John is a freelance writer who sold a house and condo in the past two years using HomeAvenue. His story first appeared in Minnesota Monthly’s Midwest Home and Garden magazine.

Let’s Make a Deal
by John Rosengren

What does one wear to one’s own open house? I didn’t want to overdress and look like a realtor, nor did I want to appear too casual, like I’d just been doing home repairs. When you list your house with a real estate agent, you don’t worry about such things. You just turn over the keys and details and leave for the afternoon. You also pay for it, typically 6 to 7 percent of the sale price. Balking at this expense, I decided to sell my house on my own, which meant I also shouldered the worries.

I finally settled on khakis and a button-down shirt, aiming for a comfortable, trustworthy homeowner look. I admit I got a bit neurotic about details. I’d scrubbed the basement floor on my hands and knees, hired a professional to clean the house, washed the windows and so on.

I’d bought fresh flowers, baked bread and carefully selected music (Jimmy Buffet, Kenny G and the Eagles) that would appeal to younger first-time homeowners, my target market. I’d also done a cost analysis. Even with the additional expenses of renting signs from HomeAvenue, running newspaper ads and hiring a real estate attorney (I didn’t trust myself with too many details), I came out way ahead. I’d designed my own flyer and carefully recorded, then re-recorded messages on my answering machine describing the house’s favorable features.

While I waited and hoped a buyer would show up, I second-guessed how I’d priced the house. At $129,900, it was a bargain by Linden Hills standards, but at $150 per square foot, it was way on the high end. One realtor who offered a free market analysis had told me I could go higher, confident he could get mid-130s, but another realtor, the friend who’d helped me purchase the house, warned me that too high a price would discourage people from even looking. I didn’t want to lose money by pricing my house too low, but didn’t want to miss potential buyers by pricing it too high.

I didn’t have to worry about people showing up. For three hours, cars filled the street and shoes piled up on the front porch. Over a hundred people streamed through my house, opening closets and cupboards, inspecting the furnace, asking questions about the roof. It was like hosting a party with strangers. In a way, it felt more like an invasion. That was the beginning of my realization that selling my house meant I was relinquishing my home. When you buy a home, you’re purchasing a dream; when you sell, you’re letting go of one.

After they came, they left, and I was alone again, waiting for one — or, preferably, more — to come back with an offer. There had been the expected tourists and naysayers, but several people had seemed quite interested — they’d asked a lot of questions, commented on how clean the basement floor was and passed significant looks to friends or parents or spouses who accompanied them. I waited for them to call.

When the phone finally rang, it was a young couple that hadn’t been able to make it to the open house but had driven by afterward. They came by the next evening and so did a single woman who wanted to come back for another look. They both put in offers. Handling the sale like a closed auction, I gave them each the chance to raise their offer. They both did. I accepted the higher of the two, which came in $3,000 over my asking price. I couldn’t believe it. Within three days of the first showing and as many nerve-wracked nights, I’d just accepted an offer higher than I could afford to pay myself. With great satisfaction, I hung the "Sold" sign out front.

Two days before the closing, I suffered a scare. The buyer’s special loan inspector suddenly required that I scrape, prime and paint several areas. But he didn’t say exactly which areas. That evening, I scraped any place I found paint peeling until it was too dark to see. I took the next day off from work and hired a friend to help. We managed to get the scraping, priming and painting done by nightfall.

The following morning, the inspector came back. I waited inside while he looked around the house and garage. When he gave me the thumbs up, I heaved a huge sigh of relief and headed for the closing.

While I’d had the sign up in my yard, I received a number of offers from agents to help me sell my house. They didn’t think I could do it on my own. Driving away from the closing with a check that included a $9,000 savings for not paying realtors’s commissions, I figured I’d done the right thing.