How we sold 3 homes in 24 hours

What we learned could help you sell yours — a lot faster.

My wife and I have bought and sold four homes over a twenty-year period. We successfully sold three of those homes within 24-hours. The fourth home took 12 days to sell, primarily because of co-op association rule that required a ten-day waiting period, to give fellow co-op members a chance to make a counter-offer. We had our first offer on that home within 48-hours after that waiting period.

Here’s how we did it, and how you might apply what we learned to sell your own home — faster!

Our first home was in a pleasant suburban town on the Northshore of Boston. We lived there for ten years. We bought it before the market for homes in that area was on the upswing. When our grandson was born in Florida, we decided to move to Florida to be close to our son, daughter-in-law, and the new arrival.

We found a local Realtor to help us. We had kept our home in good shape, including re-sanding and refinishing our wood floors a few years back. Until our grandson was born, we had intended to live there forever. But now, it was time to get moving. We had a new grandson to get to know.

There were a few homes for sale in our neighborhood. I went to check them out, making note of their asking price. Right away I noticed that our home was in better shape. In some of the homes there was a visible crack over the fireplace, going up to the ceiling. This was probably due to house settling.

Our Caldwell Banker Real Estate agent was new to the job, but competent. She suggested an asking price similar to the other homes for sale in the neighborhood. But I had done my homework. I knew our home was in better shape than our competition. After discussing it with my wife, we increased the suggested asking price by thirty-thousand dollars. It was a Sunday. Our Realtor set up the listing that night, along with a description of our home as “pristine,” and many photos to prove it.

The next day, Caldwell Banker had their weekly “caravan” of real estate agents who drove around the area to visit new listings. Early Monday morning, 17 real estate agents came to our home and began wandering around. Within five-minutes, one of the agents got on his cellphone and called his clients. “Betty and John, I think you should come over here to take a look.” They did — and put in a full-price offer on the spot. It was just the kind of quiet neighborhood and home they had been searching for.

We had assumed it would take many months to sell our home, perhaps half a year. But a “caravan” of real estate agents, good timing, and a “pristine” house did the trick. Later, the new buyers mentioned that one of the reasons they chose our home, was that it didn’t have that crack over the fireplace that I had noticed in some of the other for-sale houses.

What sold this home so fast: Timing; a “Caravan” of real estate agents; a home in good condition; a good neighborhood. 

Our next home was in a small city in Southeast Florida, about fifteen miles inland from Fort Lauderdale. We found an excellent, experienced Realtor. Our first “deal” for a home in an adjoining town had fallen through at the last minute. Our furniture and car from New England, were scheduled to arrive soon. So, in one exhausting day, our agent showed us thirteen homes. Fortunately, one of them did the trick. After some negotiation, we bought our second home (mainly from the profit from the sale of our first), and a small mortgage.

We lived close to our family, enjoying our frequent visits from our grandson, and now, a new granddaughter! We lived there for about four years. Would have been longer, but I had lost my job, and money was suddenly tight. We still had a small mortgage. The real estate in our area had a huge bubble halfway through our stay, increasing the market value of homes in that area dramatically. But, as most “bubbles” this one didn’t last. When we were ready to sell our home, prices had fallen back to reality.

We called the Realtor who sold us this home, and asked for her help. Meanwhile we had to find a less-expensive option. She looked carefully at our home, and made the following suggestions: declutter, depersonalize, and do it quickly. I was annoyed when she suggested that we remove our personal family photographs. She explained that buyers need to “see” themselves in the home. We took her advice.

I had extra bookcases lined up in our hallway, and an office library with stacks of books. I decided which books to keep, and which to give away. We worked fast. In one week we had removed most of the clutter. Now, I had to clean out the garage, which took another week. Our neighborhood association didn’t allow yard sales, so trucks from various charity organizations came to pick up loads of books, clothes, furniture, etc., that we no longer could accommodate.

Our Realtor came again, with her tech assistant, to take photos and videos. It was early Sunday evening. Instead of waiting until the next day to put our new listing up, she had her tech guy get a complete listing up that evening.

Meanwhile, a pregnant woman and her husband from Detroit, had planned to relocate to Florida, but were preparing to return home the next day after a fruitless property search. That night, they spotted our new listing just before going to bed.

