Name: Craig and Kayla Hodges. Craig, 35, works in public relations; Kayla, 34, has worked as a legal assistant.
The home: A two-bedroom, one-bath home built in 1920
Where: Atlanta's Kirkwood neighborhood, in DeKalb County
Why they sold: To move to South Carolina for Craig's job
Time on market: 10 days
Original price: $174,000
Sale price: $164,300
What it took: The couple, who bought the home at the top of the market in 2006, knew they needed to set a competitive price to appeal to today's deal-focused buyers. "We had lost some value in the home, which a lot of people in a lot of places have," Kayla said. "We accepted that. The good thing about it, it is in the area in Kirkwood where a lot of things are selling. You just have to have the price right."
Working with Butch Whitfield of Harry Norman, Realtors, the Hodges dropped their price by more than $10,000 within a week and got an offer (they agreed to pay some of the closing costs, too).
Potential stumbling block: The home's size, since others on the market offered an extra bedroom and one or even two more baths. "Our home was one of the smaller homes," Kayla said. "It's a little less than 1,000 square feet, which some people would be like 'Oh my God,' but the layout is actually pretty nice compared to some other homes when you go in them. It's an open plan. It had the porch, so we loved the porch. It was just kind of a quaint home."
Seller's hint: Research how your home will compare with other listings in the neighborhood in terms of size and features before setting the price. They looked at other homes in a 1- to 2-mile radius. "From that information, I took into consideration that we were wanting to sell fast because we were in a relocation situation," Kayla said. "You kind of look at all of those three things and put that into perspective and come up with a price that could be really competitive with the other homes."
