"I am taking time to say thank you for the expert advice on preparing my home for sale. I must admit I was stubborn. Having just done some painting and decorating in my home I could not see why I should have to redo what I had just done. After all, I was happy with the way it looked. I also did not think to do many of the minor fix-ups you suggested.

The following is a recap of what happened:

STEP 1:  Contacted Creative Home Services for an Appearance Needs

              Analysis and didn't think I needed to do most of what your

              Appearance Consultant suggested.

 

STEP 2:  Listed the property by owner at $174,000. Placed a

              newspaper ad two times for two months. The results were

              not encouraging...two calls, one showing, no offers.

 

STEP 3:  Began interviewing realtors -

      Realtor #1 - Suggested in present condition my asking price

                         should be around $140,000.

 

      Realtor #2 - Listed property with second realtor with asking

                         price of $171,900. After 30 days an offer came in

                         for about $10,000 less than my asking price. 

                         Although I accepted the offer, I ultimately

                         rejected it after negotiations failed with the buyer

                         and also my realtor.

 

                         At that point I decided that if I was going to drop

                         the price $10,000 that I would rather invest the

                         money with the chance of making more. In my

                         opinion a better option than just dropping the

                         price. 

STEP 4:  Contacted Creative Home Services to do the work originally

              suggested. Improvement costs were about $5,500.

 

STEP 5:  Began interviewing realtors again -

               

                Realtor #3 - She said no property had ever sold for more than

                                   $160,000 in my area.

 

                Realtor #4 - Was a bit skeptical of price but thought the house

                                   looked great. Listed with him at $181,900. We

                                   had three showings in seven days. Two offers

                                   came in - one at the asking price of $181,900

                                   and the other at $180,000.

 

                                   I closed the sale in August for $180,000. My

                                   profit after all improvements and 5% sales

                                   commission was about $11,000.

I hope that my experience might help others to keep an open mind and to respect your experience up front. I can't help but feel that if I had listened from the beginning, my move would have been done months earlier. Thanks again for your expert help."