Last week we sold 22 Alyssum Court in Novato, a 2bd/1.5ba townhome in the bucolic San Marin Valley neighborhood. It sold for $600,000. This is a property that was on the market with another agent earlier this year for 176 days and didn’t sell.

The seller had already moved out of state and was racking up more and more carrying costs as each month passed. He was eager for the process to be over with.

When the owner hired us to represent him, we tackled 3 areas: Condition, Price and Exposure

Condition

We had the house cleaned and we professionally staged every room with our staging inventory. We removed some old vertical blinds from the primary suite.

The seller agreed it was a good idea to paint the inside of the garage to make it cleaner and more appealing, so we enlisted a painter to do that.

The home sits beneath redwood trees, and a lot of tree debris had accumulated on the deck. So we had that cleaned along with the home’s siding, which had many cobwebs.

Price

We discussed with the seller a list price that was in line with recent sales and active listings.  When you are coming back on the market after not selling the first time, you have to take into account that it’s more challenging to get top dollar because you’ve lost the goodwill that you had in the beginning. We do our best to refresh the listing with staging, new photos and video, and re-launch to the market, but a better price usually has to be a factor, too.

When we put the home on the market in mid-September, there were a number of other townhomes for sale in this price range. We kept a close eye on how our competition was performing during our time on the market, and made one small price adjustment to be more competitive.

In the entire time we were active on the market (54 days), just TWO similarly-sized townhomes got into escrow with a buyer. The rest just sat. In other words, it was a challenging condo market!

Exposure

Our new staging, photos, video and marketing campaign were successful in bringing buyers to the property. We held multiple open houses and ran digital ads targeting likely buyers in 94945.

The seller received an all-cash offer with a quick close. Our client was so happy to be able to move on. Selling a house is a complicated process, and we are grateful he trusted our guidance to get him through it!

Novato Real Estate Experts

If you are thinking of selling your home, let us be your guide! Please contact us today.