THE SALE
Name: Carl Peabody
The home: A three-bedroom, one-bath ranch home built in 1960.
Where: Decatur's Evergreen Forest neighborhood
Why he sold: Peabody's aunt, who died in February 2010, owned the home. He handled the estate and was responsible for selling the home. It was the first time he's ever sold a home. "The first thing I did was get a Realtor because I knew I didn't want to do it on my own," said Peabody, a CPA who worked with Scott Smith Sr. of Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta.
Time on market: 190 days
Original price: $150,000
Sale price: $129,600
What it took: Peabody's agent recommended that he repaint, inside and out. Peabody said most of the home was cleaned up, except the crawl space. "We put a sign in the yard and waited to see what happened," he said. "Not much happened at first, so we had to lower the price on it." They dropped the price to $125,000 and got a potential buyer.
Potential stumbling block: The buyer requested they pay closing costs and make repairs. The biggest repair was a new roof, a big expense that sometimes causes negotiations to fall through. "The roof was really old, and once the inspector got up there and showed us pictures of it, we realized the roof needed to be replaced," Peabody said. The roof was going to cost about $5,000, so they added that to the cost of the home. Peabody told his agent that they were unwilling to negotiate on the price any more, even if it meant keeping the home on the market. The buyer accepted the price. Peabody also had to pay to clear out the crawl space, using 1-800-GOT-JUNK to remove old items such as paint cans dating to the 1970s. "I think the house would have looked better if we would have cleaned [the crawl space] out from the start," he said.
Seller's hint: Consider a rent-to-own situation. The home was first rented to the buyer, which allowed her a couple of months to get her financing in order before purchasing the home. "At first I thought I don't want to be a landlord, then I thought it's better than the house sitting empty and us paying the mortgage every month," he said. "You could tell she was really serious about buying it." The home closed in March.
