Vacuosity

Sold After only five days on the market, our house has sold. It's frightening, it's overwhelming, it's dizzying, it's exciting, it's surreal. We ended up getting only $880 less than our asking price. Here's how it went. We decided for sure to list about 4 weeks ago. At that time we called our trusted agent Michael Chua, a very nice, very cute Philipino, who had helped us find the house to begin with. When we first met with him, he told of his concern that there were too many units in this building for sale already, and that he wanted to wait about 2 weeks to let a few of them clear out first and lessen our competition. We thought that made sense, especially since we needed some time to get the place ready to show. We spent two frantic weeks sanding, varnishing, painting, packing, cleaning. At the end of it, we still weren't ready, and had to postpone for another week. On the day we were to list, Michael came by with the house listing for the building to show us the state of the situation. Nothing had sold in that whole time. "Don't worry," he said, "It's summer; it always slows down in the summer. We're going to list anyway, and hopefully, within a week or so, some will have sold." Actually he said "...hopepully...some will hab sold." But that's beside the point. With a deep breath, we signed the papers. The next day, Michael called with bad news. Two more units had hit the market that day before we could list. One of them was priced even lower than everything already there: $179 K. That did not bode well for us. We were hoping for $185 K, now something was available for way less than we were planning to list, $189 K, and would probably sell even lower. Michael always talks about the last unit sold acting as the benchmark for the units to come. If the precedent were set low, everyone else would want the same deal. I had a sinking feeling as Michael told me he couldn't list at the price we had agreed upon. He booked an appointment for the next day to rethink our strategy. Julia was worried, depressed and dejected. I felt a whole lot less confident, but said, "Look, we just have to have a little faith that it will work out if this move is really right for us." If you believe in a Supreme Being, you have to trust that He will work in your favour; "He's never let us down before." The next day, we went to see the other units for sale. I felt a little better to see the rough shape one was in (the cheap one) and the strange layouts of the others. The advantages of our unit became apparent. Michael, told me the price he thought we should list at: $188 880. I had begun to feel that $189 was too low, and was thinking that a few thousand more would give us some room to come down and still land in the high 80s. Michael wasn't comfortable with that. He was worried that if we competed head on, or listed as the highest, we wouldn't generate enough interest. After some thought, I realized his strategy was sound. We wanted to sell quickly, not drag it on, and really, it was only $120 lower than we had planned to list at originally. I had prayed for emphatic direction; I've never been good at taking a hint. I knew that the answer would either be decisively "yes" or "no". No small request considering nothing but those two units that listed with ours had been on the market less than 40 days. Michael anticipated that they would sell for about 6 or 7 K kess than asking price. It turned out to be a busy weekend. Many people came to see the place. One group that had come on Saturday, came back on Sunday and made an offer that night. It was low though, $177 K and I told Michael not to even write it back. It was obvious that they were just fishing though, because the agent turned around immediately and asked for $182 K. I knew that if the were willing to move 5 K in a second, they'd move another 5 K over time. We were excited. It began to look as though $187 K were realistic. A few other groups traipsed through, including a cool-looking young asian couple. I kind hoped that they would take it because Julia had told me how they loved the cupboards and I thought that they would really appreciate the design in the place. This morning I began to regret turning down the offer of $182 K without even signing back. I could have signed back at $188 K, indicating that I would be happy landing at $187 K. We would have been happy to get $185 K, which, when all was said and done, would leave us $55-60 K to buy a house in Winter Pig; what was I waiting for? I called Michael, but he said that the offer had expired at midnight the day before. They had written an offer that stood for only about 6 hours. Fishing. Several couples came throughout the day today. When I got home from work, Julia was beside herself. The offer for $188 K had come in. It was incredible. In only 5 days, we had sold our place for almost 99.5% of the asking price; $3000 more than we would have been happy with. The reality hasn't sunk in yet; everything that it means. Everything is going to change so much in our lives so quickly. I'm sure now, though, that it's right. I'm not naively thinking that it'll all be easy, mind you, there's a lot that has to happen in August, but at least this major hurdle is done with. A little positive affirmation from above doesn't hurt either.

posted by David @ 10:06 p.m.