clara have so many toys? And where would we be without storage ottomans?

Ottoman

  • 9:30 pm: After some scrambling and looking at comparable homes for sale, we pick a list price and throw together a flyer.
  • 12:30 am: Computer freezes while attempting to print flyer. File is lost. Too tired to recreate.

Tuesday, April 30

  • 7 am: Up early-ish to recreate flyer and proofread our post with the new house news.
  • 9 am: Flyer is printed. House still doesn’t look clean enough. More cleaning commences.
  • 10 am: Post is up and comments are rolling in faster than we can keep up with them, but the caulk around the tub is too grimy. Where’s the caulk gun?
  • 1:30 pm: House is looking presentable, but we’re a sweaty mess. Good thing Anne the Realtor will be doing the showing.

Dining Room Side

  • 1:45 pm: Anne arrives early (as planned) for us to show her some of the improvements since she last visited.
  • 1:55 pm: Buyers are early (not as planned) so we high-tail it out of there so they can look around without us hovering.
  • 2 pm: Since we have Burger with us as well as Clara, we kill time at a nearby dog-friendly walking mall. We have some fun browsing places like Banana Republic (where Clara and Burger try out the three way mirror) and Build-A-Bear (without actually building a bear, which is a parental coup if we’ve ever had one).

Banana Pic

  • 3 pm: It’s a full hour later – and Clara’s naptime – but we haven’t received a call from Anne that we’re clear to come home. We try giving her a ring but our call goes to voicemail.
  • 3:15 pm: Clara’s late for her nap and she’s getting tired of being at the mall. We assume Anne forgot to call us and drive home.
  • 3:30 pm: We turn onto our street to see Anne and the buyers just getting into their cars. Wow. An hour and a half at a first showing seems pretty good. Maybe they liked it!
  • 3:31 pm: Anne calls to say they really liked it and they were going to sleep on it, crunch some numbers, and get back to us.
  • 4 pm: We’re excited and relieved, but have tons of comments to catch up on. Plus, we’ve had a few other house-interest emails from locals. We’re a pretty even mix of grateful, tired, and nervous.
  • 8pm: We’ve sent out a few other flyers via email and have scheduled another showing for 11am the next morning. How did this house get so messy already? Oh yeah, our three year old…
  • Midnight: House is reasonably clean again. We crash for the day.

Wednesday, May 1

  • 5 am: Sherry can’t sleep thinking about all of the new house projects and potential buyer excitement. She begins drafting a Q&A post for you guys.
  • 5:30am: I get up to go to the gym before the girls wake up. Clearly I missed Sherry rolling out of bed already.
  • 7:30am: I’m back. Clara’s up. Time to get her fed and ready to go on an adventure with Grammy.
  • 10am: Post is up. Clara’s with Grammy. Counters need wiping down post-breakfast. House is ready for its second showing.
  • 11am: Potential buyers show up with their agent. Sherry, Burger, and I go for a walk (pretend this is a picture of Sherry, me, and Burger instead of a shot with Clara and no Sherry).

Walking Showing

  • 11:30am: Get a call from someone that we sent a flyer to last night while we’re out on our walk. They want to come see the house that afternoon. Woo hoo!
  • Noon: Second showing is done. Agent says they liked it a lot, and have to talk to their lender with some questions. I let the agent know there’s another interested buyer but that no offers have come in yet.
  • 2:30pm: Clara is back from Grammy’s and the third potential buyers show up. They don’t have an agent, so I show them around the house while the girls go walking with Burger. Sherry’s getting lots of exercise today!

Walking Again

  • 3pm: Third showing is done. They seem to like it, but don’t appear as interested as the other two families.
  • 3:30pm: Anne the Realtor calls. She’s sending us an offer from the first couple who walked through our house yesterday. It’s strong, but $5k below our asking price. “Thanks so much! We’ll get back to you soon!” is our response (while we sweat profusely).
  • 4pm: We think things through and discuss everything a few dozen times. I call the buyer’s agent from the morning showing just to let him know that we have an offer on the table. He asks me to hold tight, they’ll have one for us within a few hours. Whaaa?!!!
  • 7pm: Second offer comes in. It’s not as strong as the first. Bummer, but at least it helps make the decision clear. We call Anne back, tell her we have another offer, and ask if we can meet in the middle on the price ($3k above their offer, which is just $2k below our asking price).
  • 7:15pm: Anne calls to say that the buyers have agreed to the new price and she’ll be bringing over papers for us to sign in an hour!
  • 8:30pm: We sign about twenty papers with our minds spinning. Our house is officially under contract! And it’s less than 36 hours after our first showing. In our heads we’re doing a celebratory Elaine-from-Seinfeld dance, but in reality we’re too tired to move.

