“Serena was great to work with before during and after the sale of my Seattle home. She took the time to learn my preferences and concerns before putting the house on the market. She was attentive to my needs during the time the house was on the market as I worked from home and coordination was essential. I received the perfect amount for my home and Serena was responsive and available throughout the closing process. I highly recommend Serena Heslop for your home sale!”

One of the things I really enjoy about my work is working to help people figure out what they really want to do, whether it be selling or buying. I ask a lot of questions and have been known to talk people out of selling their home if it has not seemed like the right time or motivation.

Peggy had consulted with me over three years about selling her house, and every year she had changed her mind for various reasons. Finally, she decided that this was the year to do it.

Selling a home is very stressful, as there are so many things to do to get the house ready for sale. If you are still living there, there is the added stressor of dealing with agents showing your home, so needing to keep the house super tidy and vacating the home as much as possible.

My client Peggy Martinez had an additional stressor in that she had very limited vision and she had a home office. So naturally, she felt a lot more vulnerable.

Peggy had owned her house for 10 years and wanted to move because her house was on Beacon Hill and the plane noise was driving her crazy. However, she had good consulting work in Seattle and on the east-side, so it was a hard decision to leave and she could not afford to buy a place in a quieter neighborhood. She also felt like Seattle was getting too big for her.

Peggy was lucky enough to own a house in Northern California in a town she really liked, that she had been renting to students every year. So, if she was to sell, she needed to time it right so she could have some time to fix up the house after the academic year and be able to move in.

All seemed doable, but it really was dependent on how quickly her house would sell and how long Peggy could deal with her life being disrupted.

We decided to list her house in mid-May with the stipulation that Peggy would stay until the end of July and do a rent-back if necessary. Thus, allowing her to move directly into her home in California after work had been done.

The expectation was that her house would sell quickly as it was priced under $500,000 and in great shape. We had an inspection and a sewer scope done, the inspection having some minor items to address which Peggy had fixed. She is one of the most capable and organized people I know!

Of course, things don’t always work out as planned and after the first three weeks and several open houses with no offers, Peggy was getting despondent and decided that she wanted to take the house off the market.

This seemed crazy to me as in the scheme of things it was so little time. However, after a long conversation with Peggy, I realized the main reason was just the stress of not being able to be home and work when she needed to.

On the weekends, she had stayed with friends or rented an Airbnb, while I took care of her house while she was away, closing up at night and opening the curtains and turning on the lights etc., in the am so it would look good when agents showed it.

Everything was a lot harder for Peggy, so I could totally understand, however it seemed such a shame and so much wasted effort on her part. We discussed how now the momentum had been set and how would she feel if she had to do this all over again. We decided to at least give the house another week. Fortunately, Peggy had a trip planned for several days, so her house could be easily shown to buyers.

As luck would have it, we got an offer two days later, which we countered, and we were able to get mutual acceptance. The house was on the market for 28 days. Peggy got a month’s rent-back, and all went smoothly from then on.

I am so happy that Peggy could finally move on and not be stuck a house that she no longer wanted to live in, and I truly admire her resilience; she was such a pleasure to work with, even in the stressful moments, and I am in awe of her ability to navigate the world.

Congratulations, Peggy!

Ideally it is best to be able to get a house ready to sell when the owners/renters have moved out. However often sellers are not in the position to do that as was the case with Rob and Jen Vetter.

Rob and Jen contacted me as they had seen my signs in the neighborhood for years and ironically Rob had chastised me many years ago when I was a new agent for putting a flyer in his mail box, he was a postman and told me it was illegal, which of course I had no idea being a rookie agent!

They had met with an agent a year before to discuss selling but were put off by some of her suggestions, which included pressure washing all the moss covered concrete wall in the back yard, which I actually liked as it made the wall look old and rustic.

When we met their house was in chaos as they had two young boys, and both parents had full-time jobs. Need I say more?!

It was an interesting older house probably built in the 1920’s but had undergone some remodeling in the 1970’s, not the best era for a remodel! The house had an unusual layout, with a living room at the front of the house, adjacent to the kitchen, which is common. However, the dining room was at the back of the house and was separated from the kitchen by another living room and a narrow sunroom.

The house could not be staged so I had to get creative with the help of my fab staging stylist and use their furniture, luckily some was very cool. Rob is an artist and they had some great art also, however there was too much of it, so we had to diplomatically persuade him to remove some pieces.

My sense was that a more creative type of person would want this house, but we need to tone it down a bit and de-clutter.

In my mind the sunroom was the most unique and special feature of this home, and it was being used to store the kid’s toys, so that had to change. We cleared it out and staged a sweet reading area.

The house really needed some painting, a big yard clean-up and other cosmetic work. The front door was a horrible beige that did not go with the blue siding, so I chose a plum color with Rob’s approval and painted it myself as we were running out of time.

I suggested they go away for the weekend as I knew they would have a hard time keeping the place ship shape with their two boys, so they rented a house around the corner.

We had a great open house and ended up receiving five offers.

The winning offer had waived their inspection and it sold for $61,000, over the asking price.

Congrats to the Vetters!