How $1,000 in Fixes Sold a Home That Sat for 5 Months

By Dave Robison

Dave Robison is one of Utah’s most accomplished and trusted real estate professionals, having sold over 3,400 homes in just over 26 years.

Five months on the market, no offers, and the agent wants to drop the price again. You’re starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with your home. Sound familiar?

A seller came to me in this exact situation. Five months with another agent, no movement, and they were running out of patience. They were convinced the market just wasn’t there for their home.

But when I walked through the property, I didn’t see a home that couldn’t sell. I saw a home that wasn’t being presented well to buyers in that price range. It wasn’t major stuff. It was the small things, the details that buyers pick up on within the first 30 seconds of walking through the door. The things that either make them say “this feels right” or “let’s keep looking.”

I gave the seller a short list, about $1,000 worth of small targeted updates. Nothing crazy, nothing that required a contractor. Then we did something they weren’t expecting. Instead of dropping the price, we raised it 4.6% higher than where it had been with the previous agent, and we sold it in one week for full asking price.

Here’s what I want you to take away from this.

If your home isn’t selling, the answer isn’t always a lower price. Sometimes the home just needs a different set of eyes on it. After 26 years and over 3,400 homes sold, I can walk through a home and tell you in 15 minutes what needs to change.

The small stuff matters more than the big stuff. Buyers make emotional decisions. The feel of a home when they walk through it is worth more than any single upgrade you could make. $1,000 in the right spots outperformed five months of sitting at the old price.

You don’t have to figure this out alone. That’s what our Fix It and List It program is for. I personally walk through your home, tell you what to do and what to skip, and we build a plan together so that when we go to market, the home sells. It doesn’t sit.

We have sold hundreds of homes that other agents tried to sell and couldn’t. If you’re in that situation right now, or if you want to avoid it altogether, call me at 801-966-4000 or visit utahdave.com. Let’s put the Utah Dave way to work for your home.