How to sell quickly and get your price
Seller’s efforts aimed at what will appeal to buyers
By Lisa Scontras
Custom Publishing Group
How do you sell a house in 7 days in a market where, for most sellers, 50 to 60 days is the norm?
Colonel Christopher Mullin, weapons systems officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, says he did it with the help of a Realtor he trusted completely who developed a tailor-made marketing and pricing strategy.
“I had the right guy,” says Colonel Mullin, who originally purchased his Aiea Heights home from Prudential Locations agent Marshall Mower. “Marshall knew how to market my property. I pretty much gave him clear instructions that I needed to sell quickly, and he executed the task flawlessly.”
Mullin originally purchased the home in 2004 when he received what he envisioned being his final set of military orders to the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay. He had already served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and was ready to make Hawaii home for himself and his son.
“My intent was to come out here, work on my MBA at UH, and retire from the Marine Corps … so I bought a home,” recalled Mullin, a single parent. “But like the military often does, they change things and 11 months later they gave me new orders and I was transferred to South Carolina.”
He and his son moved four times during the last five years. In 2006, he was deployed to Iraq for his third tour — this time as the commanding officer of an F/A-18 fighter squadron.
Throughout his deployments and his moves, he was able to keep his Aiea home rented, but the rental income was not covering all his costs. And because he owned two other homes, his debt-to-income ratio was high, which together with tighter lending criteria made it difficult for him to refinance. In April, he decided to sell the Hawaii property. Being 5,000 miles away, he knew he needed to rely on his Realtor completely for sound advice, to take care of all the details and to come up with a strategy.
Pricing strategy
“Our pricing strategy involved studying the ’sold’ comparables and then pricing at or slightly below current market value to gain the most interest from buyers,” says Mower, who has helped many military servicemen buy and sell their homes. “Buyers see the property as priced well and being a good value compared to other overpriced listings. In fact, the overpriced listings actually help my listings to sell more quickly and for the best possible price.”
The strategy made perfect sense to Mullin.
“I had been thinking like an investor and was not being realistic about learning where the market was at currently,” says Mullin. “That was probably Marshall’s most convincing advice to me.”
Marketing strategy
Mower also informed his client that there were a lot of buyers out there looking and that it was critical to show the property in the very best light. He recommended several repairs be made.
“Marshall was my eyes and ears,” says Mullin. “He sent me pictures of items in need of repair and estimates of how much each would cost, emphasizing that we only get one chance to make that first impression.”
Everything was aimed at what would appeal to the buyers.
“Marshall said all the right things in the ads,” recalls Mullin. “He made sure people knew that people in the neighborhoods drove slowly because there were families with kids there.”
A heart-to-heart with the tenants, enlisted their support — an important component.
“After talking with the renters, I found that they realized this was a buyer’s market and really wished they could be out there buying something,” Mullin says. “They were happy at the idea of being able to get out of the lease and became real accommodating giving us access to show the property. It was a win-win for everyone.”
Mower says after two open houses and seven private showing appointments in as many days, “we accepted an offer for $1,000 above our asking price.”
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