2010: Year in Review - BRYN MAWR HOME SALE

Since our renter's one-year lease was up at the end of May, we made the decision to put our home on the market for sale in June. We met with a realtor to determine the value of the home and get feedback on the types of upgrades we could put into the home, spending the least to make the most 'bang for our buck' so to speak. We started June 1st with our upgrades and projects to get the house ready to put on the market and by the 2nd weekend in June we had it listed. Some of the things we did in those 2 weeks included landscaping (mowing, edging, weeding, replacing all of the mulch with new mulch, pruning the roses, planting new small perennial flowers, and adding new flower beds with plants in the back yard), changing out all the ceiling fans in the house, re-painting the 2nd bedroom, kitchen, and hallway, re-painting the exterior shutters, replacing one window, patching any wall cracks that had shown up in the past year, staining the fence and deck, replacing the kitchen counters with granite slab and installing a white subway tile backsplash and of course cleaning the place spotless. It was a lot of work and a lot of late nights but we got it done!

We also decided that staging the home was going to be important to get it sold in the least amount of time for the most money so we decided that rather than spending a few thousand dollars to hire a staging company, we would just rent a moving truck and move some of our furniture pieces into the house for the time it was on the market. Since much of our furniture had been purchased when we lived in that home, we knew it would fit well and after the home was listed, we got lots of compliments on our staging efforts appearing professional! We also purchased an exterior patio furniture set including a table, chairs, umbrella, and outdoor rug to be placed on our back deck until the home sold and we picked one that we would like to keep so that we could bring it to our new home when we moved all our furniture back (good trick, eh?).

Our realtor was Kerri Hoermann of Kuper Sotheby's and she did a wonderful job. One of their services is to provide professional photos of the home for the listing which I believe made a huge difference in the presentation to get it sold.

We had an aggressive strategy and within 30 days we had a contract! It was a wonderful experience and we closed on the home in July, actually coming out ahead (financially) from the whole experience. We really loved the character of that home, the neighborhood and all of our neighbors who lived there, and we definitely miss them! Hopefully the new owner enjoys living there as much as we did.