The Best 4 Letter Word Ever.....

It took a little over a week and some very hard work on our part and our agent's part - but we are officially SOLD! Now that we are sold, I can reveal how it all went down. A little over a month ago, a unit exactly like ours was priced at $329K and sold in multiple offers for $363K. Now, the unit did have some nicer finishes than ours and had an extra patio at the back, so we figured ours wouldn't sell for quite as much because of these factors, but were still pretty hopeful. We decided to list at the same price, and hold back offers for about a week and have all offers presented at the same time in the hopes of drumming up our own multiple offer situation. The listing went on the market  last Tuesday, and we had showings all week, through the weekend and we had over 25 scheduled showings, and over 30 people show up at the Open House. That translated to 4 registered offers tonight.

All 4 offers were presented and we decided to work with 2 of them - meaning that there were 2 offers that were fairly close and they were sent back to improve them. One of the offers was initially $5K over the other one, but it had a financing condition which we weren't too happy about because it meant there was a chance that the deal could fall through. The higher offer came back with a price of $352K and the sightly lower, but firm offer came back with $351K - this is the one that we ended up accepting.

After signing paperwork, we officially sold our condo! It was a great feeling but both J and I felt some bittersweet emotions because it meant that we would be saying goodbye to our first home together. All of our work in staging our place paid off and it was totally worth it. The sale of our condo puts us in an excellent financial position for our new home and gives us some extra money for renovations and furniture. I guess I had better get some moving boxes ready!

You Would Want to Live Here, Right?

Sorry for being MIA after my last post, however J and I have been super busy over the last week or getting our condo in selling shape. It is a LOT of work to stage your home and make it look like it is always in pristine condition. Even though I have only been there for 2 1/2 years the amount of things that we seemed to have was crazy! We made 2 runs to Value Village and my lovely parents allowed us to store some extra things at their place until the condo sells.

Our realtor Andrew sat down with J and I and explained everything that is involved with the selling process, including using recent sales in the area to set a list price. There is a particular strategy that we are employing currently, but I want to wait until it is sold before it is revealed! J and I are certainly hoping it pays off. Some of the reasons we decided to go with the same realty  were that they provide amazing marketing (also because we are thoroughly impressed with our agent). Professional photos of our condo were taken, and some amazing marketing materials and website were created. These make a huge difference to a prospective buyer on MLS - believe me!

We already have 3 showings today, and it is the first day it is publically on the market, so we are hoping it is a great sign of things to come this week. J and I know that means we will need to find some things to do during our evenings while people are taking a look at our place. It also means not getting a lot of time to cook (also because our kitchen is sparkling clean and we don't want to ruin it!)

One thing I have learned is how important it is to stage the condo to appeal to the largest number of buyers. Some of the things that we did to encourage this were:

- Taking down ALL personal photos and replacing them with generic black & white travel photos
- Putting away some of my favourite travel souveniers
- Buying fresh flowers for different areas of the house
- Replacing all towels with fresh white towels, and the shower curtain with a white curtain
- Overall, de-clutter all closets and keep kitchen counters mostly clear
- CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!

We know this week will be a little inconvenient, but it is a necessary experience to go through and hopefully a little inconvenience now will pay off when we get an offer!

Here are some photos of our staged condo. Those of you that have been to our place can see what a big difference it is from its regular state!

Our listing website can be found here and our MLS listing is here. If you know anyone looking for a great place in the South Riverdale/Leslieville area of Toronto, please forward these links to them. Thanks!