As you may recall, Judi Smith, Houlihan Lawrence’s Larchmont Manager recently downsized and we are following her journey as a downsizer. 

Once Judi decided to sell her home and downsize, she created a “to-do” list to prepare her home for the market. She eliminated obvious buyer objections in order to maximize the number of potential of buyers. For example, she had an old bathroom which she knew would turn off buyers, and her house was filled to the brim and cluttered with 30 years of belongings.

“We took two months of working non-stop to prepare the house for sale.  This preparation included gutting and renovating a bathroom, and moving possessions into storage. The exterior had been painted in the spring, and we also did interior touch ups.  The windows were washed, the garden re-planted where needed, the house was cleaned to within a inch of its life!” said Judi. The house was ready for prime time!

Now came for the most important decision – pricing. She used the collective knowledge of the agents in her office and asked them for their professional pricing opinion. “The Houlihan Lawrence pricing committee had a wide variety of possible prices.  We chose the low end for our list price with the strategy of creating the largest number of potential buyers for the house”. 

Many sellers feel this is a risky strategy because they could potentially be leaving money on the table. But with instant dissemination of information – via email listing alerts and on-the-ball agents –  informed buyers immediately know when a new listing hits the market and recognize value. “My house came on the market on a Wednesday” said Judi. “By Thursday morning we had 6 offers!  The house sold for significantly over asking price.”

The sale of Judi’s home was a case study in doing everything right – from getting the house in tip-top shape, to strategic market pricing that created multiple offers, and ultimately selling at over the asking price.

What do think of Judi’s pricing strategy?