Saturday I attended a house being sold utilizing the 5-Day Sale technique developed by Bill Effros. I am in the process of repairing a house myself that I intend to sell using the 5-Day Sale technique. We have lived in the house for 4 years and will take advantage of the homeowners tax exemption, as described on my webpage (link to article on the federal tax exemption).
The sale wasn’t run very well. They didn’t follow the guidelines in the book. Some of the obvious oversights that I noticed were:
1. The house was not in presentable shape. For a house that was only 2-years-old, it was pretty messy. A door frame was broken, there were many obvious scuff marks on the floor molding. A little paint would have helped a lot. The refrigerator was taped shut so it could not be opened. Effros says not to spend a lot of money fixing things up, but the type of fix-up that this house needed would only require minimal expenditures.
2. The atmosphere was not enjoyable. The utilities were not on, so there was no electricity (and it was a hot day). They offered bottles of water, but its not a good house viewing experience to sweat while you look.
3. The paperwork was not in order. There was no termite report or radon study, and no inspector’s report or computer printout showing price estimate. In a previous 5 Day Sale that I attended they had all these documents laid out for everyone to see, and it was really a good selling point.
4. Signs were poorly done, and the driving directions they gave me over the phone were unclear. I couldn’t find the house, and only small, hard-to-see, signs were used to direct people to the house.
The result of these oversights was immediately obvious, because when I was there, no one else was viewing the house, and only two people had made bids. And the house had already been open for 4 hours.
I have previously been to another 5-Day Sale that was done by the book. In that case, the house was full of people milling around, asking question, taking information and making bids. The contrast between the two houses was night and day.
It may be a few more months before we finish repairs on my house, but I’ll let you know how I come out with my 5-Day Sale.
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Tags: 5-Day Sale
You write very well.