Lessons From A Honolulu Home Sale

October 30th, 2008 categories: For Buyers, For Sellers, Negotiating Contracts

This past September I was hired to sell a home located on Honolulu’s Waialae Nui Ridge (CLICK HERE FOR A CMA). It was a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom split level home that sat on 7,700 square feet of land and showed impeccably. The list price was $1,145,000 and it sold in 5 days for $1,200,000. Note that we had multiple offers and this was an important factor in getting the price to move above full list price. There are many questions that arise from this sale and here are a few of them.

1. September was one of the worst months in economic history, how were we able to sell so quickly and at a price that was higher than the original list price?
2. Isn’t the market “bad” and isn’t it a bad time to sell?
3. Aren’t all of the buyers waiting to see what happens with the economic bailout?

Awesome kitchen!

Here are 5 lessons from this sale.

Lesson 1. I expected the property would sell in the range of $1,100,000 to $1,200,000. I recommended a list price of $1,100,000 and the seller chose to list at $1,145,000. In this market a property has to be priced exactly (if not below) where it is expected to sell. If properly priced, Honolulu homes and condos will sell and they will sell fast.
Lesson 2. Proper pricing took away any buyer’s ability to sit and wait. This property was a good enough value that buyers had to fear losing it if they chose to wait to make an offer. In fact, one of the first buyers to see the property waited a few days and seemed very disappointed to have missed the opportunity.
Lesson 3. By receiving offers immediately, the days on market remained very short. If a property is on the market too long, it is very likely that a seller will receive less money. For some reason to many days on market, allows a buyer to believe that they can offer a lower price. In today’s world, with proper marketing, a seller should receive written offers within 2 to 3 weeks of coming on the market. If activity is low or if no offers are made, then the price is probably too high.
Lesson 4. This home showed very, very well! The owner took the time to organize, de-clutter and have the home cleaned before we began showing. Just like selling a detailed car, a clean and well showing home will garner more interest and money than one that shows up like a fixer upper.
Lesson 5. The six P’s can make you money (Prior-proper-planning-prevents-poor-performance)! By taking the time to prepare the home and properly price, we were able to get sold in a market that some believe to be difficult.

If you would like to discuss selling your Honolulu condo or home, call me at 808-737-2093, as I would love to talk with you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under For Buyers, For Sellers, Negotiating Contracts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.