Now we just have a bunch of little things to check off of our list (a few inspection items, ordering a final termite inspection, and of course packing things up and getting moved into the new house). Should be a busy month!

Selling Making List

I can’t tell you how grateful and relieved we are at how quickly and smoothly this second FSBO process has been so far (just like last time we’ll pay 3% to the buyer’s agent, but we saved nearly 10K by marketing the house ourselves and acting as our own seller’s agent). We hear the market is really coming back and it’s a great time to sell, so for anyone wondering, many other homes in our area seem to be getting contracts within a week or even a few days of listing them assuming they’re priced right and show nicely. So hopefully that’s good news for everyone!

We assumed we might end up selling our house to a reader who came to us through the blog, but hilariously enough, just like when we sold our first house, our buyer isn’t a blog reader and didn’t find out about our house because of our site at all. It was just coincidence (serendipity?) that we kept our Realtor in the loop and she happened to have a buyer looking for an updated one-level ranch like ours. So it might also be nice to hear that you definitely don’t need a blog to sell your house, although I’m sure the updates that we did certainly helped us sell it.

Kitchen Corner

So far this experience feels like a stark contrast to our first time selling a home back in 2010. That took us 14 showings over more than 3 weeks, and a variety of promotional attempts (craigslist, forsalebyowner.com, MLS, a sign out front, etc). It was stressful, but even then we were grateful that it didn’t drag on for months. So we certainly are counting our lucky stars for the speed at which things happened with this house! As of right now we’re planning to move to our new house in around three weeks. Holy cow, we better start packing!

Comments

  1. Sally G. says

    Congrats guys! Also – thank you so much for sharing so much of the home-buying process with us!

    My hubs and I have decided that we’re going to start house-shopping and we’re looking to buy in late Fall, so I’m scrambling to figure out good neighborhoods, price ranges, etc. As I hear, the DC market is really starting to pick up again too, so I’m hoping we can squeeze in before prices get too high :-)

    http://barksandbaking.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/house-hunting/

    Reply

  2. Hanna says

    CONGRATS!!!!!

    I hope you guys have a summer vacation planned after all this activity over the fall/winter/spring. I am exhausted just thinking about it! But I am sooo excited to see all the Petersiks and all the Petersiks’ stuff in the new place. Bring on the lists!!!

    /many hugs from our family to yours

    Reply

  3. Nikki says

    Is it going to be tough to wait three more weeks to move into the new place? Are you doing that just in case the sale falls through? I would say after your last contingency lapses you’re pretty good to go (barring a job loss of one of the purchasers or something really major). Congrats!!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We would move sooner but we have things we have to do over there before we move in (the upstairs carpeting has to be ripped out, we’d love to spray some of the trim white, etc).

      xo
      s

  4. misty says

    I don’t know why. But I felt an urge to cry reading that…? Lol :( so sad to see this house go, so excited for the new house…and because I bought my first home last year I feel a little excited for the buyers, because I remember that feeling of getting the home you want! Gzzz. I’m attached to your house!? Crazy! Hahaha. #imreallynotacrazyperson.

    Reply

  5. Alison says

    Clara’s party will be like a good bye house party too! I started reading your blog 2 years ago so I feel a little sad to see it go! Congratulations on everything!

    Reply

  6. Diane says

    So excited for you guys! Congrats & happy moving! I’m trying to sell my parent’s house (Mom went to Heaven, Dad went to a nursing home). It’s a 1970’s split foyer, decorated to the hilt in the 80’s. No offers so far, but we’re hopeful that someone who loves refurbishing & redecorating will come along soon! :) Can’t wait to see all the new projects at your new house! :)

    Reply

  7. mribaro says

    Yoohooo!!! Now hurry with refinishing the new house’s floors! Among a hundred other things to do :)

    Reply

  8. Ali B. says

    Wow, you guys! Big news! I’m so glad the house sold quickly. Having a child and dog to entertain spur of the moment every time someone wants a showing would probably be fun and exciting for a while, but I’m guessing it would get old really quickly. Here’s hoping that everything closes smoothly!

