54 Showings, 22 Offers, and $100K Over Asking... How I Did It

In Episode 5 of The Fitze Is Right, Maryland realtor Jen Fitze reveals the strategy behind her biggest listing wins — including one that generated 54 showings in four days, 22 offers, and sold for $100,000 over the list price.

The house was an estate sale in Fallston, Maryland. A desirable neighborhood, but the home hadn't been updated since the 1970s. Orange kitchen counters, teal and blue carpet, wood paneling everywhere. The systems and roof had been updated, but the inside was a time capsule. Jen priced it appropriately for the condition and market — and the response was overwhelming.

Agents were calling saying they couldn't get in. There was nowhere to park on the street. People were flowing through the house constantly for four straight days. Even other agents were calling to buy it for themselves. When the deadline hit, Jen had 22 offers on her famous spreadsheet — and the things buyers were offering were maddening. Escalation clauses stacked on top of each other, contingencies waived left and right, and offers changing day after day.

The house sold for $100,000 over asking. And the winning offer wasn't even cash — they beat out multiple cash offers by waiving every other contingency. Proof that cash doesn't always win.

But this wasn't just about the market. The seller had just lost her parents. This was the family home she grew up in, full of memories. She didn't want a flipper turning it into another white-and-gray investment. Jen put every detail into a spreadsheet so the seller could make the right choice for her family — not just the highest number.

Jen also breaks down the pricing psychology behind her listing strategy — why she prices homes in $25,000 increments to double the buyer pool, and how the same strategy helped her get 27 offers on a townhouse in Middle River.

Then she reveals what most agents won't tell you: how to actually research your listing agent before hiring them, why most agents' "marketing plans" are just a sign in the yard, and what the real difference is between a house that gets 3 offers versus 50. Spoiler — it's usually not the house. It's the agent.

In this episode you'll learn: → How a 1970s time-capsule house generated 54 showings and 22 offers → Why pricing in $25,000 increments doubles your buyer pool → How a financed offer beat multiple cash offers → Why you should start preparing your home 6 months before listing → How to research your agent before hiring them → What sellers post on social media that kills their own sale → The difference between an agent who lists houses and one who markets them

New episodes weekly. Follow Jen Fitze on social media for daily real estate tips.

Thanks for listening to The Fitze Is Right with Jen Fitze... the real estate podcast that tells you what your agent won't.

New episodes drop every other week. If this episode helped you or made your jaw drop, leave a 5-star review; it's the single best way to help new listeners find the show.

Got a real estate horror story of your own? We want to hear it. Send your story to @jenniferfitzecompassrealestate and Jen might read and react to it live on a future episode.

