7065 Heritage Hunt Drive #103 Sold for $360,000 on May 24, 2021
Just Sold: Heritage Hunt Condo for $22,000 Above List Price
On April 24th (2021,) I had the pleasure of bringing a gorgeous Eastport model condo in Heritage Hunt to market located at 7065 Heritage Hunt Drive #103. What makes an Eastport model special, unlike most Heritage Hunt condos, is that there are windows surrounding the kitchen and dining area. They are located on the corners of the building and there are only two per floor. This one happened to be the builder’s model and has special touches like extra trim in the dining room and custom drapery.
Sitting down with the sellers to figure out list price was interesting. I had one of the smallest units under contract, just down the hall from them, for more than the comparable sales suggested I should have and I was still getting calls on it. So when we found the comps pointing us to a max of $330,000, I suggested higher. After all, they were an Eastport, there was nothing else that would be active in Heritage Hunt condos and demand for condos in Heritage Hunt had started to increase.
Not wanting to go above $340,000, the sellers decided $338,000 was optimistic enough for them. Even in a seller’s market, many sellers will still wonder if their home will attract a buyer. It is understandable. I do this two dozen times per year or more. They sell a home once every five to ten years at best.
Initially, we had no offer deadline. Showings were piling up even as we were Coming Soon, awaiting professional photos. First day on market, we got an offer a smidge above list price. The owners were thrilled that someone wanted the condo and suddenly understood what I had been telling them. More than one buyer was going to want the home. So we set an offer deadline and announced it. Wouldn’t you know they got a barn burner of an offer that went $12,000 above list price AND offered an additional $10,000 above that if they signed at an earlier deadline set by this offer. Sticking to the original deadline was not going to happen.
Since Heritage Hunt condos first sold in the resale market, the highest above list price any of them have ever gotten was $12,500. That happened in February 2012. More recently, despite the frenzied seller’s market for single family homes in Heritage Hunt that really ramped up in 2019-2020 and was off the charts in 2021, condos were lucky to sell for their original list price.
In an effort to be fair to those that had shown the unit and were scheduled to show it, I reached out to each agent with the new deadline. The whining and crying in our industry behind the scenes is quite something. Buyer agents often forget that listing agents aren’t there to make life easier for them. We are there to represent the best interest of the sellers. When you get a record setting offer on your listing with an earlier deadline than the one you set, you better believe the sellers are meeting that deadline and making $10,000 more.
Today, May 24th (2021,) Unit 103 in 7065 Heritage Hunt sold for $360,000. That’s $22,000 above their original list price, a new record in the history of Heritage Hunt condos. And they were under contract in only two days!
When the need or desire to sell your Heritage Hunt condo arises, get in touch with me. I’ve been listing them since 2018 when I listed my mom’s unit. (My mother being a decade long owner of a Heritage Hunt condo is how I got to know all about them.) I offer staging advice, light staging in vacant units and professional photography to include those of Heritage Hunt’s community amenities. Being well prepared and professionally marketed is what creates buyer enthusiasm, which gets you every dollar you can pull from that one-time sale no matter the market.
7065 Heritage Hunt Drive #101, Gainesville, VA Sold for $310,000 on April 22, 2021
Just Sold: Heritage Hunt Active Adult Condo for $310,000
Not all listings sell in a matter of days, even in this intense seller’s market that we are experiencing in Gainesville, VA. When I took the listing for 7065 Heritage Hunt Way, Unit 101, I was familiar with the unit. I had sold it for the prior owner in 2019. However, while comps revealed the likelihood of increased price, they also indicated that it may take a month to go under contract. One condo in the comps actually took nearly two months to go under contract. Perhaps it was pandemic phobia, being in a building with lots of common surfaces. Or just the idea that you may be quarantined in a building. Somehow or another, condos seemed to be experiencing a different ebb and flow than the surrounding market.
This particular unit faced its own challenges. It was first floor, apparently a problem for some people who wish to be higher than ground floor. It faced north, so it never got direct sunlight. And three, it faced the parking lot. I dealt with all of these objections the first time I listed it for the former owner in 2019. At that time, pre-Covid, condos moved faster. Post-Covid, not all do.
