Selling on a Deadline
Welcome to Behind the Before & After | Buying and Selling - where I share, step-by-step, how I help all kinds of buyers and sellers reach their real estate goals. Whether you're downsizing, out-growing a home, or house hunting for the very first time, I know the challenges, and I know how to help you through them! Below, Selling on a Deadline -
The Challenge | Firm Deadlines
Medford neighbors J&K approached me to sell their single-family home in the Glenwood neighborhood in the spring - happens all the time. Spring is our busy season here and single-families are the majority of what is bought and sold every year, even in Medford where we also have a good mix of condos and multi-families.
In this case, the sellers had both extended family and a great new job waiting for them in New York state - and the job started mid-July. While this put the sellers in a good position to list their home in New England’s busy spring housing market, they felt a little pressure, like they really had “one shot” at the sale. A selling process that dragged on into July or August wouldn’t work well for them, their little daughter or their two cats - who all needed to be settled into a new place in New York before the job began. On the other hand, they didn’t want a very early closing date that would force them tto move out "too early" and scramble for temporary housing, or move twice before landing in New York.
When a standard sale in our area can take 30-60 days from offer to closing, this meant setting a series of firm deadlines for this young family - to prep the house, get it photographed, market it and hold the Open Houses - all before June. But not too much before!
Short Cuts
Luckily, the house had just been newly renovated when they had moved in, only four years earlier. And, busy with a new baby, they hadn’t changed much while they were there. In this case, I felt like one of the fastest and easiest ways to showcase the great features of their home - while putting the least amount of stress on their little family - was to use some of the photos from the previous sale for our marketing. This would allow the family to take a little more time decluttering, packing up and cleaning up, while I would be able to get the online marketing up and running.
As a longtime local agent, I felt comfortable and confident approaching the previous listing agent, and requesting the beautiful photos and permission to use them. Agent relations in Greater Boston are critical for this - when you have a property that you need to sell, but perhaps can't get great photos right away, working with the previous listing agent can help you market the home. But having and building rapport with local agents and colleagues is critical to ensuring that they agree to give you permission - it is illegal (and unethical!) to use media another agent has paid for without their permission, but not all agents or landlords know or respect this.
Photos, clockwise from upper left: two cats are not a big help when packing for a move; the Mid-Hudson Bridge to New York State; the foyer to their Medford home; their Glenwood neighborhood with views of the middle schools, Riverbend Park and Boston beyond.
With photos in hand, we priced the house well and with the listing up, we finished prepping the house for its Open Houses. The sellers were able to go visit family for the weekend, and we directed all of the buyers through the home in a 48 hour time span; we offered Open Houses both Saturday and Sunday, and private showings in the evenings as well.
The Outcome | The Ability to Choose
The house looked beautiful when it showed, it was in a great neighborhood and the market responded very favorably. We had five offers by our deadline and that ultimately, allowed the sellers to choose a strong offer that would close in the time frame that they needed - not too soon and not too late for one big move. Moving Day had its own challenges, but again, I was able to call on my network to help my clients stay on schedule.
It’s always sad to see folks move out of Medford, but it’s nice to be able to use my experience and expertise to make it as easy and stress-free as possible.
Thanks for these kind words, from the family -
"Jen was great for us as first-time home sellers. She was able to explain the process and made it pretty simple for us. She always responded to our texts and emails promptly and had great advice. We definitely appreciated her ability to plan and make candidate timetables for us to follow. With her help, we were able to sell our house above what our target was. When we encountered problems along the way (we needed to leave to go to our new house on a specific day, but not all of our furniture was able to fit in the moving trucks), she went above and beyond, like by by letting in movers on a day we weren't there to ship along our remaining furniture. She also coordinated a service to remove a piece of furniture we needed removed." - Buyers J&K, Medford
For this and all my online reviews, please see my Google Business page. For more case studies of how I help buyers and sellers, explore my whole series Behind the Before & After | Buying & Selling.
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