[5-DayForum] 5 day recap in MA

[Todd Smith]

Brent:

Thanks for the detailed recap.  Very illuminating.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <brentday at althor.net>
To: <5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 11:06 AM
Subject: [5-DayForum] 5 day recap in MA


>
> Hi Guys,
>
> I wanted to post a detailed recap of our 5day sale in
> MA.
>
> We felt the house is worth about $250k.
>
> Bill suggested we use the magic number of $99,500...you
> can't start too low is the advice.  And we think this
> was wise given the current market.
>
> We spent about $1000 advertising in 4 newspapers in
> the state.  They were all about $300 each.  The Telegram
> and Gazette in Worcester (closest to home) got us the
> best response.  Metro West and Boston Globe got us
> very little response.  Most of the weekend calls might
> have been from the Globe, but we weren't checking closely
> at that point as the sale was on.
>
> In Mass there is this small Town-to-Town classifieds.  It
> gets stuck in a bunch of local town newspapers (not large
> regional ones).  It got me in my nearest 6 towns and some
> in Connecticut.  It was only about $50, but mostly those
> were weekly papers coming out on Friday.  Still, I got
> more responses from that than the Boston Globe.
>
> We had 60 phones/emails by Friday night.  Probably another
> 15-20 over the weekend.
>
> There were about 25 parties that came through.  Saturday
> was pretty dead, only 8.  Sunday was very busy.  There might
> have been 15 minutes when no one was there.
>
> We had an aweome time!  Best time in a long time.  The
> buyers really liked the process, too.
>
> On the initial bid sheet our lowest bid $1, the highest was
> $138,000.  People were bidding it up from the listed $99,000.
>
> We had one (really annoying, possibly on drugs) guy that came
> and talked really loudly about how he was a cash buyer.  He
> showed me the bank statement.  He was of course a cash buyer
> at $99k, not market price.
>
> I just nodded my head and told him we'd be taking the best offer
> Sunday night.  Everyone was kind of glaring at him.
>
> Lots of buyers took our printed materials and looked around,
> they all mostly left bids.
>
> There were maybe 6 groups that took the material, sat by the
> pond and read everything over in detail and talked for about
> an hour.  They all expressed really great interest in the place.
>
> There were two parties that bid that called in to increase
> their price to be first called.
>
> 8:00 we started calling people.
>
> 21 starting bids.
>
> 4 people dropped out first round, 3 answering machines.
>
> One of the answering machines called back second round and
> I let them participate.  I gave up on the other no answers
> after second round.
>
> Most people were doing $500 increments, a few were jumping
> it a couple thousand.
>
> When it got into the $160,000s there were 6 bidders but
> it was really slowing down.  People asked to call
> back and then they'd go up another $500.  There was only
> one strong bidder at that point that would immediately answer
> and jump the bid a few thousand each time.
>
> We could see the writing on the wall at that point.
>
> The final round (2 bidders), one bidder took 20 minutes and up'd
> the bid $500.  The other bidder said "What a pain in the butt!"
> and up'd their bid to their maxiumum of $175k (a $6000 increase).
>
> We knew they wouldn't go any higher and the other people would
> drop out.  Thats just what happened.
>
> We called the high bidder back, told them they'd scared away the
> other bidders.  Unfortunately it was an offer we just couldn't
> financially accept.  They understood.  They knew the property
> was worth more, but they couldn't go any higher.
>
> I left the communication open with them, but talking with them
> later this week they are firm that they can't go any higher.
>
>
> Other things to note.
>
> None of the people who "loved" the place and took a lot of
> time lasted past the 3rd round (there were 8 total rounds).
>
> I had a few phone calls on monday, asking if it was still
> available.  I would tell them yes, briefly explain what
> happened during bidding and encourage them to stop by.
>
> One person who came and saw the place (and dropped out
> first round) wanted to know how it went.  He wanted to
> use the same method for selling some of his properties.
>
> He seemed to get it...you need at least two real buyers
> to move the price up to market.  Don't know what he's
> gonna do.
>
> At this point we're going to figure out a new plan.
>
> If anyone has advice, we'd love to hear it.
>
> If/when we sell we'll post to the forum and let everyone
> know what we did.
>
> Thanks guys...you're a great group and I really appreciated
> all the support during my sale.  Sorry I couldn't give
> better news.
>
> -Brent
>
>
>
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