    Reply

  9. Kim @ Yellow Brick Home says

    That is so flipping awesome. Loved the play-by-play! We just purchased a new home (or, we’re in the process of), but the Chicago market for a condo our size isn’t necessarily on the upswing yet – so we’ll be renting our current home until that improves. When our time comes, we can only hope to have as smooth a time as you did! Congrats!

    Reply

  10. Jessica says

    I LOVE that you guys share this kind of stuff too. This is the real life stuff and you are able to make stressful situations into hilarious stories. Love this!

    Reply

  12. Dan says

    You always seem to leave the neighborhood looking better than it first did when you moved it. Ridding unwanted trees, clearing debris, and making the house look happy from the curb. I hope your neighbors have thanked you for upgrading their street, cul-de-sac, or block.

    Reply

  13. Elizabeth says

    We are currently under contract for a home and close the first week of June. Our home sold in 4 days on the market then we put a contract on the new house after it was on the market 2 days. I am loving going through this process “with” y’all!

    Reply

  14. Bonnie says

    Congratulations on your sale! I’m happy and excited for you guy and can’t wait to read all about the new house projects.

    Reply

  18. Susan says

    Our home has been for sale through a realtor since February, and we’ve had three people through with no offers. Since we live in a very rural area, it’s an acquired taste-one I have never acquired, lol, hence the sale.

    Anyone wanna come live in Central Oregon? 45 minutes from Bend/Mt. Bachelor/etc. Two hours to Portland. The mountains are gorgeous( Mt. Jefferson and Mt.Hood are right here)and the small town peace and quiet is great.

    http://www.zillow.com/homes/345-se-6th-street-madras-or_rb/

    Reply

  19. Heather W says

    So excited that you sold your house.. Can’t wait to see the updates you do in your new home. Also, just got my new HGTV magazine in the mail, thumbing thru it and looking at pics thinking I love the colors on this house and this house and low and behold my two faves were your pics and Sara Richardson’s! The house looks like your new house….

    Reply

  22. Kay says

    Congratulations guys! It’s so interesting that the new owners aren’t blog readers. It would be fascinating to find the blog after buying and be able to read about the not so secret history of their home!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We always disclose the blog to anyone looking, so apparently they have checked it out since and are excited to have all that info to refer to (paint color stuff, when we installed what, etc).

      xo
      s

    • Kay says

      Great idea! And yes, the paint colors and other reno information will be invaluable!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Nah. We’ve never really been interested in the whole TV show thing (we’re happy to hide behind the safety of our laptops). We do little two minute things here and there (like pop up as guests on things) but we don’t think we could ever have our own show. Waaaaay too much for two not-comfortable-on-TV people like us! Haha!

      xo
      s

  24. House Crazy Sarah says

    Wow that was FAST! I have had my house on the market a year now and it is slow, slow, slow. Seems like real estate is picking up everywhere else but this little town!
    Anyway, congratulations – so glad you don’t have to go through the stress and agony of having your house on the market for a prolonged amount of time – because it is agony!

    Reply

  25. Kimberly @ Turning It Home says

    That’s awesome! Congrats, guys! So I have to ask, will you be leaving the buyer the kitchen stools and other things like shelves? It may have already been asked but I always wondered if I should leave my shelves (along with the vintage-like brackets) when we move out.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re leaving things like built-ins (the desk in the office, the laundry room shelves we added, the floating shelves in the kitchen, the built-ins in the dining room) and all of the light fixtures, and most of the curtains (except for a few sentimental ones like the panels Clara picked out herself for her big girl room). Usually the rule is that if things are attached (ex: a towel bar screwed into the wall, a shelving system in the kitchen, etc) they stay :)

      xo
      s

  26. Karen T says

    Awesome! I had no doubt it would sell quickly, it’s gorgeous! And how fun for the buyers to now have your blog to look back on and see how much good work you put into the house. We bought a house recently, and I’d love to be able to have something to look at that explains how or why the previous owners did what they did!

    Looking forward to the upcoming new house adventure!