To me, the home offered fantastic space and the unusual feature of having engineered hardwood flooring throughout all but the bathrooms and second bedroom. That was a really nice upgrade. So after losing about three serious buyers, we upped the ante and staged. It warmed the place up and most importantly, brightened it up.
Never underestimate the power of staging to draw in a buyer.
The unit originally hit the market priced at $315,000 on February 1st (2021) and then endured one month of crappy winter weather. After just over one month on the market, the price was improved to $310,000. Just two and a half weeks at the improved price saw improved traffic and it went under contract with a buyer that was purchasing it for his mother.
There had been a buyer floating about that had his agent making verbal, low offers on the home. He had never seen the unit and was a cash buyer. Like most cash buyers, he felt that entitled him to a cash discount. It’s all cash to the seller in the end, and that’s where a lot of cash buyers lose out when they don’t see the value in their cash. They don’t need to go through appraisal and can offer list price or higher in a seller’s market. While he had his agent calling every hour on the hour, he insisted he wasn’t desperate. Well, he sure didn’t get the condo.
As it turns out, settling at $310,000 with $4,500 to a buyer with a conventional loan was still higher than that cash buyer was willing to verbally offer. Clue number one, buyers aren’t very interested when they don’t make written offers. Clue number two, they want it more than they are willing to admit when their non-verbal doesn’t match their verbal.
I imagine that cash buyer is still out there, trying to negotiate low deals in a market with rising prices. Yes, even condo values are rising. This one even appraised at $310,000 despite that cash buyer’s thoughts on market value. Just taking some of them longer to sell, that’s all. Limited inventory is still limited inventory.
When you are ready to sell your Heritage Hunt condo, get in touch with me. I have experience getting the job done and realize it may take longer than a weekend to sell some condos. And crazy low prices may not be the answer. Sometimes staging makes a difference, as it did here. Sometimes it is simply having patience.
When I first heard that the buyer of a former listing of mine at 7065 Heritage Hunt Drive #101 from the fall of 2019 was planning on selling, I was so pleased to be considered for the job. It’s not often I get to sell the same property twice, but it happens. And having expertise in this particular active adult community and condo building helped.
As with any market with intense buyer demand, our market values have gone nowhere but up since she purchased. And when my new seller decided to list for $315,000, it was hard to argue. She had purchased for $290,000 eighteen months earlier. At that time, the condo was only on the market a handful of days. Since the time the new owner had purchased, COVID changed the landscape of condo marketing. Living in a high density environment with commonly touched surfaces like community elevator buttons and door handles is now a daunting prospect.
The comparable SOLD listings showed eighteen days on average for marketing time. However, the PENDING sales showed an average of seventy-seven days. The pendings were the most recent to be chosen, so I prepared the seller that it was not likely to be a quick sale.
After one month on the market, we had endured two snow storms and realized we needed to highlight our positives more clearly to take advantage of the fewer showings we were getting. A new photo shoot and some updated staging did the trick. Showings increased. Not hard to do when you are the only active adult condo listing on the market.
That was when a market vulture made an appearance. Couldn’t be bothered to see the home in person, but wanted their agent to call and bully my seller into accepting a lower offer than what she had purchased the home for in 2019. On and on that went for about a week. Verbal offers thrown about, but nothing in writing. On and on we were told, “You’re on the only active adult condo on the market,” as if that meant we were priced too high. Hmm. That’s WHY we were priced where we were.
Nonetheless, other agents that did take the time to show the listing gave valuable feedback that left my seller re-evaluating her price. A small reduction to $310,000 was in order. Eighteen days after that price reduction, the condo went under contract…fifty-seven days on the market after listing. Not bad considering that the most recent chosen condos took an average of seventy-seven days to go under contract when we listed.
A seller’s market has high buyer demand and limited inventory. That doesn’t mean that every listing flies off the shelf. Make sure you hire a professional who knows how to interpret the market statistics to not cost you money lowering your price by leaps and bounds when what you need may be more time.
