36 Clyde Road: SOLD!

A few months ago, our Clyde Road flatmates, Vern and Evelyn, decided to move out.   We felt the universe was sending us a message to give selling the house another try thus allowing us to move on with our grander plans.   The Clyde Road house was just too big too manage now that we have our humongous project in Wainui

We asked friends for a realtor referral and was put in touch with Joy Butel of Sotheby’s Realty.  “Lucky Joy” we were told and upon meeting her in early June, we immediately liked her affable nature and no nonsense approach to selling.   We thought we were going to list the house in the spring, once we got through the dreariness of winter.  Who wants to do an open home in the depths of winter in a cold house?   However, Joy quickly nipped that idea in the bud and said that lots of homes were going to be coming on the market in spring and we need to be ahead of the onslaught.   Eeeek!   That meant Clyde needed to be ready for the first open home in a months’ time.

Thank goodness for woofers.   Erin and Mike (a Canadian couple who I’ve written about in a previous post) came to woof for us in Wainui.  However, they did a one-day stint with me at Clyde Road and the three of us spent an entire afternoon raking & bagging leaves and pruning trees & hedges, and getting the outside area all tidied up.

Meanwhile,  Joy, prior to leaving on a three-week holiday, sent a notice out through the Sotheby’s database that Clyde Road was coming up for sale.  During her trip away, her colleagues showed several parties through the house;  one in particular was quite keen and scheduled an external building inspection.   Well, the building inspection report was abysmal and full of, how shall I say it, downright lies.   {If anyone reading this post would like to know the name of the company and further details of their report, send me an email}.   The report was so bad that the potential buyers backed off and we were left scratching our heads wondering what to do.

Pete and Ollie to the rescue.  Once we all combed through the report, Pete and Ollie said they could fix all the raised issues with just a few hours of work (and not $10k of work like the report suggested).  And so, suddenly plans changed, and a week+ of Clyde Road work ensued which encompassed:

• Replacing a gutter on the carport which was leaking in two areas
• Putting flashing over an external window
• Replacing a large chunk of rotten weatherboards on the south side of the house
• Cleaning the gutters
• Scrubbing parts of the roof that had mildewed from leaf fall.
• Patching up a few areas on the rooftop.
• Painting two external window frames
• Doing a deep internal house clean of windows, floors, and carpets and moldings.
• And, more raking of leaves!

Friends’ Briar and daughter Jack were staying at the house for a few weeks and they took responsibility for washing floors and bathrooms and cleaning windows.   Previous woofer Cathy (the sound healer) came for a few days and painstakingly raked up leaves around all the shrubbery as well as doing some clearing work on the property.

I tackled the roof scrubbing and external window painting and a little bit of weatherboard fixing.

Ollie and Bruce did most of the weatherboard replacement in three days time.

And Ollie did the gutter replacement job as well.

The weather cooperated and we had a very mild week which allowed us to get everything done!

The first open house was held on July 18th.  The house looked really good.

Joy said about 40 people came through – a record number.  Two parties in particular were very interested and came for second and third looks throughout the week (one was a church group who were keen to convert the house into some kind of student drop-in centre).

On the 25th of July, the 2nd open house was held and over 100 people came (most of them the church congregation).  Joy put out the word that we were doing a multi-offer, meaning interested parties had to put their best offer forward by a particular cut-off date, which she set to be 10 am, Wed, July 28th.

Two offers were presented, both of them with reasonable prices, but one clearly outshone the other, as it had no contingencies.   It was a no-brainer.   Clyde Road is sold!   We close on October 1st.   Thank you Universe!