Incredibly well updated on a large, flat lot sits 539 Grand Avenue. The home is 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with hardwood floors plus an enormous deck. Seriously, the deck can seat 20 adults comfortably on just the built-in benches. The living area measures 1,541 square feet and the lost is 7,033 square feet. There is also a substantial 2 car garage on the property. Click here to learn more about the property details for 539 Grand Avenue.
I had the privilege of working together with the owners to sell this South Pasadena property recently. After examining the other similar properties that had sold in the vicinity, the owners agreed on a listing price of $1,399,000. While we knew that this was a lower price than the owners hoped for, it gave room for multiple buyers to express interest and push the price to the correct market price.
As is my preference, we held the house open on 2 consecutive weekends. I like to do that in order to give serious buyers a chance to see the home more than once, and also to let any buyers who were a bit “late to the game” to still have a chance to make an offer. Therefore, we listed the home on a Thursday – then held the first Open House weekend on that Saturday and Sunday. The home was made available for visits during the next week by appointment and then the second Open House weekend was held. Offers were due the following Tuesday.
I like to provide as much information as possible on the realtor’s database (The Multi-Listing Service or MLS) for agents and potential buyers. We provided a number of disclosures on the MLS and I also like to include “Offer Guidelines”. Here is an example of the Offer Guidelines for 539 Grand Avenue as they appeared in the MLS.
The Open Houses went well with plenty of serious visitors. As usual I arrived about an hour ahead of time each day to get the house ready. This included: turning on all the lights and making sure the shutters were open to bring in light (or slightly closed to keep the house cooler) – unlocking all the doors which included gates on the property, the garage, front and back doors and 2 sets of sliding glass doors. I also set up some signs indicating that the owners wanted visitors to wear booties to protect the newly polished floors. I placed out plenty of booties for guests and also arranged the promotional brochures around the house for visitors to pick up and take with them. Finally I had brought refrigerated bottled water which was set up nicely arranged on the dining room table.
The home was “staged” – meaning that I had hired professional designers to bring in their own furniture and make the house as attractive as possible. The owners put their furniture and belongings in storage for the sale period. I feel that it is an advantage to “de-personalise” the home by removing pictures and personal items as well.
In addition to promoting the Open Houses via my website – SouthPasadenaHomes.com – I also purchased both online and print ads in the local South Pasadena paper to alert buyers to the home for sale. Of course we had professional photos taken by a very talented photographer to highlight the best features of the house and give it some beautiful context. I also mailed out (in the USPS system) letters inviting the neighbors to come have a look – and many of them did.
All of our work paid off as we received multiple offers by the offer deadline. There were 2 all-cash offers and several more with loans. The sellers looked carefully through all the terms of the various offers and chose to counter-offer each potential buyer. 24 hours later the sellers had chosen a buyer based on a combination of the strongest price and the best terms.
After multiple offers and counter-offers the final sales price was: $1,634,000. That’s $235,000 above the original listing price! The property was sold in just 12 days.
It is interesting to note that several other homes which were listed for sale at the same time as 539 Grand Avenue are still on the market – some have even had price reductions. Rising interest rates and a general cooling of the market has been developing – but well presented homes that are priced correctly and expertly marketed will still be selling quickly.
If you want to work together with a South Pasadena resident and top realtor in South Pasadena – reach out anytime if you need advice on selling your South Pasadena Home.
Derek
