I Will Do This Again and Again and Again
Submitted by: Julie Cozzo - San Jose, CA
We live in Silicon Valley where the median price for a home is $550K, homes sell in short period of time for the asking price if not a little more. We placed our ad in the local paper and the flat fee MLS. Almost all of the calls before the open house were from realtors. Most of them angry that I was not paying commission and let me know that they would not show my house. We used the 5-day signs, which I wouldn't sell my house without them. They make you look like a professional and boy do they get peoples attention! The signs drove in the drive by traffic and created a traffic slow down in front of my house from everyone wanting to read them.
On Saturday we had about 40 people (buyers not realtors) come thru, which we thought was a sucess. But on sunday it rained (literally) and then it poured and about 100 people came to our open house in the rain. We have a small house, and there were so many people in our house they had to walk sideways to get down the hall. Although we had almost all real estate calls, when the weekend came we had almost all buyers in our house and very few realtors.
Our house was empty and cosmetically everything had been re-modeled for the sale (New kitchen, bathrooms, carpet etc.) And the people loved how nice it showed and that it was empty. We advertised our home for $574,500. The least expnesive home in my area code on the MLS at this time is $630K(that buys you a home that needs major remodeling and probably on a busy street).
Out of the 140 people that came through, 40 people placed a bid. By the end of the open house the bidding was at $670K. At the end of the first round-robin we had 3 real buyers and they quickly bid each-other out to the last couple which bought our home for $677K. We did have one "meanie" realtor, which my husband and I did not know what to do about him when we had our house full of buyers. In the end the buyers thought he was rude and out of line. Between our neighbors and the realtors no-one could figure out how we got so many people to our home in such a small period of time.
The answer is price your house low and create a frenzy and it WORKS. I will do this again and again and again. My husband and I saved $40K and sold our home in two days. We had fun and we couldn't have done it without the 5-day education that George provides and the Brake Screechers signs. If we can do it any one can!
