Selling your house in a hot real estate market may seem like pure bliss–after all, you can score a sale in a few weeks–but that time is spent in feverish preparation and pursuit of the big moment.
“This is a zoo,” said Connie Caldwell of Sandy Springs, Ga., who during one recent head-spinning Sunday had four people touring the upstairs, four more downstairs and another eight people in the living room waiting for their shot. “There’s only so much a person can take.”
Like many people in these seller’s markets, Connie and Jack Caldwell are doing it by themselves, without a broker, hoping to avoid a broker’s fee that can cut several thousand dollars off their profit.
But while selling their traditional brick empty-nester, they are also buying a new home and holding a garage sale.
“I finished making signs at 9 last night, but I couldn’t get to sleep until 5 in the morning. It’s not normal living,” Connie said.
The payoff was that they received two strong offers within three days, both offering a deposit.
“But I’m keeping the signs up until I get it in writing,” she said.
Atlanta’s northern suburbs are among the region’s strongest selling markets, including Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Buckhead and Marietta, said Terry Morris, executive vice president of Northside Realty.
“Your chances of a quick sale are very high,” he said, noting that sales that may take a few months elsewhere can be done in a few weeks in the Atlanta area.
During the sale process, however, sellers say they feel like prisoners in their own home during those hectic weeks, constantly fielding phone calls, giving directions and offering tours. People call for an appointment, only to say they’re standing outside your driveway. The house must be clean all the time.
With two small children, that presents a challenge for Kathleen and Mike Braswell.
“We try to limit their play to two rooms, the playroom and the dining room,” said Kathleen Braswell.
For the couple’s 18-month-old, Chris, the greatest realization of the sale process is that mommy keeps picking up his toys after him.
The Braswells’ home, selling for $262,900, has many of the elements consistent to a hot real estate market: a two-story traditional house, four bedrooms and three bathrooms with wood floors, a half-acre lot on a tree-lined street, proximity to a good school and within striking distance of Atlanta as well as Alpharetta’s North Point Mall.
A similar house farther out might sell for about $222,000, noted David Holihan, president of ERA North Point Properties in Roswell. But he stressed there’s a trend of people who are willing to pay more to live closer and drive less.
The Braswells, planning a bigger family, are buying a larger home not far away. They don’t mind showing their current house again and again, but when people start to criticize, it hurts.
That’s one reason some people look to a broker, who can also use his or her contacts and references to bring in more prospective buyers, and lend expertise to a sales strategy.
While people selling their own home say they feel they are being held prisoner, when a broker comes in, the owner is often exiled–at least during the tours.
“We suggest the homeowner leave the house,” said Morris of Northside Realty, who recently sold his Sandy Springs home. He said it can be difficult for prospective buyers touring a house to speak openly when the owner is there. If the closets are too small, they don’t want to say so, for fear of causing offense.
“It can be very awkward,” Morris said.
In addition, some brokers representing buyers are wary to deal with people selling homes on their own, said ERA’s Holihan. Some owners get cocky being in a hot market and jack up prices.
“There are still a lot of properties out there. And if you’re not priced right, you’re not going to sell,” he said. Moreover, “it’s more work for me with a seller who may be emotionally and professionally unprepared. And in the end, I may be accused of trying to take advantage of them.”
Even in a hot market, not all sales are fast and clean.
Julie Gary is selling the home she grew up in. But she doesn’t live there anymore. Her mother has passed away, leaving the house empty.
The problem is that Gary is now living in Huntsville, Ala., so she has to drive down to the Atlanta area on weekends to show it.
When someone wants to look at the house on a weekday, a neighbor has been nice enough to do the job.
Troublesome as it seems, Gary enjoys the process, and is in no hurry to sell. Coming back to her hometown has reunited her with neighbors and old friends.
“In a way, it has allowed me to say goodbye to the place,” she said.
Still, for all the anxiety of selling in these fast-moving suburbs, people realize there’s a worse prospect: “That’s when nobody is stopping by,” said Morris.