Next morning, a few hours before they were to fly back to Detroit, they came to our home, loved it, and put in a full-price offer on the spot. The only complication for us was that we would have to move out within one month. Because of her pregnancy, she couldn’t fly back to Florida any later than that. So, now, my wife and I had a lot more work to do — finding a new home, and packing up for our next move.

What sold this home so fast: We listened to our experienced real estate agent, taking her advice to declutter and depersonalize. Then, she and her tech guy moved fast to get our listing up immediately. Timing was a key factor.

Now, we wanted to be closer to Fort Lauderdale. Hadn’t realized that we might be able to afford a place on the water. Most homes on the water in Fort Lauderdale sold for millions of dollars. But, one day I spotted a sign in front of an older building that gave me hope. It was from a local Fort Lauderdale Realtor who lived in that building. I called her, and soon my wife and I were looking at a one bedroom unit in her building. It was affordable, but we deemed it too small, so we kept looking.

Las Olas Boulevard is a fashionable main street in Fort Lauderdale. There are many “isles” or side streets that shoot off from Las Olas. In between these isles are many canals. One of the places we looked at was on a long street with an old Florida feel to it. At the very end was a two-story, 1950s group of attached co-op units. It wasn’t fancy, but it was well-maintained and affordable. Each unit had a small dock facing one of the two canals that surrounded the place. One of the units was for sale, and at a price we could afford. We bought it from the proceeds of our last sale.

We liked living there. Would have stayed there many more years. Meanwhile, my wife had landed a job at a hospital up in Lake Worth, Florida. Her daily commute, however, was horrendous, with wall-to-wall traffic. She finally told me that she wouldn’t be able to do this drive for much longer. So, we decided to look for a home in Lake Worth and surrounding communities.

Meanwhile we had to get our home in Fort Lauderdale ready for sale. Previously, we had put in new high-end wood laminate floors. We uncluttered, and depersonalized. Then the Realtor that sold us the place (whom we hired to help us sell) came over with her new video camera, and shot panoramic views of our home and outside dock area. We also had a Mango tree right outside our small kitchen.

We wanted to sell fast, especially since our neighbor was planning to sell his home at well below market price. We feared that this would negatively affect what price we could get for our place. Buyers would see a property selling for much less that our asking price. So, as before, we moved fast. Our Realtor got the listing and video “tour” up right away. Within three days we had a full-price offer.

Unfortunately, our co-op association had a ten-day waiting period rule in order to give our immediate neighbors in the association, an opportunity to make counter-offers. But, within ten days, no counter offers came in, and our home was sold.

What sold this home so fast: beautiful wood laminate floors, a prime location at the end of an “isle,” and a video tour that showed off not only the interior, but the grounds and dockside area. And, as always, fast timing was a factor.  

While my wife worked at her job, the same realtor and I searched for and visited listings in the Lake Worth area. At about the eleventh one, I found a place with an in-ground pool, a nice layout and yard (with a Tiki hut), and a decent neighborhood. I had previously looked at a website that rated various areas for crime. This home was in a low-crime area.

I brought my wife to look at the place. She didn’t like it as much as I did. It was empty, which surprisingly made it difficult to realize just how roomy it was. There was an add-on family room that had old-fashioned drop ceiling, and cheap paneling on it walls. My wife thought it looked like an unsuccessful bowling alley, but agreed to get the house if I promised to get that room redone to her liking. I did.

We were able to buy this home with the proceeds of our Fort Lauderdale sale. We took out a line of credit to pay for the renovation of the “bowling alley” room. There was a handyman who did work at the co-op in Fort Lauderdale. I liked his work. Asked him if he would do the renovations for us in Lake Worth. He agreed, and soon turned the room into an attractive family room. A year or two later, we also got new high-impact hurricane-proof windows and sliding glass doors.

We lived in that home for about five years. On our anniversary week-end getaway to Naples, Florida, we met a man standing outside a real estate office in the tony downtown area. He had a Berkshire-Hathaway name tag attached to his shirt. My wife asked him about property prices in Naples. One thing led to another, and soon we were inside his office, greeted by a woman who asked if we would like learn more about Naples. We said “OK,” but I reminded the woman that we were dealing with the man who brought us in.

