Our original plan was to have Eric start his new job in January and he would just live in temporary housing there until summer. The boys and I would stay in WA with the house and finish the school year and I could sell the house in the spring when it would sell best. We would visit each other during spring break and other times too. It seemed like a good plan but after talking to some realtors and giving it more thought and prayer, I just felt that we needed to sell the house sooner and all move together if possible, even if it meant the boys would have to change schools mid-year. Eric felt this way too. (Later, we would realize what a HUGE blessing this was when the pandemic hit). So, we got busy on getting the house ready to sell and I got it on the market the first week of September.
It was complicated. There were improvements (like paving the driveway) that we needed to do before selling that would be expensive. We had little, if any, equity in the house due to the extreme building overages and we didn't know if we could even break even. If we hired a realtor, with the high price of the house, the broker percentage would be a lot of money. All these things considered, I decided to sell the house by owner. Eric was not completely on board with this, but he trusted and supported me. He was worried either it wouldn't sell or we would do something wrong and get ourselves into a mess. I was worried about these things too, but I felt fairly confident that I could pull it off and we could save a lot of money on fees. Also, WA state has a little thing called excise tax that is 2% of the total purchase price!!! That's a lot and no way to avoid it!
So, we paved the driveway, did lots of improvements on the landscaping ourselves (as inexpensively as possible), and did some staging on the inside. I hired a professional real estate photographer for the pictures and we paid Savvy Lane a flat fee of around $400 to get it on the MLS and all the feeder sites. They also put up a sign in our yard and a few other things. They have a great service where you can have them do as little or as much as you would like. The only downside is you can't back out if you decide you want to hire a realtor, you have to use their full service.
We had showings starting the morning of the first day it was on the market. Within a week we had a contigent offer that we accepted. We continued showing the house and a week later we had a non-contingent offer for full asking price. It was a little complicated and I don't think I could have made it through without a lot of help from my aunt (who is a realtor in the area). Her advice and help was invaluable. In the end, we were forced to accept the first offer because they were allowed a 5 day bump period where they could lift their contingency. In order to lift the contingency, they had to waive all contingencies including things like appraiser, inspections that had not been done, etc. and close within 30 days. In the end, they did lift their contingencies and they did close in 30 days, but we were a little sad to have to accept the lower of the two prices, but still incredibly grateful. The benefits of this buyer...(1) They let us rent back until Dec 28, (2) Closing sooner enabled us to have funds to buy a house in SC to be move-in ready when we got there, (3) We walked away with exactly the amount of money that we put into the house when all debts were paid. So, we were grateful! It was a huge blessing the way it all worked out.
