Name: Greg Howell
The home: A four-bedroom, three-bath traditional home with a full basement built in 2001.
Where: Smyrna
Why he sold: Howell lived in the home for 12 years and wanted to live a bit closer intown. He had been interested in a Sandy Springs neighborhood named Meadowbrook, which is near Chastain Park and on the border of Buckhead, for a while. When a remodeled 1950s ranch home went on the market there, he decided to sell his home and move. "I wanted location. I needed to have something that was going to be dramatically increasing in value. The neighborhood is amazing." Howell, who works for Accenture, a management and technology consulting firm, made an offer with the seller and put his home on the market.
Time on market: 29 days
Original price: $325,000
Sale price: $306,000
What it took
Howell already had pressure washed the driveway, washed and re-stained the deck and did rodent proofing in the attic. He asked a maid to stay longer on her monthly visits and wipe down items such as the baseboards and grout.
“The main thing I had to do was just declutter. I was fortunate enough to have a full basement. I just moved a lot of stuff down there,” he said. “What I had to do to sell was get the house really, really clean.”
His agent, Jim Martell of Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta, told Howell that his asking price was probably too high.
“Then we had some bites, but no real offers,” Howell said. “(I) said, ‘OK, let’s go back to what Jim thinks it should be.”
If he had to do it over again, he says he would have started off at a lower price to possibly generate a bidding war. He had a lot of viewers, he said, but the steep starting price may have discouraged them.
Potential stumbling block
Howell’s biggest concern was that the school district lines in his area were being redrawn, and he wasn’t sure if the home, in the Highlands at Ennisbrook neighborhood, would remain in the Norton Park Elementary, Griffin Middle and Campbell High School zone. “I knew I could sell it. But honestly, I was a little bit worried about the location,” he said.
He also put the home on the market in February 2015, which is typically a slower time of the year to sell, and then planned an open house during a March Madness weekend, which didn’t draw many people. “I’m not sure a lot of people can get the husband off the couch to go,” he said.
But he didn’t want to wait for the NCAA Tournament to be over. He hoped his listing would snag buyers by beating people who were waiting for the spring selling season to go on the market. Sales data showed that the Smyrna market had a small inventory and had shifted to a seller’s market, he said.
Howell dropped the price to $309,900 and got an offer in April 2015. He had also purchased the three-bedroom, three-bath ranch home in Sandy Springs in April 2015. He countered at a higher price for his existing home and closed on the sale of the Smyrna house in May 2015.
Seller’s hint
Place plants and flowers strategically around the house. For example, a stager recommended putting plants in a certain spot on the back deck. That way, people could see the plants when they walk through the front door and would be drawn to the deck.
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