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<p>No one is messier than my son, but I was surprised how he “really stepped up” and cleaned up after himself. I think your D will surprise you. Now… your husband on the other hand…:)</p>
<p>How does it work that you “don’t take bids” until Tuesday? And why?</p>
<p>I was out of town for a week and left my 18 yo son in charge, home alone. There were two showings while I was gone and feedback form both said “clean and well kept”. WHEW!! I was more than a little worried about that but I left him a checklist and he knew how important showings are.</p>
<p>We’ve had 12 showings and an open house, 2 more scheduled for this week so far (this is week 5 or 6 on the market). Still no offers but have had a couple of “you made the short list” comments.</p>
<p>Most feedback has been positive, what’s been negative is not really fixable - layout of rooms (100+ year old house), that kind of thing. I have gotten a couple of kitchen appliance concerns- they are 15 years old - but buying new seems like a waste since folks would prefer, I’d assume, to buy their own new ones. Do people do appliance allowances any more? I think I read somewhere that offering cash to buyers at closing is not legal or allowed by mortgage companies or something like that.</p>
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<p>Good question. That was how it was when I bought this house 17 years ago, and seems to be how it is still going now. I think it’s a way to get multiple bids, but I’m not sure why the realtors do it that way. Any of you bay area folks know? (And I know if someone comes in with a bid before then my realtor is required to tell me.)</p>
<p>^ It prevents a buyer from putting a lot of pressure on the seller when the house is first listed.</p>
<p>A buyer might offer X-$30K on the first day and then give you 6 hours to accept the bid. Now the seller has to decide, “do I take less than I want or risk that this is the only offer I am going to get and I will lose it?”</p>
<p>By delaying bid acceptance for a few days it gives more people a chance to see it.</p>
<p>I see a lot of banks for this with REO, they want to expose property to as many people as possible.</p>
<p>“How does it work that you “don’t take bids” until Tuesday? And why? "
When one is in a hot sellers market or if a realtor has a “hot listing” that is likely to create a lot of demand, it is a “psychological” tactic used by realtors to get any and all buyers to 'ante up”, by giving them a set deadline to make an offer or possibly lose out. It also makes it easier for the listing agent to find and present the best offers to the sellers .</p>
<p>I hear that islands are selling well.</p>
<p>^ Not sure I would do it for only 98% of the island. How’s a guy supposed to get any privacy?</p>
<p>The other 2% is for his friends mansion and the land where he wants to build a wind farm. I had a look at the island on Google Earth.</p>
<p>I think that he can manage on 141 sq miles. There is a serious amount nothing there. It seems that it’s a good place for celebs to get married at given the amount of privacy the place affords.</p>
<p>Those of you with pre 1970 homes:
Have you found that you need to update everything to meet current codes? We have a mid-century home that is very popular in some areas. But it also has original baths, cabinets, electric, etc. (Roofs, appliances, decor, have all been updated over time). For example: no GFI outlets (small change), or safety glass in doors or low windows (very costly change), etc. I’m assuming these types of items could be “tagged” by an inspector, but are updating these items necessary to sell, or do people buying older homes understand it comes with older items?</p>
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<p>I think it really depends on the buyer. For me, the biggest negative is when I am paying a premium for someone else’s updates that don’t do them “tastefully”. I prefer to pay less and then do the updates to my tastes.</p>
<p>kjofkw – You need to check with your real estate agent or city to find out what, if any, changes are mandated.</p>
<p>In the city of Los Angeles, there seems to be mandates for smoke alarms for every bedroom, ultra low flow toilets (as printed on the toilet) for every toilet in the house, low flow shower heads, earthquake straps on gas water heaters, some kind of a special shutoff valve for gas to the house, safety glass or impact resistant film on all sliding glass doors. I may be missing a few – these are ones we’re dealing with in sale of MIL’s home. A carbon monoxide detector may be required (or the absence disclosed? I can’t remember.)</p>
<p>I think it depends on the update. Code violations have to be taken care of if the new buyers plans on doing any renovations at all. So they may see them as adding to their work. Which means they might be thinking no big deal, or they might be thinking that adds to much too their remodel budget. </p>
<p>I found, unless people are used to renovations, they think doing stuff like adding ground fault circuits or changing out glass is much, much, much more expensive than it actually is. Think 5 to 10 times as much. And they discount what they are willing to pay for the house by that much. So if you can do code level updates for 5K, you might get 25K to 50K more for that.</p>
<p>The caution is updating things to look better cosmetically. Then people might not like your version of countertops or cabinets, so its better to let it go.</p>
<p>In the I-Think-I’ve-Now-Seen-Everything vein:</p>
<p>I live in an expensive area, where house prices typically run ~$350 per square foot. I saw a new listing this morning, for a house for sale for $1,049,000. Not at all an unusual price for here – actually, below the average. The surprise? It’s only a two-bedroom cottage. The price per square foot? $656. </p>
<p>Someone purchased it in February of this year for $250,000 and, I guess, completely gutted and restored it. But it was only built in 1958; it’s not even an antique.</p>
<p>Wow. Just wow.</p>
<p>Down the block there is a darling three-bedroom cottage that was owned by an interior designer. Perhaps ten years ago it was featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. The bedrooms are tiny, and there is no garage. Sold a year ago for $920K, and I hear the new owner is planning a scrape off so a much larger house can be built as his weekend getaway for when Aspen gets overwhelming.</p>
<p>It sold! So I’m done for awhile, or at least shift to buyer…</p>
<p>Congrats UCD!</p>
<p>UCD…congrats…that was fast.</p>
<p>Way to go, UCDalum!</p>
<p>Awesome. Congratulations. Here’s to a smooth closing!!</p>