    Karen

    Reply

  27. Amy says

    That is the best story/house situation I’ve ever heard of! Can’t say I’m surprised……you guys have a great house to sell:) Lucky new owners, I’d say!

    Reply

  28. Lora lee says

    Proof that pretty houses with beautiful, clean furnishings have no problem selling, even in a not so great market, still. Buyers like to see how furnishings fit in a house but they also like a relaxed lived in house. Its hard fir some people to vision everything. Congratulations!

    Reply

  29. Suzie says

    Congratulations, y’all!! Of course it happened fast! You two (or four) are seriously the epitome of positivity and this is evidence that what you give comes right back. I wish more people shared your attitude of gratitude and just life in general.

    Just curious, are the buyers at all weirded out that their new house is such an open-book online? I know it was your house, so it really shouldn’t matter, I am just curious how they feel about it and sooo wish they were bloggers who would keep us posted on their changes!

    So happy for your family!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I actually think they like that they can reference something (all the paint colors we used, when we installed something, etc). They seem really excited that it has been in magazines and a book (they asked for copies of stuff when we disclosed the blog/publicity during their first walk-through) so it’s nice that they’re comfortable with it!

      xo
      s

  31. cathy says

    We accidentally sold our house recently before it was even on the market. Whew, now we are packing, packing and more packing. Trucks arrive tomorrow.
    Good luck.

    Reply

  32. Brian says

    Congrats! I can only hope that when we one day sell our little one story ranch in Fort Worth it moves that quickly.

    Out of curiosity, do you guys disclose in any way that you blog about your DIY projects/home improvement? Seems like some slightly paranoid buyers would want to know that thousands of people know all about their house. It wouldn’t bother me, but it made me stop and think.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, on the first walk through we disclose the blog with a print out with photos and magazines and our book (with photos of the house) all out on the counter, so they’re all in the loop and that can factor into their decision. No one seems to mind, but we’d never want to hide that from anyone :)

      xo,
      s

  33. Ang says

    Wow, congratulations!!! Great feeling when it happens quickly and you don’t have to sweat out a long sale period.

    Reply

  34. Amanda says

    I “bought” my first place in January but didn’t officially close until April (they were kind enough to wait until my current lease was closer to running out). I’ve spent the past 6 weeks painting and doing little updates to the new place. I now have 6 weeks to move (still painting and waiting for new appliances and floors) but haven’t packed a single box. I’ll think of you guys while I’m attempting to cram everything into boxes!

    Reply

  35. Lindsay says

    Exciting! I’m curious if you asked the buyers about your plan to paint the siding and the window boxes?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They actually saw them done (we ran around doing that about 20 hours before the first showing). Katie and I originally planned to share the Pinterest Challenge a week earlier (the intro posts were all written and everything) but they got bumped back due to scheduling with the other hosts/etc. Typically we like to share things we do with a 1-3 day delay (since we have to upload pics and write the post) but in the case of the window boxes and siding it was about a week behind since the PC got bumped by a week :)

      xo
      s

  38. Jessie from Team Greene says

    It should be no suprise! You house is beautiful and anyone can see how much love you’d shown the place.

    I’m in love with it! So, I can totally see how buyers would too!

    Congrats on the offer and here’s hoping for a smooth closing process!

    Reply

  39. Jeanna says

    Yowzer, that was so fast! I can’t wait for the next few weeks to fly by, and to see the amazing stuff you do with the new place :)

    Reply

  40. mribaro says

    There are two things related to your move that I am excited about the most: 1) the new house floor plans 2) a before-the-move PURGE-ATHON :) ‘Cause I’ll be inspired to do some merciless purging at my own place at the same time (even though I’m not moving – it’s always so purefying) :)

    Reply

  41. Lizzy says

    While I’m so excited for you and loved the detailed post, the best part is/are the reenactments. Too funny, yo.

    Reply

  42. Courtney says

    So happy for you both and very excited for you guys to get started on the next adventure. Congrats!!

    Reply

  43. tjack432 says

    Congratulations on selling your home so fast. Can you comment a little on how to know the right price for your home?

    I remember that on your first home you priced it too high at first and had to come down, I am guessing on this house that you priced it right from the start.

