There are many ways we as professional REALTORS® sell homes, one, if not the most visible and often baffling to the public is when we sell a home for tens of thousands of dollars above the listing price.  Today I’d like to show you how and why we do just that.
The perfect example of this strategy is 840 Cork St in Elmvale Acre area of Alta Vista, which JP Gauthier sold yesterday in multiple offers (bidding war) for well over asking.

When we met with the older owner of this long time family home we discovered that the speed of the sale was the most important factor in the decision to sell.

Our market evaluation for her property showed that the home should sell in the $310,000 to $315,000 price range.  The typical strategy in real estate would have been to price the home at $320,000 or $325,000 knowing that in that are the average time to sell would be about 45 days and the buyer would offer the typical 95%-97% of listing price, and if the home did not sell lower the listing price to find the right buyer.

The home itself was well cared for but in classic condition, meaning who ever bough it would have some modernization work to do.  This can be a limiting factor during sales that leads to properties languishing on the market.

Instead we offered her a different strategy, we listed the property for sale at $287,000, well below the expected selling range and offered a 7 day viewing window where buyers could see the property, bring their inspectors and contractors before accepting all offers on the 7th day.

As you can expect there was a flurry of activity as people came to see why the property was being offered $30,000 less that it should be worth.  On the day of offers we received 13 offers for the property ranging over $50,000 (seriously who offers under asking in a closed bidding process).

After several hours of negotiation JP Gauthier sold the property for over $30,000 of the listing price, and several thousand dollars above our initial evaluations and what the traditional sales process would have netted for this property.

Now this strategy has it’s risks and drawbacks as well as it’s success.  While we have used this strategy successfully in the past, It’s best suited to high demand properties.  One’s like this in desirable neighborhoods in need of modernization and stunningly renovated properties are the best fit for this strategy, truly unique homes as well.

Some of the risks include not selling during the initial run of this strategy and having to accept sever criticize, which we have done in the past when using this strategy.  Not selling a home on offer day due to lack of turnout can be disheartening and the feedback when returning the listing price to the expected range to proceed with a traditional sale can be very harsh.

Yesterday we saved an old lady months of time maintain a property she had move on from and made her several thousand dollars extra in the process, and that makes it all worth while.

To find out if this, or other strategies we offer is right for your home give Home Team Ottawa a call at 613-788-2113.