In March of 2018, I met a man named Juan while picking up signs after an open house in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland. Juan hopped out of a U-Haul, at a stop sign holding up traffic, to ask me for a business card and I never heard from him again. Off to a great start…
Fast-forward to January 2019 – I’m chatting with our office admin, Michelle, as our receptionist, Aimee, goes on the intercom broadcasting something. I thought she was saying I had to move my car (2-car tandem spots) so I walk her way and ask if I need to move it. She says there is a lead on the phone wanting to sell his house. Holy crap – ok, where can I answer the phone?! I run back into Michelle’s office and ask how I can answer this call – I’ve never had this happen and at this moment ANYONE in the office can answer the lead.
I pick up the call, no one else had answered yet, and a man named Juan is on the phone. He says he has a home to sell in St. Johns and it has been on the market 9 months. Then it hits me, I know this voice... I quickly ask if he’s the man I met last March on N. Smith in a U-Haul. Juan laughs, he remembers this moment and is in disbelief. I’m in the office 15-30 minutes a day, MAX. The fact that Juan called our office out of any office in Portland, that I was there, and managed to pick up the phone can only be fate. We talked for 2 minutes and by January 10th I had his home on the market.
As previously mentioned, the home was on the market for 9 full months in 2018, the listing ending in December. After touring Juan’s home for the first time in January, I just couldn’t understand why it didn’t sell. It was very well kept, new interior paint & carpeting, spacious bedrooms and an open layout. But there was one glaring thing it needed due to the tight layout on the main level, staging.
Juan and I went back and forth on this. Staging can be expensive and is - normally - an upfront cost for a seller. There is no guarantee or refund if your home doesn’t sell, so I get that spending $2,000+ can be scary. Juan decided he didn’t want to do it, I knew we had to, so we made a deal. I would take the upfront risk and only be compensated for the expense if the home sold. If the home didn’t sell, I would be out $1,600 (at the time), plus the cost of photography, a professional floor plan, and various marketing materials. The home also needed curtains on the main floor. So, I headed to Target to pick up 4 curtain rods, 4 sets of curtains and a couple doormats. A few days pass and the home is staged, curtains are up with privacy restored and it looked charming as ever.
January 10th - Juan’s home on N Smith goes live on the market only $5,000 under the previous list price in good faith.
January 20th - We are pending. Success!
February 15th - SOLD at asking price.
Juan and I actually never met again; he was already moved out of town by the time I listed the home. I took care of every detail from start to finish. But it was that shared moment in March of 2018 that somehow brought us back together to get his home sold nearly a year later, and I’m so thankful it did!
Amanda
