6204 Bernard Ave | Alexandria VA Real Estate

Property Overview

We take immense pride in listing a client’s properties for sale. A client’s home is one where they make memories, raise a family and enjoy countless moments with loved ones. We recognize that selling a home is never just “selling” a home. It is an emotional process that can go downhill quickly if expectations are not met.

Our client had tried to sell his home previously with a different brokerage. Even though that brokerage was located in Chantilly and was 25 miles away from his home, he had heard the agent’s advertisements on the radio, had seen the agent’s advertisements on the back of city buses and he was curious about their ‘guarantee programs.

The sellers signed up with the brokerage and unfortunately for them, the property did not sell. There was even a $125,000 price reduction with the previous brokerage and the property still did not sell. The sellers took the property off the market and decided to wait a few more years before trying again.

I was referred to these clients by a previous client who had a positive experience using my services. The sellers of 6204 Bernard Ave were looking to downsize.

When working with clients who have previously had unsuccessful results with a different real estate agent, it is imperative to set proper expectations. My client had the best and newest house in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Our challenge was to sell the best house on the block.

Online Marketing

Unlike the previous brokerage, our marketing strategy included a professional 4k video. We took that video and published it on YouTube. From there, we targeted YouTube users that had watched real estate videos previously and were within a 15-mile radius of the property. Over 24,000 Alexandria-area viewers watched the video.

We also published the best photos on Instagram. Those property photos were seen by almost 1,100 people.

In total, our online marketing put the property in front of an additional 25,000 people that are in the Northern Virginia area and have shown some interest in Alexandria, VA real estate in the past.

Imagine the impact if you were able to put your property in front of 25,000 relevant people in your area. These are 25,000 people that may not have seen the property otherwise.

There will always be buyers that scour the MLS and analyze every property that comes on the market.

But what about those casual buyers? The buyers that will check Zillow every now and then but would make a move if the right property comes across their radar?

How is your marketing going to proactively reach those buyers as opposed to hoping and praying they check Zillow at the right time?

We have found that video marketing is a fantastic way to proactively reach buyers that could be interested in purchasing the property.

Results

We listed the home at the price of $999,900. The truth is that the property “on paper” is worth more than that amount. It was probably worth $1M or $1.01M, basically, it was worth slightly above $1 million.

However, since we were at a number where most buyers cap their search, we decided to list right under $1 million. The reality is that there are buyers that are looking from $950k – $1M and from $1M – $1.1M or so. Our strategy was to capture the buyer that would see everything that would check all their boxes in the $950k – $1M range as opposed to try to find a buyer in the next “bracket” higher that would be “settling” for a property that was lower priced than the other homes they had seen.

We were on the market for five days and received three offers on the property. One offer had a low down payment. This could have been a concern if the appraisal had come in lower than the contract price.

The second offer included a home-of-sale contingency. The buyer had a rowhome in DC they had to sell prior to purchasing their next home. While the market moves quickly in DC, it would be ideal to sell the client’s home without having to wait for the buyer’s property to sell.

The third offer was a clean offer with no major contingencies and the price came in at about the same price as the second offer. We went back to the third offer to see if they could do any better to secure the home. The third offer submitted their best and final offer and the sellers accepted the contract which had a sales price of $1,021,000. We closed 30 days later.