Now that the barn is well along the way and we’ll have a place to store things while we work on the new house, we’re putting the Wellington house on the market. After debating whether to try to sell it ourselves or use a real estate agent, we decided it would likely sell much faster with the marketing an agent will provide, and we won’t have to deal with all the paperwork, etc.
We interviewed a couple of different agents to get a feel for them, their marketing plans and suggested listing price. It was interesting that both agents we interviewed came very close in their suggested selling price–good confirmation to us that we would price it in a good range for selling. Both agents indicated to us that we should be in a good position to sell quickly. There isn’t much inventory of horse properties like ours, and a lot of demand. Apparently there have been “bidding wars” on some properties like ours, and some have sold recently for more than the listing price. Maybe ours will fit that category! The way things have been going for us, we won’t be surprised at all if it sells right away. We plan to be ready to move by April 15th if everything goes that fast.
Either of these agents would have been a good choice, but we had to choose one. We decided on listing with Tom Hoffner, with C3, in Fort Collins, who presented an extensive marketing plan and other services available through his company. He seems excited to have this listing, and we’ve been happy with his work so far.
The listing goes live on the MLS on Thursday, the 26th. I’ll pass along that info when it’s online. Yesterday, Tom put up a couple of “Coming Soon” signs out on the roads leading to our house, and already several cars have driven down our lane or stopped by the sign, presumably to write down Tom’s phone number. One agent stopped by with her client wanting a preview, but we won’t be giving anyone an unfair advantage by allowing them to preview prior to listing. We expect there will be several showings over the coming weekend, and will stay out of the house much of the time. (Weather permitting, we will go to Guffey.)
We spent the week cleaning and removing clutter in preparation for the photographer, who was here yesterday morning, both inside and out. A “stager” came Wednesday to offer suggestions as to how to set up the home for marketing photos, so we did most of what she suggested, to show off the home, rather than the furniture or decorating style. In addition to the indoor shots, he took several aerial shots from a tall tripod, 50′ up. Clouds were rolling in, and we couldn’t view Longs Peak, but the view should show the possibilities for a better day, and there are several shots including the horses in the pastures. He even got a video showing them running from the back to the front pasture–we look forward to seeing how that turned out.
I have the coming week to do more deep cleaning inside cabinets, drawers, closets, utility room and storage room prior to having people poke around and look inside. I anticipate another long week of cleaning. I figure if everything is super-clean it’ll make a difference. (It would matter to me!) While I’m at it, I’ll begin packing up stuff for storage and putting things aside to sell or donate to Habitat. It’ll be good to get a head start toward getting ready to move.