My Home Sale: Let’s Play “What If”

Looking back at the sales process of my home, I started to think about some of the “what if” situations. For instance, I thought about what would have happened if I went for the first bid on my house to come along or if I had decided to go with the first termite inspection report that I got. No, I won’t tell you exactly how much I got for the home. (You can still do the math based on hints below.) But I’ll give a little teaser as to how much money I “saved” by making certain decisions along the way as I sold my home. Here are four of them.

1. What if I had taken the first bid that came along?

I would have sold the house for about $39,000 less than I ended up selling it for.

2. What if I hadn’t called the buyer’s bluff on canceling the deal over flashing?

I would have paid out about $200 more in repairs.

3. What if I had taken the first bid on a termite inspection report?

I would have paid at least $500 more in termite fees.

4. What if I had used an agent who charged me 3% commission versus using Redfin?

I wouldn’t have had the benefit of meeting Redfin’s average savings of over $14,000 .

Total potential “savings” based on these four scenarios: $53,700

Here’s a song by Cold Play that ponders the question of “what if”.

Look for an upcoming post about why my sales price wasn’t really my sales price.