"Neil was very helpful with recommendations on how to spruce up our house and was so considerate of our situation with our 3 little ones. We also both read his letters and book and really enjoyed the style of his writings as well as the great information. It was a crazy time but it paid off, our house sold in just over a day and we were all so excited and relieved. Neil got us a great price for our house and the closing date we wanted. Overall it was a great experience and we can’t wait to be in our new home!" — Nicole Muis, Seller.
This is the story of Dwayne and Nicole. A great couple I had the privilege to help thanks to the referral from a past client and friend of mine and now a mutual friend of ours, Michelle.
Dwayne and Nicole have 3 great kids all pre-school age and as any parent knows little kids can definitely be a handful. They were living in a nice 3 bdrm semi in Grimsby but were looking for a bigger home for their growing family. Like most people though, to be able to move into a bigger home they also needed to sell their current one.
To fully understand what we faced and how committed to the approach that Dwayne and Nicole were you will need to know the timelines. I first met Dwayne and Nicole on December 6th at 7pm, 18 days before Christmas eve. I was fairly certain there would be an opportunity to find the house they were looking for in the coming days and we needed to begin the preparation. Turns out that opportunity did happen and we put the offer in on their new house and on Tuesday December 13th it was accepted. For those of you keeping track that is now 11 days until Christmas eve.
Now, as I mentioned earlier to be able to buy this new house they now had to sell their current home. Also, in the seller’s marker that we are in sellers are not accepting a “condition on the sale of your current property” type escape clause so that meant we needed to get this sold and closed quickly or Dwayne and Nicole would be in a really tight spot. Of course, our approach is focused on maximizing profit but in this case, we also had to do it quickly and there was no going back, no escape, no plan B.
Let me tell you a little about their current home. It is in a nice quiet area of Grimsby across from an elementary school, 1 minute from the QEW on ramp and close to parks and walking trails. All good. The furnace was 29 years old, the roof needed doing and the windows are all original at least 30 years old, with older laminate flooring and carpet, no garage. Not great. Replacing the furnace, roof and windows would be at least $15k-$20k.
To make it more interesting a similar home sold a few months earlier for $318k. That home was a semi-detached as well but it had an attached garage and a brand new fully finished basement. To finish a basement in a semi is approximately $10k and adding a single car garage is another $20k. So, the last comparable home had $30k more in ‘additions’ and ours needed $15k in work.
For those that don’t know me I’m not a skinny suit wearing, have a scripted slick answer, look like a Calvin Klein model, smooth talking sales guy. That’s not me. I am a plain-speaking person who believes my job is to help my clients maximize the profit of their largest investment, not to sell them. So, I spelled out to Dwayne and Nicole exactly what our situation was.
We are tasked with selling your home, at Christmas, knowing it needs a new furnace, roof and windows. The basement is not newly finished and it doesn’t have a garage. Basically a $45k deficit. No way around it, we had our work cut out for us. Then again, it’s no secret where we always start the process.
Step One: Execute “The Approach.”
Keep in mind, this all played out over just a few short days before Christmas, with 3 little kids. In other words, they had access to every excuse in the book to justify doing the bear minimum to get the house ready.
They could have said “NO” to painting the bathroom. They could have said “NO” to doing some trim work. They could have said “NO” to moving furniture out & around. To relocating their Christmas tree (yes, we had them move the tree). They could have said “NO” to replacing an outside electrical box. But they didn’t.
That’s not who they are. Instead they said, “YES.” Dwayne and Nicole, in 8 days from Dec 12 to 20th, executed every single suggestion made to them. And in that light, they are no different than all of my most committed clients. However, where they are different is that they did it in record time and at a crazy time of year. I find that when presented with a clear path to success, most are more than happy to do what they can to put themselves in a position to win. Dwayne and Nicole did just that.
Their diligent execution enabled us to schedule our photographer, Kate, to photo the interior of the home on Tuesday December 20th. Normally getting the photos turned around and the virtual tour and website built takes a week but Kate was so great and understood the pressure Dwayne and Nicole were under and she stayed up very late getting it done so we could list it the next day the 21st, 3 days before Christmas eve. Talk about an A+ team member.
Results:
We listed the home for $329,000 ($11k more than the similar home sold for) and on December 22nd we accepted an offer of $320k. Now most agents brag about how much over asking they sold homes for. Don’t be fooled by that, it’s a scam. Undervaluing a home to try to get a bidding war only benefits the agent not the seller. Just because it sold for over list doesn’t mean they had the right list price to start with. In this case, we didn’t get over asking but we also didn’t replace the furnace, windows or roof ($15k-$20k) We also didn’t put in a brand-new basement or garage ($30k). So, we saved $45k on reno’s and still got $2k more than the similar home for a total of $47k in extracted profit for our clients. Now that was a great Christmas present
I get a lot of questions and even the occasional snicker about The Value-Driven Approach to Sell Real Estate. What does that even mean, they ask?
Well, it’s surprisingly simple and yet utterly complex. It’s about knowing what to watch for and what to listen to, in order to detect and protect your profit margin. Sometimes it’s about uncovering a home’s hidden value through extensive renovation work. In other instances, like this one, it’s more covering all the bases, to ensure that not a single penny of equity falls through the cracks.