“That’s my husband,” she told us. They were a real estate team. Naples seemed to be a place that would be out of reach for our price range. I was even a little embarrassed to tell her how much we could afford. But Naples, she showed us, had many areas and places within our price range. She pulled down a big wall map of Naples and surrounding communities, a began a map tour of the area. We scheduled a day to tour the condos in our price range and familiarize ourselves with the area. We became convinced that Naples was the right place for us in our retirement years.

A weekend later we met her and her husband to spend a good part of the day looking at condos in the area. We had decided that at our age we would prefer a condo instead of a stand-along home. As they drove us around Naples, it became clear that she knew the nooks and crannies of Naples in detail. She had done her homework. The places she and her husband showed us were all attractive.  

Two weeks later, we met them again to see more property. This time, however, we came back to a place that my wife asked to see again. Our real estate agent told us that the condo for sale listing hadn’t gone up yet, and would be listed that evening. It was a side unit in a four unit condo building. Looked like a house. The condo had great landscaping, with no one above us, and no one to the left of the unit. Our agent told us that this type of place would go fast.

Since we would have a contingency of having to sell our Lake Worth home first, we would not be perceived as ideal buyers. To counteract that negative, we offered a full-price offer. The seller agreed after our Realtor assured them that we were good credit risks.

So, it was back to Lake Worth to sell our home. The biggest problem was the garage. I had used it for storage, so it would take a great effort to clean it up. My wife and I went to work uncluttering the rest of the house. Our Naples’ Realtor referred an agent to us in Lake Worth. She viewed our house, and grounds, then discussed pricing with us. She did a market analysis of similar homes in the neighborhood. But, as with our home in Massachusetts, this home was in better shape than most.

Two years earlier we got rid of our popcorn ceilings. We had been lucky to find a painter/craftsman originally from Poland, who took two weeks to completely change our ceilings. He ground them down dry, not wet. He meticulously refinished the ceilings to a smooth, white, perfect appearance. Now, when it was time to sell our house, I was certain that ours was the only one in the neighborhood with smooth ceilings, not dust-catching popcorn ceilings.

We priced our home a good deal more than we had paid for it. Our Realtor took lots of photos, and got our home listed quickly. The only drawback to our home was a huge, ugly, non-functioning generator at one side of the house. It would have cost major amounts of money to remove it from the property. So, after one offer came in demanding that it work, we took the generator off our sales contract. Our home was in great shape. We had an in-ground pool, and Tiki hut. The generator was on the side of the house away from the pool.

We put our house on the market. Within 24-hours we had three offers, two above asking price. We choose the best offer for us, and had a signed purchase and sale agreement within a few days of the house being listed.

We accepted the one that made no mention of removing or servicing the generator. My only mistake was to hang around when the mother of the buyer, their Realtor, the buyer and a friend came to look once more at the property, just prior to closing.

I have a tendency to talk too much when trying to explain something. Eventually, they came around to the far side of the house that contained the huge generator. The Realtor asked if it worked. I blabbered on about it, but had to admit that it was not working. The Realtor gave me a quizzical look, and I finally said, “it’s not on the contract.” Whether it worked or not was not part of the deal. If the buyer didn’t want to go forward with the sale, that certainly was their option.

Long story short, the sale went through, and the buyer got a house in great condition with a nice pool, back yard.

What sold this home so fast: Getting rid of the popcorn ceilings; updated family room; priced right; clean and uncluttered; a decent neighborhood.

 Let’s summarize:

This is what helped us sell our homes quickly, and what may help you sell yours at a good price, and much faster.

·        A home in good or better condition than other homes for sale in the neighborhood

·        Having it cleaned, especially the kitchen and bathrooms

·        Uncluttered

·        “Staged” to look its best

·        Depersonalized so that the potential buyer can see themselves in the home

·        Pricing your home realistically, based on its condition and a comparison to other homes for sale in the community

·        Doing your homework by checking other homes for sale in the community

·        Having good floors. In our case, it was good laminate and tile floors

·        No popcorn ceilings (in a neighborhood with all popcorn ceilings)

·        Timing: Getting your listing up fast with plenty of photos of the home

·        Video “virtual tour” if possible. An, plenty of photos that show off the best features of your home.

·        “Caravan” (if available) of real estate agents visiting the new listings of the week

Bottom line: It’s all about making your home look and feel special to potential buyers. Then getting your listing up fast, with lots of good photos.

Ken West is the author of Achieve Your Purpose! (Formerly titled, Get What You Want.)