By Holden Lewis, NerdWallet
A Hemingway character was asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he replied: “Gradually, then suddenly.” That’s a fine description of how I sold a house in a buyer’s market this summer.
How it happened gradually: I inherited the house in October 2021, fixed it up bit by bit, and finally listed it for sale in June 2025.
How it happened suddenly: The house sold in 18 days.
So how did I manage that? First, some context: The house is in a desirable location on the west side of Fort Worth. Mom bought it when I was a high school sophomore, and she lived alone for decades after I left for college.
Now I live in South Florida. For years, I considered selling my Florida house and moving into the Fort Worth house. I made upgrades and repairs, but ultimately my wife and I decided not to move to Cowtown. I reluctantly said adios to El Tacorriendo (my favorite food truck) and Billy Bob’s (the legendary honky tonk), and listed the house for sale.
I didn’t expect to sell it in less than three weeks. Metroplex homes usually linger longer — a typical July sale took 53 days. The analysts at Realtor.com call it a balanced market, but it feels like a buyer’s market to me.
And yes, luck was a big factor in selling so quickly. That said, let me tell you what I did right and what I would do differently.
I interviewed three agents
I wanted to hire a real estate agent who had represented sellers and buyers in the neighborhood — someone I’d feel comfortable with, who also had years of experience. I interviewed three, asking, among other things, what improvements I should make to the house. I wanted an agent who would answer forthrightly instead of telling me what I wanted to hear.
I hired the agent who had the strongest background. She specialized in my neighborhood and had the brisk demeanor of a C-suite corporate executive who wants to sell efficiently.
What I did right: I chose an experienced, perceptive agent. She knew to be blunt with me and tactful with my wife, which was a sign that she would adopt the proper tone when talking with buyers and their agents.
And she priced the house right.
I shelled out for some updates
My $350,000 asking price was low for the neighborhood. There’s a good reason: Mom had Alzheimer’s, so the house suffered from some deferred maintenance. It took a full five minutes to get hot water from the kitchen tap, and the walls reeked of cigarette smoke.
On the outside, the hail-damaged roof needed replacement, the 75-year-old casement windows were caulked shut, and the siding consisted of unsightly, brown-painted cedar shingles.
Ah, those shingles. I remember catching a ride home from high school one day. As my friend pulled up to my place, someone in the backseat shrieked, “Look at that ugly brown house!” When I sold the house 46 years later, it still wore the same brown shingles…and I still felt kinda mortified.
Renovations I did and didn’t do
But my time and money were limited. I could spend them making the exterior look great, or I could prioritize making the interior function well. So I fixed up the interior — because what’s the use of having a house that’s pretty on the outside, if you have to wait forever to get hot water at the kitchen sink?
Overall, I paid more than $60,000 to upgrade the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems, replace the roof, and repaint the interior (to eliminate the cigarette smell). By leaving the exterior mostly as-is, I let the buyer choose their own siding and windows.
What I did right: I focused on updating major systems and completed only must-do interior work. The buyer wanted to spend their money refining the aesthetics, not replacing the A/C.
I kept my cool
To reassure potential buyers, I made a spreadsheet of renovations, how much they cost, and when they were done. However, there was sometimes a gap between the date of a contractor’s initial estimate and the date work was completed — and the buyer used this information to strong-arm me.
“It is clear to see that these repairs dates are incongruent to your marketing materials and seller’s disclosure making them obsolete,” the buyer’s agent emailed after the inspection. “Furthermore, this would be considered Deceptive Marketing Practices.” They reduced their offer by $33,000. I felt furious one second, and panicked the next. Would this sale go through?
My impulse was to teach them a lesson and insist on the price we had agreed to. That afternoon, I floated in my Florida pool while angrily mimicking Michael Corleone saying, “My offer is this: Nothing.”
But then I reminded myself that this was my only offer. I had paid attention to stats from Realtor.com, the Case-Shiller price indexes, and my agent — I knew home prices in Fort Worth were falling while inventory was rising. I made a counteroffer for $326,000, the lowest price I would have accepted. The buyer took it.
What I did wrong: Being specific about dates and dollar amounts of renovations opened up another round of negotiation that I didn’t want. I would have been better off providing general information about the upgrades.
And I didn’t recognize the accusatory email and lower offer as a hardball negotiation tactic. That was the judgment of my attorney, which brings me to the last thing I did right.
I hired an attorney
Candidly, that agent’s email wigged me out. I forwarded it to the lawyer who had represented me three years earlier in Mom’s estate. He laughed off the email and calmed me down.
Lawyers close real estate transactions in some states, but Texas isn’t one of them. So even though I didn’t technically need an attorney, I hired him because the buyer’s agent had intimidated me.
What I did right: My attorney’s services were well worth the cost. He helped me through the negotiation, and he prevented a potential delay by spotting an error in the closing paperwork. Instead of listing Mom’s estate as the seller, the document listed Mom herself as the seller — as if she would materialize from her urn, like a genie from a bottle, to sign the papers. My attorney fixed that, and we closed at the scheduled time.
What I’ll do next time
Eventually, I want to get away from the hurricanes, rising seas and high home insurance costs of South Florida. When I sell this house and move to the mountains of western North Carolina, I’ll do a lot of things the same and a few things differently:
I will employ a real estate attorney from the outset, starting with reviewing the contract with the agent.
I will keep mum about specific costs and dates of work done on the house. Anything I say can and will be used against me.
I’ll choose, hire and pay a photographer, and have final say over the photos. (My agent chose the photographer, and I wish the pictures had been better.)
And I’ll rejoice that I’m not selling a house with brown shingle siding.
Holden Lewis writes for NerdWallet. Email: hlewis@nerdwallet.com.
The article I’m a Real Estate Writer Who Sold a House in a Buyer’s Market. Here’s What I Learned originally appeared on NerdWallet.
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