CASE STUDY 1.0 - Selling Strategies
PURPOSEFUL CONTENT Each day we are blessed with opportunities to, not only add value to agents and homeowners but to observe how stucco repairs can help or impact in some way a homeowner and/or a potential sale. These case studies are absolutely true but we have changed the names to avoid anything but positive learning for all of us. Please enjoy!
WHERE IT ENDED
Sue stood in her driveway, slowly gazing at her beautiful home in Houston – the one that had been center stage for years of memories and milestones. As ICE Stucco Repair’s team drove away for the final time earlier that morning, marking the completion of their great work, she and her husband Joe knew it was time. It was time to close this wonderful chapter, sell this amazing home, and move closer to children and grandchildren several states away. But just because you know it’s time to close a chapter in life doesn’t make that decision any easier. As she replayed the tape back in her mind, trying hard not to second guess anything, she reflected on those unique lessons in life – the kind of once in a lifetime or decades decisions that make application merely nice to know rather than necessarily useful for future reference. Maybe someone else could learn from her.
HOW IT STARTED
In some ways, the decision to move soon felt like the easiest decision they had made. It was the launch sequence that choice triggered that soon gave Sue angst about the process that would immediately follow in the way of certain key decisions needed just to list their home. Sue and Joe were fortunate – they lived in a very desirable house in a very desirable neighborhood in Houston. They were conscientious homeowners and had done upgrades and updates on their home over the years that would seemingly help induce a quick sale while delivering some great equity to put to use in their next home and for retirement. Predictably, they found in realtor Jill, someone whose reputation for helping owners sell seven figure homes quickly for top dollar, was stellar and among the best in the city.
Jill efficiently went through the things she would need and recommend from and for Sue and Joe in order to most effectively represent them in their home’s sale. They were prepared for everything – the staging, the photos, etc. – but then came the discussion about the stucco that made up the exterior of their home. While they knew it undoubtedly had some level of wear and tear, they had never felt compelled to think about more than occasional paint. Jill discussed the possible strategies with Sue and Joe about how best to approach their stucco. They could simply check all of the other preparation boxes and roll the dice and see what interest was out there and to what extent prospective buyers would insist on a more thorough invasive stucco inspection. They could go ahead and have an invasive stucco inspection done themselves. But in the world of real estate, while knowledge is still power, it also represents both risk and disclosure obligations. Sue, especially, could feel her anxiety building. Was it possible that she had spent decades overlooking the thing on her home that she stared at every day and now represented the biggest risk to their sale?
DECISION POINT
Sue and Joe decided to list their home and hope and assume that the stucco was in as good of shape as it appeared to be. It did not take long unfortunately to learn something different. Buyers quickly fell in love with this calming and stately residence, just like she and Joe had. The request to get the stucco inspections did not initially alarm them and felt like a mere box check en route to a speedy sale for top dollar. However, the inspections, from top firms in Houston, and the resulting estimates from top stucco repair companies, quickly started to tell a story very different than the one that the generally pristine-looking exterior told. Enough bids came in to suggest that the necessary repairs were well into the five figures – high enough to scare away this first wave of buyers. The conversations between Jill, Sue, and Joe devolved from mathematical to highly emotional and sparked all the normal questions we all feel in these moments: how did we miss this, will we be able to sell for what we thought, who can we trust to fix this, etc.
Now what? Sue and Joe contemplated the next options and she decided to take the home off of the market, somehow find a stucco repair company she could trust, and quickly get it back on the market. Frankly, the bids were technical and varied widely in terms of scope, base price and potential price depending on what the repair company found once there. Her calls into the inspector only confirmed the potential wide range of total costs. She reached out to firm that had come from a trusted friend - that referral we all hope and pray will be there when we are least comfortable with a potential solution to big problem. ICE was immediately available to discuss, which in the world of residential contractors, can never be assumed. They patiently explained each piece of their report, carefully explained their pricing approach, and where the potential unknowns could be once the work started. The fact that Sue was feeling and wearing her stress simultaneously only seemed to increase the level of professionalism and empathy the ICE team displayed.
THE WORK
Signing a contract with ICE did not result in some feared service or communication falloff for Sue and Joe. The project management team seamlessly picked up right where her estimate had left off - almost as if many careful discussions had happened at ICE the whole time. She was very nervous because a planned out-of-country vacation would take her and Joe away during this work. But this left the ICE team unphased. They made good on their promise to communicate early and often, even while they were away. Not all was perfect; as warned, ICE did discover areas where damage was present after cutting into areas of potential damage. They accommodated her nervous callbacks to the inspector and worked to satisfy her concerns while also addressing the inspector’s occasional observation. But she quickly discovered that ICE’s methodical approach and adherence to this inspector’s report reassured her that ICE was every bit an expert. There would be nothing mysterious about this project; anything ICE discovered would be communicated quickly and in a straightforward manner, even if the news was not ideal. Even as she found additional things she wanted done that fell outside of the original project scope, such as painting a stucco wall, ICE addressed each one with the same responsiveness as the last. And while the project scope and cost grew, it did so with her blessing and never felt like a contractor taking advantage of a pressured situation.
BACK TO WHERE IT ENDED
As she stood now in her driveway, that same place where she had cried at different moments before and during the project, she smiled reflecting on ICE being there for a couple of those ugly cries and always being willing to comfort her. Her and Joe’s house was now ready to bring back to the market. This time there would be no surprises about her stucco. She was equipped with the comprehensive packet ICE provided in one PDF that thoroughly proved and validated the work she had completed. There would be other hurdles they would need to cross on their way to a sale and move to be closer to family, but no longer was stucco uncertainty one of them.
Take Aways