Selling Your House Strut

RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
edited June 2011 in Strut Central
I'd like to hear other Strutter's experience with this.

My house goes on the market tomorrow. I'd like to think we've done as much as we could do to prep and market it so that we can get maximum return / exposure, but the market is crazy soft right now and especially in our price range.

Our realtor is all about having open houses. Anyone have experience with these? Kind of freaks me out because I know we're going to get a ton of looky lous because we renovated a large Victorian and brought it back to a single family.

This is my house BTW:

http://www.cressmanhouse.com/
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  Comments


  • HollafameHollafame 844 Posts
    Can't offer advice...beautiful house, though.

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    HOLLAFAME said:
    Can't offer advice...beautiful house, though.

    Thanks, it's been 8 long years and lots of $$$ later. Making the web site and documenting its history made me fall in love with it all over again. On to the next phase, though.

  • coffinjoecoffinjoe 1,743 Posts
    some one who came to our open house bought it the next day,
    the open house was on mother's day
    and that day's washington post's real estate section headline was
    "why open houses don't matter anymore"


    good luck

    that is an awesome house
    hope your move is positive

  • amphibiousamphibious 147 Posts
    damn dude that's beautiful, basically my dream house right there. looks like you are way ahead of the pack with the site and so many nice pictures

  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts
    HOLLAFAME said:
    Can't offer advice...beautiful house, though.

    Seriously, your house is awesome.

  • Options
    RAJ said:
    HOLLAFAME said:
    Can't offer advice...beautiful house, though.

    Thanks, it's been 8 long years and lots of $$$ later. Making the web site and documenting its history made me fall in love with it all over again. On to the next phase, though.

    Who is the Red Sox player you've got up on the wall?

    b/w

    Beautiful place. Even in a soft market you should attract some interest. Hopefully you don't have any equity issues.

  • spivyspivy 866 Posts
    NomoreGarciaparra said:
    RAJ said:
    HOLLAFAME said:
    Can't offer advice...beautiful house, though.

    Thanks, it's been 8 long years and lots of $$$ later. Making the web site and documenting its history made me fall in love with it all over again. On to the next phase, though.

    Who is the Red Sox player you've got up on the wall?
    crazy! i was gonna ask the same thing about the sox pic in the rhodes/computer room. looks kinda like yaz to me.

    b/w

    awesome-awesome house raj! you thinking about moving somewhere more urban or out of the burbs to somewhere even more rural?

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    RAJ said:
    I'd like to hear other Strutter's experience with this.

    My house goes on the market tomorrow. I'd like to think we've done as much as we could do to prep and market it so that we can get maximum return / exposure, but the market is crazy soft right now and especially in our price range.

    Our realtor is all about having open houses. Anyone have experience with these? Kind of freaks me out because I know we're going to get a ton of looky lous because we renovated a large Victorian and brought it back to a single family.

    This is my house BTW:

    http://www.cressmanhouse.com/

    You might wanna make sure you tell the realtor to keep an eye on people at the open house. Muhfuckaz can get mad familiar, feeling the drapes and using your golf clubs and shit.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    But is your yacht for sale?

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    It probably depends on your locale, but I found open houses to be a complete waste of time. Loads of nosy neighbors and tire kickers but no serious buyers. As someone else said, lock up anything remotely valuable and make sure your realtor is on top of the visitors.

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    NomoreGarciaparra said:


    Who is the Red Sox player you've got up on the wall?

    b/w

    Beautiful place. Even in a soft market you should attract some interest. Hopefully you don't have any equity issues.

    Tom Seaver

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    asstro said:
    It probably depends on your locale, but I found open houses to be a complete waste of time. Loads of nosy neighbors and tire kickers but no serious buyers. As someone else said, lock up anything remotely valuable and make sure your realtor is on top of the visitors.

    It can't hurt. I'm only interested in getting some buzz generated from it.

    I do have some valuable guitars that I'll need to store at the in laws. Not really worried about the raers.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    RAJ said:
    Not really worried about the raers.

    interesting.
    when is this open house of which you speak?

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    for real though...looks like you did what had to be done. for high quality things like that, word will spread to the right people. someone looking for that would have to have a brain dead broker that wouldnt catch wind of the sale.

    are you staying in sellersville? is the house haunted?

  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    My wife is realtor. In her experience, in the first week on the market, you should hold a brokers open to let all the area agents come take a look (which given the caliber of the property I would imagine would be very well attended). Then a weekend open for perspective buyers. After that she doesn't hold open houses unless there is a major price reduction. You should get lots of lookey loos. Be prepared. One word of advice, if you have meds like pain killers and the like in your medicine cabinet. Store them away before the open houses. Junkie's love to troll for free oxycotin.

