I hope you are doing well. Please feel free to show this letter to clients and prospective clients at your discretion. If one or more these people would like to talk directly to me, that would be fine as well. Diane and I were introduced to your agency as we started to take steps to move from Lake Oswego, OR to Bend, OR in the fall of 2009. We had a number of questions about the first step in that process, i.e. selling our house in Lake Oswego. As you know it is a house with some major assets and some liabilities. And, as you also remember, it was a very challenging housing environment. Our questions included the correct time to list the house, the best way to position the house, i.e., focus on the property or focus on the house, and how to price the house. Clearly we wanted to maximize the value we could get from the house, but we did not want an extended sale process. We initially worked with several realtors and asked them all for their perspectives on those questions. Your answers made the most sense to us, even though your price estimate was lower than that provided by others. You clearly stated a) your opinion that the market was continuing to soften, and b) your philosophy to set a market viable price and hold firm, expecting a reduction of no more than 5%.
As we engaged with your agency, you helped us come with a timing plan, a presentation plan, an advertising plan and price, balancing the factors above. When we did publically list the house in the spring of 2010 we had strong traffic which, after several weeks produced a strong offer. After a brief negotiation on the price resulted in a price within the 5% range discussed earlier. Some issues came up as a result of the inspection which you helped us work through to a satisfactory result from our point of view. We were able to close on the house, at the originally negotiated price, within several months of listing. We used the proceeds from the sale to buy a house in central Oregon with which we are quite happy. As you suggested during our sale process, housing prices, particularly for high end homes, have continued to decline. We appreciate your contribution to the process, and will use you again if circumstances warrant.