CONNECT WITH JEN: All socials @jenniferfitzecompassrealestate

WORK WITH JEN: Buying or selling a home in Maryland? Jen has over 20 years of experience helping families in Harford County, Baltimore County, and beyond. Reach out at jensellsmd@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Somehow we had 54 showings in four days and we had 22 offers. Agents were calling me from there that they couldn't get in, there was nowhere to park on the street. There was people all throughout that entire house all the time. That house wound up going for a hundred thousand dollars over the list price. Welcome to The Fights is Rape, where I tell you real stories about real estate deals and all the things buyers, sellers, and even agents should know about before it's too late. I had a listing several years ago during the you know the after pandemic boom in Boston and it was an estate sale. My clients' parents had passed away. So we went in to prep the house to sell. Keep in mind this house was in a it's in a very good neighborhood, it's a very desirable neighborhood. However, it has not been updated probably since the 70s. So it still had orange kitchen counter, it had like teal and blue carpet, um, paneling everywhere. It just it wasn't updated. It was a nice house, all the systems were updated, the roof was updated, but inside was still like the 1970s. So we obviously priced it appropriately for the market and the condition. Somehow we had 54 showings in four days, three or four days, and we had 22 offers in on this house, which completely blows my mind that I mean agents were calling me from there that they couldn't get in, there was nowhere to park on the street, there was people all throughout that entire house all the time, and I, you know, it was just mind-boggling to me that there were so many people and that much interest in the house. And I did have pictures up, lots of pictures, right? It was a nice house, completely livable house. But there were so many people there, and so many people calling. They're like, we have to have this house, we have to have this house. I don't what do we need to do to get this house? And like agents were even calling for themselves, like, hey, I want to buy this house for myself. Like, what can I do to like so obviously we set the deadline, and I went had to like you know, do my whole spreadsheet of the 22 offers on this house, and just the things that people were offering were just maddening to me. Like I just could not like like what like price-wise, price-wise, escalations, waving of things, anything you could think of, they they were in there. Like, you don't have to clean the house out, like you don't have like whatever was taking something off of my client's plate, which is great, but then just throwing money. Like they would put an offer in, and then the next day they're like, No, we're changing it, and then they change it again, and then somebody else would change it, and then you have all these flipping escalation clauses, and you don't know after a while, you don't know who's escalating who, which I just had this the other day, too, and I had to phone a few friends because I didn't know. But that house wound up going for a hundred thousand dollars over the list price because there was so much activity and so much competition, and they waived inspections, they waived appraisal, they got financing. It wasn't even I had plenty of cash offers, but they had waived all the other contingencies, so that beat them out over the cash offers, but a hundred thousand dollars over what it was listed for.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

What was the seller's situation coming into this?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So the it was an estate sale, so her parents had passed away, and she had moved to Pennsylvania, so it was time to get to sell the home, the family home. And it was just a very emotional time when you have an estate sale because like she grew up in the house, and you know, all the memories and all the things, and just letting, you know, and having all these people go through the house. And it was it was hard. It was hard on her to, you know, to have all that happen, but to have so much interest in it. People like literally fighting over it. It felt good, but she also wanted to make sure that the person that was buying it was not gonna go in there and flip it. Like it wasn't an investor going in there and like making it all like white and gray and then gonna put it back on the market because that would have been really hurtful. And are you you you're legally allowed to kind of feel out those things as a I can't no, but I can say it's an LLC that's buying you know is buying it. And the sellers can do their like she can do her own research on things. So I just put everything in a spreadsheet and and itemize everything. It was a very long spreadsheet with all like you know, all the details of all the offers, and then they eventually, you know, we whittle it down and then we choose, but it was very important that it wasn't a flipper.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

When you first saw the house, what was your gut feeling on what it could sell for? Like, did you know that was gonna happen?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Well yeah, I actually listed a little bit higher than what my original gut was because I just was like, okay, this is a crazy market. Who knows what's gonna happen? There's nothing else really for sale in the neighborhood, so let's just put it here and see what happens. And then I wound up listing, I listed it for $25,000 over what I originally told her a couple months before we were listed, and then we just kept going. Got going and it just didn't stop.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

What was your like listing strategy? What did you walk us through kind of what you did before it even hit the market in your brain to try to get it?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

In my brain, so my listing strategy, like my listing price strategy is buyers look at houses in $25,000 increments online. So if you're looking at a house and it's listed at $389, you're looking at $375 to $400, right? But if you list it at $400, you're getting buyers from $375 to $400, $400 to $425. So you're doubling your buyer pool. So I really try to price things on that $25,000 mark.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Interesting. I'm not even that makes sense. Psychology. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

It is very psychological because if something is $9.99 at Walmart, it's nine dollars. But if it's $10.50, it's $10. It's $10.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah. That's weird.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