  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts
    Unfortunately the warnings about items being stolen during open houses are totally merited.
    Open houses are quite effective for selling homes here in Toronto, so hopefully that will be the case with you.
    The web site you developed is, how do you say, um.... a genius move. Seriously nice touch.
    Good luck, and feel proud of the home that you built. It really is beautiful and looks like someone could begin a new phase of their life there quite happily, and that is what sells a house.

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    RAJ said:
    Not really worried about the raers.

    interesting.
    when is this open house of which you speak?

    Tony, we're building on Lake Nockamixon in Perkasie... basically a town over. Fortunately the house is not haunted :()

  • DJ_WubWubDJ_WubWub 874 Posts
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000... US DOLLARS that is ;-)

    :micro:

  • Dude, I totally know what you're going through.
    The wife and I sold our home essentially ourselves
    with a realty service that took a very small % of
    the commission as we showed the home ourselves.
    We sold in the Los Feliz area of LA. This was in
    2009. Homes selling then had to be in immaculate
    condition. We sold a Spanish Revival that was
    built in 1927. Like you, we spent many years and
    $$$ swankin' up the place. The good thing was
    that I bought the place in 1996. At the height of
    the market my next door neighbors sold their place
    for 2M in 2005, but they bought later than us. Honestly
    man, it's all about timing. We listed too high initially.
    I felt that all the sweat equity we had put in that the
    sky was the limit. In a stronger market it would have
    been. I felt we had the dopest home on the market
    at the time in our neighborhood and that our only
    drawback was that we were on a busy street. The long
    and short of it is, we ended up painting every room white,
    as we had custom colors for most rooms - nice warm tones.
    But the reality is that most people have no clue when
    it comes to decorating and the more blank you leave
    a space - the better. De-clutter as much as possible
    because first impressions are everything.

    The only reason we sold is that we really wanted to get
    out of LA as my wife was pregnant. I totally loved the
    place myself and it was really hard for me in the end to
    let go as I felt a deep connection to that place and area
    of LA. In the end I'm glad we sold but I would not want
    to go through that process again nor wish it upon my
    worst enemy.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    RAJ said:
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000

    :micro:

    Damn, that seems like a bargain compared to what you get for that around here.

  • Horseleech said:
    RAJ said:
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000

    :micro:

    Damn, that seems like a bargain compared to what you get for that around here.


    Same here. In fact, it's downright depressing if I were
    to show you what that would buy in these parts.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Beautiful house Raj......good luck.

  • mrmatthewmrmatthew 1,575 Posts
    RAJ said:
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000... US DOLLARS that is ;-)

    :micro:

    Hey Raj,

    Would you consider some trades?
    Ive got some Rawkus deadstock heat tha you might be interested in ;)

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    mrmatthew said:
    RAJ said:
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000... US DOLLARS that is ;-)

    :micro:

    Hey Raj,

    Would you consider some trades?
    Ive got some Rawkus deadstock heat tha you might be interested in ;)

    I don't even think the Rawkus record company is worth $575,000

  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Good luck Raj. You have to do it right now? It's a bad time overall for the housing industry. I just heard a report that housing sales have gone into a double dip recession, and are now at a real low, lower than the original dip when the recession started.

  • Btw, open houses are, in my opinion,
    a complete waste of time. Serious
    buyers have an agent that will take
    them to multiple listings on the same
    day. From my experience that tended
    to be Tues-Thurs. We showed the house
    privately several times during the middle
    of the week and the eventual buyers were
    one of those couples who saw it then.
    Open houses on Sunday are strictly for
    Looky Lous..

  • buttonbutton 1,475 Posts
    Where's the Wall of Rares photo?

  • NateBizzoNateBizzo 2,328 Posts
    RAJ said:
    mrmatthew said:
    RAJ said:
    DJ_WubWub said:
    Just out of interest what kind of money will this beautiful house go for? A lot of Aussies are buying US real estate at the moment with high Aussie dollar it is a good time to buy.

    Asking $575,000... US DOLLARS that is ;-)

    :micro:

    Hey Raj,

    Would you consider some trades?
    Ive got some Rawkus deadstock heat tha you might be interested in ;)

    I don't even think the Rawkus record company is worth $575,000


    Holy Hell, your house would be worth $10M in they bay area! Location, Location, Location I suppose. What is sad is that since living out here you asking price seems cheap, though the mid-westerner in me knows that is still a lot of money. SMH.

  • soundsrealsoundsreal 128 Posts
    Congratulations on the beautiful restoration. I imagine this place will be a heartbreaker to leave.
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