Listed House

A major milestone towards my move to Florida happened this morning: my house is now listed.

I met with my realtor yesterday to finalize some paperwork, and strategize on pricing. Since we last met, a few nearby comparable homes have sold, giving her confidence my house would sell for between $370K and $375K. So, we priced it towards the upper end of that, since we know we'll likely have to negotiate on fixing the roof. Plus, I suppose pricing it up slightly gives room to lower it a little, should I get no decent offers on the home.

I'll see how it goes. Someone already called to ask about bringing some potential buyers by tomorrow afternoon!

There is still one maintenance item outstanding - replacing three windows that have cracked seals (so moisture got in between the panes and the windows are foggy). That will happen next Wednesday, and I didn't want to hold up listing the house for that.

So I have my fingers crossed that doing all the work I've done on the home will be worth it. It is an interesting economic question actually - what to do to maximize buying interest and offers on the home? Many things were fairly cheap to do and really made a big visual improvement - painting the study, for example. I know from my own house hunting trips that I saw plenty of homes that didn't appeal just on cosmetic issues. It is also partly psychological: most people would rather not have to take care of a bunch of things when they move in. If they do, they are less excited about the house and will thus offer less for it.