{"id":2407,"date":"2026-04-07T13:15:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:15:44","slug":"selling-my-own-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/selling-my-own-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling My Own Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Courtesy of Home Visit<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Selling My Own Home<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started after a few delays getting on the market. Paint was touched up in rooms we had painted and new paint in rooms we had not touched in twenty-one years. Carpet was replaced. Projects that needed attention were handled. Twenty-one years of accumulated stuff was removed as we had downsized and not everything from our Bristow home was going to fit into our new home. Finally, after window cleaning, professional cleaning and staging, it was time for photos. Photo day was cloudy. Not the worst thing. Cloudy days mean fewer shadows. And with a north facing yard, clouds were probably exactly what I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View from the Front Porch (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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When listing homes, I prefer hitting the market on a Friday after having photos up for a day or two. We hit the market Saturday while photos were still uploading to media sites like Zillow and Redfin, despite having been uploaded in the wee hours of the morning. (Buyers are reticent to tour a home until they see the interior photos and know it is worth their while.) Scheduling hold ups with cleaners and stagers had pushed us to Saturday being our earliest day to go active. After one day on the market and a busy Open House, we had an interested buyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Double Bay Windows in Dining Room (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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The freeing thing about selling your own home, is that if your spouse is on board ..and mine was, you can be exceptionally honest with buyer agents calling to inquire about what it would take to win the home. I expressed that number whenever I got a call from a buyer’s agent. They were put off because it was above list price. However, working the neighborhood and tracking the neighborhood sales, I could tell you with near certainty, that would be our sales price after multiple offers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a second showing, this agent submitted a non-contingent offer at that number. No inspections. No financing or appraisal contingencies. And an earnest money deposit that was two and a half times larger than what would be typical. It screamed serious buyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Family Room to Kitchen (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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We wanted to wait through the Sunday Open House before accepting. Mind you, we got this offer at 8pm Saturday night. The agent representing the buyers was not happy about this and threw a mini tantrum. However, I expressed I thought it was unlikely to be beaten given the terms that came with the price. Sure enough after the second Open House, we called and told that agent we would be accepting the offer. Good news for his clients, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kitchen (Courtesy of HomeVisit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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This buyer’s agent wanted to immediately renegotiate. We had made his clients wait a day. They wanted $10,000 in closing cost help. Feeling that absolute freedom of being able to directly answer a negotiation, I pushed back and said, “Absolutely not. You asked what it would take to get us off the market, we told you. If they don’t want the house, find another one.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After another visit, this buyers agent was able to ease his buyers into the fact they were getting a great house at a great price. To them, it felt like it happened in a vacuum, but that is what they wanted. There were not other offers. So despite going under contract Sunday night, Monday morning the deal had fallen through because the buyers felt they were paying too much. (sigh) On to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Primary Bedroom (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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After that we met another buyer, whose agent was out of town at the home. She really liked it. It checked all her boxes…except for not having a fenced yard. Her agent was in touch and wanted to know what it took to make the deal. We told buyer agent #2 the number. What we got was an offer $20,000 less than that Monday evening. We were inclined to wait it out through the weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter buyer agent #3. Same question. Same answer. He told us his buyer’s absolute max and we felt that with the right terms, that may be the best we could do. Being the week of spring break, traffic was not as much as it would be otherwise. It was $10,000 off our desired price and came in on Wednesday. Something told us to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Primary Bathroom (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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On Thursday, between two appointments of my own, I got a call from buyer agent #4. Her buyers loved. Relocating from out of state. This was it. What’s it going to take. Same answer. And you know what? We got it. And that was it. We were under contract again, after losing our first buyer and then getting multiple offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Basement (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Buyer agent #2 understood. Buyer agent #3 did not and lost their mind. Despite expressing that the highest their client could go was what they wrote, apparently they had a lot more cash to throw at the house. Unfortunately, they mislead us in an attempt to have the least amount out of pocket. The phrase, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” <\/em>comes to mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial of Lot and Woods (Courtesy of Home Visit)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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Did I feel panicked when the first buyer voided? Absolutely. Of course, the twenty-one year Bristow real estate veteran in me quickly brought me back to calm and knew other buyers would see the value in an end of cul-de-sac lot that sided and backed to woods, not to mention the more rare floor plan of the Allister. As I tell my seller-clients, “Trust the process.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren’t done yet, but will be in the next couple weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Selling My Own Home It started after a few delays getting on the market. Paint was touched up in rooms we had painted and new paint in rooms we had not touched in twenty-one years. Carpet was replaced. Projects that needed attention were handled. Twenty-one years of accumulated stuff was removed as we had downsized Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,19,9],"tags":[673,50,76],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prince-william-county","category-bristow","category-home-selling","tag-braemar-listing-agent-bristow-va","tag-bristow-va-listing-agent","tag-bristow-va-listing-agent-that-will-do-staging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisanncleland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}