Needing to sell & downsize

PeppermintPatty said:
We did everything our realtor suggested which was:
Paint ceiling white and walls a neutral colour
Take all our stuff and store it in containers downstairs.
Finish kitchen and add new countertop which we were in the midst of doing. We had grey kitchen cupboards and grey ceramic tiles.
Finish stairs in maple
Clean windows
Clean area rugs
Take all personal things down including pictures
Purchase curtains for spare room
Clean yard
Keep driveway clear for parking
Take pets with us when house is shown

Our realtor told us not to finish the basement since it was partially done

We had 25 viewings, 9 offers and our house sold unconditionally in 4 days for much more than asking price
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Our last house sold before it was advertised. The realtor knew a couple looking for almost exactly what we were selling, plus an additional $5000 not to advertise it. I think the kicker was the $28,000 family room we added.
 
911 said:
Our last house sold before it was advertised. The realtor knew a couple looking for almost exactly what we were selling, plus an additional $5000 not to advertise it. I think the kicker was the $28,000 family room we added.
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That’s sound like a great move. Good strategy. 👍

We had the same type of thing happen but our realtor was a very good realtor who knew his stuff. When we sold was mid - Covid time and people from the city were moving up. He told us that as soon as we mentioned that we wanted to move he talked to a few people he knew and we already had interest but he told us to trust him and wait which we did . We ended with an outrageous amount over what some were offering. It was a sellers market and he created a very hot bidding war.
We now own another house which is paid for and are completely debt free.
 
Liberty said:
Thank heavens gray is passe...always thought gray was for prisons and navy ships. Or "gray days"...lol.
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Amen. I'm so over gray houses! It seems to be getting replaced by black and white though - at least for exteriors. So weird how many people follow the trends. About 20 years ago, more than 2/3 of the houses in our neighborhood were blue.

About 7 years ago we hired a contractor to take our kitchen down to the studs and start anew. He was shocked that I chose natural wood cabinets rather than the very trendy gray or white. Wood feels warmer to me and I didn't want to be a slave to my cabinets. White cabinets will eventually go out of style (gray already have), but natural wood is classic.

I've never regretted the decision.

Mind you, my kitchen is always clean, but daily scrutiny and cleaning of cabinets for every tiny spatter, drip, spot or fingerprint? Let's just say that's not my jam. I've got more interesting ways to spend my time.
 
This might be of interest to some folks:

Buying or Selling a Home? Welcome to the Year of Disappointment
After a tumultuous few years, many hoped that the housing market would improve this spring. No such luck — for buyers or sellers.
NY Times April 7, 2023

Excerpted:
... “Relative to a couple of months ago, we’re seeing traffic pick up — we’re seeing fewer buyer cancellations — that’s more telling of what lies ahead,” said Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com.

But there isn’t a lot to choose from. Why? Developers stopped building as many new houses as soon as the market cooled, after not building nearly enough for years. And as Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist for Redfin, put it: “Homeowners who have locked in record low mortgage rates have no incentive to sell right now. It’s not like the bottom is falling out.”

At the end of February, the United States had 2.6 months’ supply of homes to buy, according to the National Association of Realtors. That might sound like plenty, but it’s not: A healthy housing market has about four or five months’ supply.

... With so little inventory, the number of homes under contract fell 19 percent year over year in the four weeks ending March 26, down in all 50 of the country’s most populous markets, according to Redfin.

“Anything decent is going at list or above price,” said Andre Aivazians, an associate broker with HomeSmart who sells property in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties, in New York. “We’re still getting multiple offers.”

... But even without a price increase, buying a house today is more expensive than it was a year ago, and considerably more expensive than it was before home prices rose at their fastest pace in history during the first part of the pandemic.

2023HsePayments.jpg

A buyer’s only reprieve, it would seem, is a drop in interest rates. But how likely is that? Bob Walters, the chief executive of Rocket Mortgage, predicts that mortgage rates will remain stable, or maybe slip a little in the months ahead, barring “an unwelcome inflation report.”

Note: current inflation rate March 2023: 5%
 
Lethe200 said:
“Homeowners who have locked in record low mortgage rates have no incentive to sell right now. It’s not like the bottom is falling out.”
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Very true. My children all have very low mortgage rates. No way any would move and pay double their current rates for a new mortgage.

For those outside the US, note that our mortgage rates are fixed until the loan is completely paid off completely, i.e., 15, 30 or 40 years. We don't have to renegotiate a new mortgage every 5 years or so.
 
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