As I’ve covered before, selling a home can be an intricate, prolonged process. It’s often complicated by the fact that people who visit the home you’re trying to sell aren’t going to like everything about it. That’s a fact. Every house is going to have some features that are attractive to potential buyers and other features that are more of a turn-off. As a realtor, it’s my job to highlight the pros and downplay the cons. However, sometimes there is no other option and a part of the house or property need to be changed. That’s what happened with the latest home we sold. An overgrown tree needed to be removed from the backyard before the buyer would agree to our price.
The one-story house was situated in a large lot that faced south, surrounded by environmentally protected land on the northern, eastern, and western sides. Because those areas are considered off limits due to environmental protection, we can’t touch it. However, just outside of the protected ground was a large oak tree that had been struck by lightning and was hanging dangerously over the property.
The large limbs could fall at any time and damage the property, so the tree needed to be removed. We contacted numerous local tree companies and received quotes ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 for the job. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Matt Wall, a tree contractor friend who was visiting the area from out of state. Matt is the owner of Texas Tree Lawn & Garden, a tree care company based in Corpus Christi, TX. He happened to be in town visiting relatives, so we went out for a drink to catch up. After explaining the situation, Matt offered to cut the tree down for $1,000. This was music to my ears, so we went ahead with it. In total, it took 3 hours to cut it down and another hour to grind the wood and haul it away.
After the tree was removed, we contacted the prospective buyer to revisit the home and review the property. He walked around the house again, checked out the backyard, and submitted a bid for the full asking price. We signed the papers and closed on the home that week. The lesson here is to be flexible and invest if you need to. We would never have sold the home if we didn’t remove the tree, so we went ahead with it. A small investment of $1,000 allowed our team at Tom Jax & Associates to get the full asking price for the home. We’ve had many experiences like this and we do our best to learn from each one so that we’re better prepared for the next time it comes around.