Apartment 2018

2017 was the year of the glacier when it came to selling our apartment. Things moved at a glacial pace. We hired the first realtor in March 2017. For the first couple of showings, Anna and I were excited and thought the apartment would sell relatively quickly. But excitement turned to frustration and negativity. With every showing, we would leave the apartment stating "Why bother, no one is going to come". After the showing, we would talk with the realtor and she would give us the following excuses:

• The market has changed.
• We were asking to much for the apartment.
• The right person has not come yet

She used the first excuse within the first two weeks of the first showing of the apartment. As far as the price goes, we set it 50K sek under what she and 4 other realtors said the apartment was worth. We felt that if we were being unreasonable with the price, part of her job was to tell us. But she didn't and then blamed us for wanting to much. Needless to say, we fired here and got another realtor.

We liked the second realtor and she was working hard to sell our apartment. She got people to the showings, but the ones that seemed interested came up with some crazy excuses as to why they didn't want to buy.

• They wanted the apartment on the 3rd floor and not the 2nd.
  • What floor the apartment was on was stated in the description
• They wanted to be 200 meters up the road.
  • Address was stated in the description
• They wanted a balcony.
  • We did not have one. This was stated in the description.
• They did not like the color of the kitchen.
  • I guess repainting was not an option.
• They did not like the bathroom.
  • Remolding was out of the question I guess.

Based on these type of responses, it was hard to figure out why the apartment was not selling. That was the hardest part I think. If we got some concrete feedback, then we could of changed things to get the place sold. Even though we liked the 2nd realtor and felt she was doing all she could, we felt like maybe we needed a new realtor. A set of fresh eyes and attitude.

So in the middle of December 2017, we hired our 3rd realtor. As they say, 3rd time is a charm and it certainly was.  We sold our apartment 2 days after our first showing, January 2018. We did not get as much as we would of liked, but hey, it was sold. :)

Then we had to find an apartment to live in and only had about 2 months to find one. The thing is, it is about a 2.5 year wait to find an apartment in Malmö. Anna started to scour all the apartment listings, Facebook groups and talking with friends, in hopes of finding a 2nd hand apartment we could rent.  There were a few questionable characters out there wanting us to rent their apartment but their requests made us question if everything was on the up and up. When we started to ask more questions, we found out that some of them did not have the apartment association permission to be renting the apartment 2nd hand. This could be a big problem if the association found out. We would be kicked out along with the original renter. In the end Anna found a good apartment not to far from where we were living.

During the search for the new apartment, we started to sell everything that we could and pack up what we wanted to keep.

For the last two months, our apartment was in total chaos and disarray. We wound up selling most of our furniture and other things that we had.  When we moved, it took Anna and I only 4 hrs to move everything we had. That included a trip to the dump and eating. So it shows just how much we sold and got rid of before our move. The sad thing is, we still need to get rid of a lot more things before we move onto a sailboat. But we have some time to go through our things again to get rid of what we do not need.

How the apartment looked after the move

Roller Coaster Ride

Just a about 6 weeks ago, we decided to start get serious about getting our boat. We got ourselves a relator and thought that we would have our apartment sold within a week or two. We were all excited and felt overwhelmed at the same time. Excited about selling the apartment but at the same time, overwhelmed about how much work we are going to have selling everything and down sizing. The first showing went ok but no one made an offer on the apartment. Then came the 2nd, 3rd and 4th showing with no results. By the 4th showing, Anna and I were both so blasé about the whole apartment selling process. Having to keep the apartment styled and staged in a certain way all the time is a pain in the ass. I don't want you to think that Anna and I live like hoarders or anything like that, but it is nice to be able come home a leave things where they are and take care of them later.

Since we were not getting the attention we wanted for our apartment, we have now took it off the market. It is still for sale but it has been taken off hemnet. (A Swedish site where houses and apartments are listed.) For some reason, everyone thinks if the apartment has been on hemnet for more than a week, there is something wrong with it and they tend to stay away. So for now, we are going to wait util the end of May and try listting the apartment again.

It may seem like a lot of emotion for just selling an apartment but it is more than just selling an apartment. Selling our apartment is like kick starting our dream. It marks the official start of us getting our boat. So until it is sold, it feels like we are just in libo and this in itself is a bit of stress. We want to get going now and since it is taking longer to sell the apartment, it is a bit frustrating. Wait for others to do something, like buying our apartment :),  is not one of our strong suits.

We have not even bought our boat or settled on the final details of the boat and our emotional state has been on a roller coaster. Real high at the start of each showing, real low when we did not get an offer, back to high for next showing and then low again. Then wanting to purchase our boat but having to wait due to the apartment. So our emotional state has been all over the spectrum these past weeks. I wonder what type of basket cases we are going to be once we sign the papers for the boat :)

Realtor Chosen

After a week of interviewing realtors, 5 of them to be exact, we finally decided on and signed the contract with our new realtor. Starting last Tuesday, 17-03-07, I had interviews lined up for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday. The first two interviews were ok since most of the info they presented was new, but then it became old. All the realtors presented pretty much the same info as all the others. The only real thing that stood out was the pricing.

Basically they all stated their steps as

• Evaluation of apartment
• take pictures
• post listing on hemnet (An apartment/house listing web site)
• Have showings of the apartment

So when we got to the third realtor presenting the same info, we could pretty much walk them through the process :)

We told each realtor that we would be making our decision today 17-03-15 and they all said ok and would call back to see what our decision was and if they could answer any questions we might have. The second realtor that we interviewed, her name is Silva, contacted us on Friday 17-03-10 and then again on Monday 17-03-13. Two other realtors called me back today as the other two have not tried to get in touch with me. Since Silva, contacted us twice, she seemed to be hungry for our business. This drive was one of the reasons why we chose her. Plus she instilled confidence in us that she could do a good job in selling apartment.

Silva has already set up an appointment for a stylist to come to our apartment to tell us what we need to change to make the pictures look good. So it will be interesting to see what they say. Everyone thinks they have good taste so we will see how bad ours is :)