The house is sold! It was easy but very stressful because we didn't know what the outcome would be. And, we were doing it on our own, with no realtor. Now that we have a contract we can look back and realize it was an easy process!
Here is how I did it:
I had taken pictures of the house outside during last spring and fall so I had lots of photos of the beauty of the property during the seasons. However, I didn't have photos of the inside until we had gotten most of our items out of the house and it appeared less cluttered. I used these photos and listed the house on Zillow, Homefinder.com and in the local newspaper which would go online also. I also posted it on Facebook and it was shared a few times. That is all I did. I thought about buying a MLS number but thought I would wait to see if we needed it.
Tom called a real-estate attorney who he knows from his bike riding and he is the father of one of my co-workers. He said he would draw up the contract when the time comes. Tom and I also spent a good 4 hours going from the city office building to the county office building and back and forth, getting the documents that say the property is exempt from the flood requirements.
After over 300 "looks" I received about 15 inquiries through Zillow. One couple from St. Louis was very interested and called a couple times and we had numerous emails back and forth. We showed our home to 2 groups of people. One couple wanted to build a large woodworking shop in the middle of the backyard! Blocking the beautiful creek view and trees! They only wanted the one acre of land. Thankfully there are restrictions about that sort of thing, through the homeowners association.
One pain in my butt was the realtors that called. Sneaky and conniving! They want their commission. They only wanted 1/2 which would be 6% of the sale price. Each time, I told them I was not paying their commission, that the commission was between them and their client. One realtor called and in a very patronizing way said, "Let me explain how this works... I'll send you paperwork so you can see a sample of how it works." No. I know how it works thank you! One realtor called and said sweetly, "I have clients who want to see your house. You don't mind paying me my commission do you?" Well, yes I do mind!! That's like walking up to someone and saying, "You don't mind giving me $6,000 dollars do you?" When I have done all the work!!! Yes, I mind.
Tom went out of town for work for a few days and I got another call to show the house. It ended up that we knew this couple! They used to be our next door neighbors, right next door to the south of us! The Mark and Linda said they want to downsize and move back to the creek that they love! I showed the house and property and they said right then that they wanted it. By that afternoon, Mark had called back and said definitely yes! They offered full asking price. The papers were drawn up and the contract was signed the next day! The whole thing, from advertising to sold was about 9 days! And NO REALTORS WERE INVOLVED which means we saved a lot of money!!
Mark and Linda were good neighbors and we are excited that they will live in our beautiful home on the creek. If we had stayed in that house, we would have added on and remodeled some more. They plan to add on and remodel also. We are excited for them! They will be good neighbors for Joe and Sheryle to the South and Karen and Martin to the North. We couldn't be happier!
A winter look at our home for the last 23 years! The best part was the 1 acre of
land which backed into the creek and all the beautiful trees in back!
