Real estate agents love to brag that they have the best marketing, a huge online following, that they can get you the highest price, and will promise you the world, but very few actually do. This is a true-life account of the steps my team took, using our proven tactics, to sell this Brooklyn, NY home for way more than its list price.
The Goal
We had the opportunity to sell a very special property in Williamsburg, NY. This home was a ground-floor residence, which normally doesn’t resell well in New York City since they face directly onto the street. However, this particular home was special because it was not just any three-bedroom, but a property that also had its own private parking space connected directly to the home - an entirely unique offering that may be common in the suburbs but definitely not in New York City. What was even more unique about this home was that almost all of the living spaces faced into a private interior patio, creating the feeling of being in an oasis away from the hustle of New York City.
Our goal for this home was to create the best experience possible to draw the most attention of as many buyers as possible the minute the property went to market.
The Steps
The first step was to declutter the residence and make sure that it looked and felt as proposed by adding staging accessories to the space. In order to control the process and highlight the best-selling features, our team designs and installs the actual staging.
We then hired the best architectural photographer and video editing team to create awe-inspiring visuals that showcase the property, taking in factors such as natural light, the positioning, height, and angle of the camera, and even the time of day the images were captured. We even pre-planned the video tours to highlight the most exciting parts of the home through storytelling.
Afterward, we composed the marketing materials for both online and off. For this particular case, we created a few teasers that we released over several days before the official launch of the listing, creating buzz and inquiries before we even went to market.
On the day the listing went live we flooded the market online, launching the full video tour and syndicating the listing everywhere. We also sent out tons of emails to top-producing agents, prospective buyers, and neighbors nearby. To round it all out, we also mailed postcards to potential neighbors who may want to upgrade their home.
To build momentum and a sense of urgency we purposely held all inquiries to see the home until the first open house that Sunday, where we had showings by appointment only, timed at 15-minute intervals. We had initially scheduled a two-hour open house but ended up having to add an additional hour and a half due to demand. Buyers were coming in and out, one by one, seeing each other, all enhancing the desirability and scarcity of the property.
The Strategy
After that very successful first open house offers started rolling in. In total, we received eight offers, with several being over the listing price. We recommended to our homeowner the strategy of requiring buyers to submit their highest and best offer by that Wednesday and to go with the best one by then, in an attempt to avoid all the ugliness that goes with a bidding war.
That strategy worked very well. The house was originally priced at $2.5 million and we had received four offers that went over and above that. $2.6 million, $2.65 million, and the highest being $2.7 million. That’s $200,000 over the asking price! But wait, that’s not all. One of the backup buyers came back with an even higher offer of $2.8 million. We were in a conundrum, what do we do now, since we already accepted the original buyer’s offer at $2.7 million? We decided to give the original buyer the opportunity to up their offer to $2.8 million, which they agreed to and we settled there. That was over 10% of the listing price in a week. This sale price was now also significantly higher than the last comparable unit that sold in the same building a year ago.
As you can see, this strategy has been perfected time and again and has been able to get our clients to their real estate goals. We curate a customized strategy from start to finish. Your home is unique and so should the strategy to get it sold.
If you are considering making a move in the near future, I highly recommend that you give our team a call, our premium service will ensure your home gets the undivided attention you desire. To get started, email us at sales@undividedre.com.
