In a previous blog post, I wrote about a house that was in good shape, in a good location and priced competitively and received an offer quickly and went to settlement quickly.  I also wrote about another house that went on the market and received an offer in four days and went to settlement in under a month. Both in the College Park Woods community of College Park, MD very near the University of MD.

This third house also sold pretty quickly.  Technically, it’s in a section of College Park Woods called The Village.  It’s about a block long with a beautiful tree canopy lining the street. The houses are a bit larger than the other homes in College Park Woods and they were all built about ten years after the rest of College Park Woods.  Still, they are really part of the community with access to a community park, a community swimming pool and the proximity to the University and METRO.

Why This Home Sold So Quickly

The owners of this home had been playing around with the idea of selling this home for over a year. In fact, they went so far as to contract for a new home to be built from scratch down near Atlanta so they could be closer to their children and grandchildren.

I had spoken to them on several occasions and kept them up to date on home prices in the area.  When they finally made the decision that it was the time to move, they gave me a call and we went to work.

They were meticulous housekeepers and extremely organized. So it really wasn’t a lot of work for the stager I hired to go in and make their home look like Martha Stewart can by for a visit. It also helped that it was a fairly large house and that it backed up to the community park. The view was great and whoever bought the house wouldn’t have to worry about anyone building a house right behind them.  The noisiest it would ever get would be the sound of tennis balls bouncing on the court.

Home Sellers Who Do What It Takes

The bottom line, though, was that the home sellers did what they needed to do to make the home attractive and to price it competitively to the market.  I’ve always thought that if you put a nicely kept, well maintained home next to a trashed out short sale or foreclosure there would be no contest.  If you couple a nice home with home sellers that have enough equity n their home to be able to sell it without having to consult with “the bank”….all the better.

The home got a lot of activity right out of the gate.  I got calls from several other Realtors to keep them posted “if an offer is about to come in” (note: I don’t understand this strategy myself. If you like the house, make an offer.) Finally, an offer did come in.  The financing was solid and, to the delight of the sellers, the home buyers were willing to put off the actual settlement date for about six weeks so the sellers’ home in Georgia could be completed and they could do all the packing and move without a lot of undue stress.

The bottom line is that when a home looks great, is priced great and is in a great location you get great people who want to move in with a great offer, to boot.

This home was on the market for 18 days before the sellers received an offer they loved. The house sold for 92% of the listed price and settlement took place in mid-January 2012.

In the Winter.

It can be done. If you’d like to know what your home might be worth in today’s market just e-mail me or call at 240-417-9100