The Sale
Name: Brenda Holloman-Duck, 58, co-owner of Perspecta Research, a marketing research firm
The home: A five-bedroom, five-bath home with a basement built in 1995.
Where: Roswell’s Riverview at Inverness neighborhood
Why she sold: Holloman-Duck desired to sell her home of 17 years before she wed Mike Duck, a horse trainer in Dahlonega. “We figured it would take a year or two to sell it. I had expected a long, arduous process,” she said.
Time on market: 31 days
Original price: $489,900
Sale price: $460,000
What it took: She spent about $20,000 improving the curb appeal, repainting and refinishing the flooring. She spruced up the front yard to make it more attractive from the road, Holloman-Duck said. In the backyard, she made repairs to the slate patio and landscaped the patio area, using Greenland Landscaping and Masonry. Inside, she added new carpet and hardwood floors. Her agent, Sara Ohmer with Harry Norman, Realtors, helped stage and de-clutter the home. An open house the first weekend drew about a dozen prospective buyers. After that, she received two offers, one of which Holloman-Duck described as insulting. The second offer was finalized in September, while Holloman-Duck was on a trip to Montana, where she got married. After her plane landed, she got a voicemail from her agent confirming that the offer was going through and telling her the move-out date was sooner than expected. She had to be out of the home two weeks after her honeymoon.
Potential stumbling block: The appraisal came in lower than the purchase price, so the final price was further reduced. Holloman-Duck said she was disappointed because the home had appraised for almost $100,000 more less than a year ago. “What I was selling it to them for was not quite that much, but it was a lot lower than the appraisal. When it came below that, I was like, ‘Oh God, I can’t believe this,’” she said. “I probably lost 25 percent of what it was appraised for. It surprised me.”
Seller’s hint: Tone down bright colors to appeal to a wider range of buyers. “I had some bright yellow [walls]. I sort of neutralized that to a soft white with a hint of yellow in it,” she said. “I had some purple carpeting. I took that up and put in hardwood floors.”
