Nat Wallen Real Estate
https://www.natwallen.com/blog/time-capsule-mt-pleasant-sc-homes-for-sale.html

Time Capsule - Mt Pleasant SC Homes for Sale

Posted By: nat wallen In: A Day In The Life
Date: Sun, Feb 26th 2012 2:10 pm

You might think I am writing my biography with these blog posts, securing my place in history with significant information regarding Mt Pleasant SC Homes for Sale.

Well, I am not. There is a far more important reason for these words I give you that may very well impact the future history of sellers faced with the perplexing intricacies of placing their Mt Pleasant home on the market that goes far beyond my legacy.

Consider this post as my contribution to a time capsule. A time capsule that will one day be dusted off by people from a future time, curious about the past. Archaeologists willing to dig through terabytes of digital files to understand the sociological changes that have occurred amongst generations of Realtors and more importantly, their clients, when concerned with how to most effectively place their proeprties on the market in a time of uncertainty.

Simply put, “how did they used to sell homes” might be equally as important a question as “what are cassette tapes? Or CD’s for that matter? So here it is, for future posterity…

Time Capsule Log 0001-02/23/2012

Mt Pleasant SC Homes for Sale-Overcoming Obstacles

As of the date mentioned above, I have a home for sale in a quality neighborhood close to Rifle Range Road. The sellers have painstakingly prepared the property for sale and it is an absolutely gorgeous Mt Home for Sale. The one negative is that it has blown ceilings.

Note to the future: Assuming you are reading this blog post in the year 2105 and beyond, “blown ceilings” can also be referred to as “popcorn ceilings” and were a once popular building technique used to quickly cover sheet rock on the ceiling of a home's interior. The technique was cost effective and an acceptable technique until the early 1990’s. While periodically used in today’s new construction on less expensive homes, the majority of buyers looking, prefer smooth ceilings.

The sellers and I looked closely at all of the competition and placed the property on for a very reasonable price by evaluating the nearest sales on properties that were similar is style, location, building type and appearance.

Showings began to occur on a very regular basis, and the feedback (which is input from buyers and their agents) was all positive, with one common denominator evident in 86% of the responses. The “blown ceilings” were an issue and buyers felt like it would take over $10,000 to remedy. Thus far buyers chose to continue looking for other options.

So you may be asking, what was the remedy back in the early 2000’s to cure these “popcorn ceilings”? When many sellers purchased their Mt Pleasant property in this time period in history that had the ceilings, they either lived with them or took steps to remove them. The process is simple, effective and messy.

The steps to remove blown ceilings include:

• Removal of all furniture.
• Obtain a sprayer attachment for the outside water hose.
• Gently mist the ceilings with water, with extreme caution implemented to not “soak the ceilings”
• A common 4-6’ step ladder was used to elevate people toward the ceiling.
• Next, a gentle scraping of the pliable surface, removing the blown particles.
• Sand where necessary.
• Paint and possible patch as needed.

As mentioned, the homeowners did not wish to take on this task when living in their house and rightfully so, yet they still wished to liquidate their asset.

This is where overcoming obstacles was such a vital part of selling. When presented with a problem, Realtors in the past had to realize that these are not just products on a shelf, that these were people’s homes and they have to still live in them, even though their intentions were to do everything possible to find a buyer for their home.

So the question that has been plaguing archaeologists studying the socioeconomics of the time period will finally have their answer to handling the objections blown ceilings caused amongst the buying public.

• Obtain an estimate from a licensed contractor to remove the blown ceilings.
• Attach the estimate to the listing, stating that with an acceptable offer the sellers would pay for the “popcorn ceilings” to be removed.
• Attach the estimate to the storm door so clients can view it prior to coming in, and on the other side prior to leaving.

By doing so, Nat Wallen, real estate agent, was able to provide accurate information showing the true cost to be half of the buyer’s estimated $10,000 “guestimate” for the work thus overcoming the price objection.

 By adding a note to this contractor’s document clearly stating in red (so it jumped from the otherwise black and white page) that the sellers would pay for this change to the house, and by a careful placement of the newly acquired information on the door for clients to see prior to forming an opinion of the needed removal of the blown ceilings, this agent’s goal to help the sellers liquidate is still in progress, with less negative feedback about the blown ceilings.

Make sure to keep scouring the files found in this time capsule for future updates. The result is yet to be determined, but as of the date of this time capsule entry number 0001 dated 02/23/2012, Nat Wallen feels confident is his abilities to sell this Mt Pleasant SC Homes for Sale.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Nat Wallen is a Realtor in Charleston SC specializing in residential property sales. He has been licensed since 1995 and is the top listing agent with Carolina One Real Estate. Carolina One Real Estate is the largest company in the Charleston SC area of 700 plus agents. NOTE: Nat Wallen never solicits consumers interacting with his blog unless requested. YOUR comments are encouraged and welcomed. Thanks!