    Also, do you think having an agent is better than FSBO? It looks like she saved you a lot of time and stress.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually did sell this house FSBO again! Anne the Realtor was acting as the buyer’s agent but not as our seller’s agent (so we only owe her 3% instead of 6% if we had used a seller’s agent to market it/put it on MLS/make the flyer/etc). As for the price, we did it using local comparables (on sites like Zillow you can look at prices of houses close to yours in description and see what they’re selling for).

      xo
      s

    • mary says

      Sherry, you probably know this but as a FSBO seller, you’re free to negotiate whatever you want to pay a buyers’ agent. They may ask for 3% but they often accept less for FSBOs. But I imagine you’re happy to pay her usual. And she may have made it clear at the outset that she wasn’t bringing her buyers in for less, of course.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we were happy to give here the standard 3% since she has been so helpful to us in the past (she sold us our current house and our new house too).

      xo
      s

    • KathyG says

      Congrats! FSBO sounds like an interesting idea, I never heard much about it. If I may ask, who does the sellers paperwork without a realtor? Does the buyers agent do that too?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We do our paperwork, but thankfully as a seller you’re just responding to their paperwork. For example they submit an offer on a bunch of sheets of paper and you can tell their realtor (by phone, no paper) that you’d like to meet at X price, and then they call the buyer and it they agree they redraft their offer and bring it over and we sign it. So as a seller you don’t really have to print or type much up, it’s all just “responding” to their offer and their inspection items, etc :)

      xo
      s

  44. Laci says

    So COOL! I am so excited for you guys! This is completely selfish, but I am extra excited because we are moving to a new house (town and state) the end of June. So we are definitely going to benefit from all the moving related posts, and it’s nice to have someone going through the same thing to relieve some of the Oh-My-Gosh-We-Need-To-Start-Packing panic. Man, April and May’s superlatives are gonna be CRAZY!

    Reply

  45. Kristin F says

    That is great news! We definitely are going to try the FSBO route next time, I just hate the thought of paying someone 6% of my home’s value when I have a degree in marketing! :)

    Couple of things to tell you (I wanted to “email” you but there doesn’t seem to be a “Contact Us!” link on your blog)….first, you were in Real Simple again, did you know? One of your lights featured in a room redesign, latest issue. So that’s what, two months in a row??!
    Second, I saw lookalike chairs of your barstools somewhere and they were priced at over $200 EACH!! I wish I could remember where I saw them, I was searching online. Saw them, said Whoa Nelly! and then moved on. Needless to say, you got a great deal on yours.

    Last, I’m so sad to think I won’t have your bright and cheery rancher to gaze upon daily. I’m super excited about your move and can’t wait to see what you do to the new house, but feeling melancholy. I just may cry the day you move…the good news is at least you won’t have snow and ditch problems this time!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Kristin! So funny about RS (we screamed when we saw it!) and crazy about those bar stools. Thanks for the sweetness. And I feel the same way about leaving. It’s bittersweet, but we’re so excited about the new house :)

      xo
      s

  46. lauren says

    Congrats!!! 2k below asking is great, as I assume you probably listed it at or above what you were hoping to get!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we thought about a few prices (some lower and some higher) and just sort of went for the middle. So it was definitely higher than some of the numbers we threw out, but hopefully not too high to turn people off (we didn’t want it to sit without any showings due to too high of a price).

      xo
      s

    • mribaro says

      I hope you still made a nice profit since you have done so many improvements to the house. If it isn’t a secret, what was the difference between the price you paid for this house several years ago and the price you sold it for? Does the profit cover the cost of all the improvements you have done during this couple of years?

  49. Ally says

    Amazing. Congratulations you two! And how fun that those who purchase your house can read your blog and see what the house used to look like and all the major and minor changes you have made. I can’t imagine making an offer on a new house and then learning there’s a blog AND a book all focused on the house. Coolness! They better have your book as their most prominent coffee table book. :) Your house, of course, is beautiful. I’m not surprised you got offers that quickly. Though I love your current place, I’m so looking forward to seeing you guys start over with a new home.

    Reply

  50. Stefani says

    Oh my gosh! I kept getting goosebumps over and over and over again reading this post! SOOO EXCITING!!!! There’s just nothing like the excitement and worry and anticipation and thrill of selling your house, showings, getting offers, and of course preparing to move into your new house :-)

    Reply

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