Ask Renee | Selling · 4 min read
How to sell a Colorado home when you already live somewhere else
Most of my out-of-state sellers are in the same position. The job moved, or the family did, and the Colorado house is still sitting there. Half empty, full of the things that did not make the truck, and two time zones away from anyone who can let a contractor in.
They all ask the same first question: what is it worth? It is the wrong first question. The house is not worth much of anything until it is ready to be seen, and getting it ready is the part nobody can do from a thousand miles away.
The listing is the last step, not the first
By the time a house goes live, the work is already finished. The photographs are taken, the carpets are clean, the rooms are staged, the garage is empty, and the small repairs a buyer’s inspector would have flagged are closed out.
When the seller lives here, that is a few weekends of effort. When the seller does not, every one of those items needs somebody local to schedule it, meet the vendor, check the work and lock the door afterwards.
That is the actual service. Not the sign in the yard.
What this looked like on a recent sale
I listed a townhouse in Westminster this fall. The Seller had already moved out of state and was not able to come back for any of it.
We handled all of it from here: the movers, the donation runs for everything staying behind, the clean-out, the staging and the photography. The Seller approved every decision by phone and text, and I sent pictures at each stage so there were no surprises.
It went under contract in twelve days.
I am not going to tell you that is typical, because no one can promise that. What I will say is that it was not luck. The presentation and the price were both right, and those are the two things actually inside your control.
Presentation and price are one decision, not two
Sellers tend to treat these as separate jobs. First we fix the house, then we argue about the number. They are the same decision.
A house that photographs well and shows well brings the whole buyer pool through in the first weekend, and a full buyer pool is what produces competing offers. A house priced for the condition it is actually in, rather than the condition the owner remembers, does the same thing.
Get either one wrong and the house sits. Once it sits, the price conversation happens anyway, only now from a weaker position, with days on market working against you.
What to ask before you hire anyone
Who meets the vendors? If the answer is vague, you will end up flying back. Ask specifically who holds the key and who is standing in the house when the carpet cleaner arrives.
What happens to what is left behind? Furniture, garage shelving, the things that did not make the move. A plan for donation and haul-away should exist before a listing date is set, not after.
How will I see the house? You should not be guessing from two states away. Expect photographs at each stage, well before the professional ones are taken.
What is the number, and what is it based on? A price should arrive with comparable sales attached and a plain explanation of how your house differs from them.
Sellers who have done this from a distance tend to describe it the same way:
She pays attention to every single detail and walked us through the complete process. Even though we were 800 miles away she made us feel like we were right there.
If you are in this position
Call or text me. Tell me where the house is and roughly what is still inside it, and I will tell you what it actually needs, including when the honest answer is that it needs very little.
That conversation is free, and you will get the real version of it.
Questions about your own situation? That conversation is free and I’ll tell you the truth.
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