Name: Billy and Sherry Linville
The home: A three-bedroom, three-bath Craftsman-style home built in 2000.
Where: Atlanta’s Ormewood Park neighborhood.
Why they sold: Bill was transferred to Washington, D.C. for his job. They had a bit of reassurance in making the move because the relocation package included a buyout of their home, for a lower price than they wanted, if it didn’t sell in 90 days. “Of course it was better to sell it,” said Sherry, 43, an administrative judge for the federal government.
Time on market: 51 days
Original price: $350,000
Sale price: $305,000
What it took: The couple was concerned about being able to sell quickly. “We had seen houses in the neighborhood kind of sitting on the market,” she said.
They had recently painted the home, including the interior trim. As the home went on the market, they power washed the driveway, pool area and exterior. New mulch and minor interior repairs, such as fixing a gap in the attic door, also were checked off the to-do list.
“I wanted someone to walk in and feel like it was well taken care of and clean,” she said. They spent about $2,000 on those changes, which included bringing in an electrician, plumber and handyman.
Simple steps such as removing family photos from the hallways and baskets of magazines helped de-personalize the home so that people would focus on its features, not the décor, Sherry said.
Potential stumbling block: The home’s location on the end of a cul-de-sac made it a challenge to bring in potential buyers, since people couldn’t easily drive past. “You would have to go looking for it,” she said. To draw attention to the listing, agent Jere Metcalf with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty arranged a “caravan,” which brought agents to the home. After the inspection, the Linvilles did about 90 percent of the repairs. “Because it’s a buyer’s market right now, sellers have to be prepared to go ahead and do them,” Sherry said. “That was a hard pill to take.”
Seller’s hint: Quickly drop the price if you don’t have a lot of activity. The decision comes down to: Do you want to sell your house or do you want to stick to this price? “We probably had priced it too high to begin with,” she said. Once they dropped the price to $313,900, they got an offer (they closed on the home in June). Previous kitchen and bathroom renovations also paid off. “Thank goodness I did the renovations I did. With an outdated kitchen and an outdated bathroom, I doubt we would have sold the house at all,” she said. “I feel like in the end, we were pretty lucky.”
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