I recently co-listed 3354 Betty Ln. in Lafayette with Rose Brudigam. It was listed at $1.35 million and sold, all cash, for $1.50 million. It had been a rental for about 20 years but was recently transferred to six siblings due to the passing of the family matriarch. They made several upgrades over the years, from shoring up the garage foundation to remodeling the kitchen to adding dual pane windows and a new electrical panel. They also painted the exterior and landscaped the front yard to be lower maintenance.
Before going on the market, though, there was still much work to be done. The interior had to be painted, new fixtures had to be added, and new sod had to be laid in the backyard. It was staged for a mid-century look. Once on the market, an agent looking to buy for herself wanted to know if we would accept a preemptive offer (this can be very confusing to sellers – trying to understand the pros and cons of looking at preemptive offers).
We opted to market with a weekend open house and mid-week broker tour before entertaining offers. The sellers ended up with a beautiful offer from a woman who thought it would be perfect for her and maybe, sometime in the future, for her daughter.
Though it all ended well, it wouldn’t be a home sale without a couple of small snafus along the way. The sod we replaced started browning on the edges, so we increased watering time for two very hot days in a row before the offer was accepted. Shortly after, we checked the house again and the sod was going brown and gophers had pushed up dirt! We found a broken timer in the sprinkler system and the sellers agreed to replace the sod again and add gopher wire underneath.
Also, when the buyer did her final walk-through, she thought there was fencing around the yard (there was some fencing, just not complete fencing). Since she has a dog, it caused some stress, so we delayed the closing by five days to get the new sod in and to get bids for a fence around the main part of the backyard. The seller agreed to split the cost of the fence with the buyer, too.
All in all, we have happy sellers and a happy new homeowner in Lafayette with a peek-a-boo view of Mt. Diablo and we couldn’t be happier for both parties!