selling long distance success

last year

I want to mention this for the information of anyone else that might find themselves in this position......Due to the death of a distant relative, I found myself in the position of having to sell a house long-distance, and in another country. I haven't been in the house for about a dozen years, and my relative had lived in her son's home for about 18 months before her death, so the house has been empty (but checked on and monitored by a service). The reason why I'm selling the house instead of her son is a complicated legal situation that I won't get into (though he did decline the opportunity to buy it himself).

I looked for realtors who were selling or have sold homes in the close vicinity, and chose one after emailing several about my situation. After the paperwork was settled, she went about hiring maintenance, repair, and cleaning companies to fix the deficits (plaster, paint, plumbing fixture repair, roof repair, pool maintenance, cleaning, etc), and then she had photos taken and got it all on the market in 3 weeks - and all while not running afoul of HOA rules. She asked for an extra half percent in commission for the organizing and hiring work, which I thought was a bargain; my biggest problem was figuring out how to pay some of the bills from companies that didn't take credit cards. I know that it helps that it is a pricey home; in the end, I paid about 1% of the listing price in pre-sale work. The house sold a few days after listing, and it's set to close in a few weeks.

What I thought would be a horrible task turned out to be very straightforward and relatively easy, with the help of a good agent. Now, though, I have the IRS and legal bills, but that's a different story.

Here's the house: https://www.zillow.com/homes/9290-N-99th-Way-Scottsdale,-AZ-85258_rb/8057790_zpid/

It you find yourself in this situation, put your time and effort into finding a good agent to help.

Featured Answer

Toronto Veterinarian
Original Author

6 months ago

" You paid well for the convenience. "

Once you consider my savings, I actually paid relatively little for the convenience.....I saved thousands by not having to fly there, not having to spend several weeks there (time off work), not having to hire people in a market I know nothing about (hiring unknown quality while not knowing a fair market price), and not having to rent a car and feed myself while there too.

The flight cost alone is probably at least US $1200, rental car would be about US$850 for 2 weeks, food would likely be about US$350 - those things alone mean I saved about US$2400. Add in lost income for 2 weeks, finding a pet sitter to leave my house empty for 2 weeks, and the cost of airport transfers - now the convenience actually cost me a really reasonable amount: About $1000 for not having to leave home for a few weeks and not having to deal with the stress of finding and overseeing repairs on the house in a strange location where I know nobody.

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Comments (10)

txponygirl
last year
Beautiful home! That's a nice area (I live 15 miles north) I agree, a great agent makes all the difference.
3katz4me
12 months ago
Wow - beautiful home. I’m in the opposite situation - buying long distance annd getting a lot of help from the broker. Helps that he lives a few doors down from the house I’m interested in.
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Olychick
11 months ago
The pics are very nice. Those counters are gorgeous. I hope the new owners appreciate it and the cabinets and don't rip everything out to create an all white and gray trendy kitchen there. Glad it was relatively easy. I was in the same position of selling a relative's home as the executor and luckily, one of my friends who live in the same city bought it, as is, at a premium price (in a high demand neighborhood). It would have needed a lot of work to get it listed and I was happy to not have to do that.
CA Kate z9
11 months ago
That is a beautiful house! I'm glad the sale ended up being easier than you thought.
mmmm12COzone5
11 months ago
Gorgeous house! Nice to hear that if you find the right agent they are willing to do alot of work and have such a nice outcome.
debbie1000
11 months ago
I had to stop scrolling through the pics, I'm so jealous!

That is such a beautiful house!
HU-227031627
6 months ago
The Scottsdale real estate market is hardly a tough one to sell a home. Your house was listed on April 21, received an offer on May 1, and sold on May 12.

Glad that it worked out nicely for you but you paid $6,950 to the real estate agent (0.5% of $1.39 million) just for arranging for maintenance work that may or may not have been needed by people that she picked who may or may not have been giving you the best price. Since that work took less than 3 weeks and cost around $7,550, it was hardly extensive. You then paid another 5% to 6% in selling commission when the house received an offer 10 days later, which is $69,500 or $83,400.

She made out big time on the clean up. You paid well for the convenience.
HU-227031627
6 months ago
And my real estate agent helped find repair people for certain items on the buyer's punch list for my much less expensive condo without charging me extra in order to get the sale done long distance. I have friends who are real estate agents and they have lists of recommended vendors that they give out gratis to potential clients who are looking to get their homes repaired prior to sale. Calling a vendor off a list isn't that hard for a long-distance seller to do. I did that. Giving the vendor the access code to the house isn't hard either.

Your story doesn't make it clear "who" was receiving the proceeds from this sale--your nephew or you. You felt it was worth the money. Well, particularly if it isn't your money that you are spending, I can expecially understand why you didn't mind paying. Some people would be happy to spend the money to avoid any headache regardless, particularly those at the $1 mil plus price point. And given your outlined situation, you had many reasons to need help.

So to the extent that you were passing along a nice tip to others, then yes, thank you for letting folks know. But especially in the wake of the recent NAR realtors lawsuit verdict which found that realtors conspired to force sellers to pay excessive fees and awarded $1.8 billion to homeowners, your tip should be tempered to let folks know that there was a big price tag attached to that help. I'm not being rude. I'm providing full disclosure to those who don't do the math or are unknowledgable. Too many older folks get ripped off these days. I'm not suggesting that you were. I'm just reminding people of the price tag for convenience and that there are other options too.
Toronto Veterinarian
Original Author
6 months ago
" your tip should be tempered to let folks know that there was a big price tag attached to that help. "

No, there was a small price tag attached to it, because it was long distance. There's a totally different conversation to be had if you're local.