After accepting the call to Prince Avenue in Bogart, Mel and I immediately started the process of selling our home. We had talked about it before, but selling a home is a first for both of us – so we weren’t sure what to expect. Another factor in all of this was the current market. Whenever we told someone we were putting our house up for sale, you could see them wince at the pain. Many homes have been on the market for a year or more and still haven’t moved. We were hopeful, but realistic that I might be commuting for a little while.
So, what does any good pastor and professor do? I researched. Mel and I both looked into all the things we needed to do. We have an amazing realtor in Athens who has been a HUGE resource to us in helping us understand what to expect. We de-cluttered, made sure everything was clean and the paint was all touched up. My yard is immaculate, like a carpet. We planted roses. We were ready to sell this house.
The time came to find a Realtor. It’s a more difficult decision than you would think – because truthfully they all do pretty much the same thing when they list your house. I’m not a pro in the market, but at least with the 3 I talked to I am positive we would’ve had the same amount of exposure and marketing with all 3. It just comes down to a matter of who is a better negotiator/advisor for you when you start getting down to the nitty gritty. We interviewed 3 Realtors and found that they were very similar in most things, except price. We wanted to be able to sell, not sit on the market – but we didn’t want to price it too low. This number does have to be just right.
After much prayer and deliberation, we landed on the third guy we interviewed. He’s a believer, has his act together, and he’s a younger guy – which I kind of liked. He also happened to have a buyer looking for a home like ours in the area. We signed the papers with him to sell the home on a Saturday and that very same day he showed our house! We left for a quick vacation with Mel’s family, leaving the house as clean and nice as we could. The buyer who saw it Saturday loved it, came back Monday and put an offer in on Wednesday. Our house wasn’t officially on the market until Monday night/Tuesday morning and it had already had 2 showings and an offer on the 2nd day! When we came home from our vacation, our house was already under contract and had even been inspected!
Was it all of the preparation we did to sell our house? What worked best? I’m going to be flat honest, God sold our home. I like our Realtor, he’s a great guy – but God has put this together. Of course we are only “under contract” at the moment and still have about 6 weeks until closing, but I am confident that God is in this. All the stuff we did to prepare was our faithfulness in what God has entrusted us with, but God was faithful to us in putting it altogether!
Of course with the market we have lost money on the deal, but realistically speaking we think we sold the house at a fair price (though not the price I would like to have sold at). However, I am excited to see how the other end of this story plays out. All glory to God for His mighty works! He can sell a house in 2 days in this market… that is one mighty God! 
There’s no formula for you to sell your house in 2 days too… but how mine sold was through much prayer and the power of God!
(If anyone is looking for a good Realtor in Gainesville/Forsyth County or Athens, let me know and I’d be happy to recommend one to you!)