27 offers. How does that even happen? Like, what did you do?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, it was a town. It was a townhouse. Yeah. It was a townhouse in Middle River. 27 offers in on it. Was it all just based on the price, or did you have to do anything else to that? Like, how did it? It was my seller, it was an investment property. She had a renter in there, and the renter moved out, and they decided because of the you know the pandemic prices had skyrocketed that they were gonna sell the house. She's very OCD and she's very anal, and I love that about her. Everything was meticulous in that house. And so when that shows, it was spotless in there. They went above and beyond what I would normally do. It really pays out in the end when you do that. 27 offers. I forget how much higher went out. I think it was like 30,000 higher. But for a townhouse, 30,000 plus higher is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah. Do you think a less ex a less experienced agent could have gotten the same result with the house?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Not necessarily, because they may have priced it. Like you think that really is something. They might have priced it differently, or they may not have gone in and you know prepped it the way that like we had the manuals all out on the on the counter, we had binders, we had photos from like all the updates, like we had all that out so the buyers could see like the house was really well taken care of. And and I think you know, making buyers feel better about things, moving moving, you know, it just it makes their offers stronger. Next segment is the verdict time. So who was right?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So for anyone watching who's thinking about selling their house, what do they need to know to get this much interest?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

What they need to know for anybody that's interested in selling their house, what they need to do and know is that they need to start preparing a solid six months ahead of time. Like you can't just decide today that you want to list your house next week because it's not gonna fly. You're not gonna get the interest that you want, you're not gonna get the price point that you want. You literally need to start decluttering, depersonalizing, painting, fixing, and some things you can only do during certain weather. Like you can't go and like paint outside in December, or you know, like you have to really start like planning well in advance for when you want to move, and you will get you know more interest, more activity, and a higher price point if you really clean it, maintain it, and fix it before. I always say that when you go to trade in your car, what is the first thing? What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Clean it.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

You clean it, you have it detailed, you make it spotless so that you get the most trade-in value for it, right? It's the same thing with a house. If you want the most, then detail detail it. Clean it.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

So, what at the end of the day is the difference between an agent who just lists houses and one that you really feel like will market your house for you?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

At the end of the day, I mean, any you can find an agent who will just put a sign in the yard and who will, you know, discount their commission down to nothing just to get the sign in the yard and just to say that they have a listing, but you really want somebody that's gonna go in there and feel out your house, know what your house is like, market it with all the different updates, like know how to build the story around your house and make it feel that you know a buyer is gonna want to live there versus somebody that just says, Hey, here's a three-bedroom G-bath house. You know, don't miss it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Now it's time for what your agent won't tell you. And sellers, this one is for you.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

So I want you to talk about most listing agents will say that they have a marketing plan, but a lot of times I could, again, just mean sign in the yard and put you on a website. So, for sellers, how can they decode like who to work with when it comes to a realtor when they really want to sell their house and make money on it?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I think that the way sellers actually need to do their own research as well on agents, and I feel like they need to pull up their Zillow profile, pull up their Google, pull up, you know, listings that they currently have and see how they're presenting them, see how their photos are, how many photos are there, read the remarks. Like, is it a detail listing, or is it just like what's in there just to get it to go active? And then again, look at Google reviews, Zilla reviews, reviews, you know, if it's a referral from a friend of theirs, like I really feel like because any agent can go in and say, I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z to sell your house, but like the proof is in the pudding. Like, look at what their other stuff, like, look at there's on Zillow, you can go back and look at all of their sold listings. So look at how like their days, like they may come into your house and say and sit in your kitchen table and be like, oh, my average diesel market is 10 days, but then you can go on Zillow and be like, um, no, this was here for 100, this was here for this, blah blah blah. So agents can go and always can go in and tweak their numbers, but if you go, if the seller goes and researches it, then that I think that's really important to do their homework.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah. And at the end of the day, what is the difference between, or I want you to talk about the difference between a house that gets three offers versus 50 offers? Talk about how it's usually not really the house itself, and it has a lot to do with the realtor.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I think the uh difference between a house that gets three offers and a house that gets, you know, ten offers per se. I feel like it's in the prep of the house and how the agent goes in and actually prepares the seller, and then how the seller prepares it, and then just how how they market it and get it ready. Like you can't just throw it up on the market. We're not there, we're not in that market anymore. Now we are actually you have to go in and have a plan. You have to you know get it ready to sell, and a lot of agents are still in the mindset of like, hey, I'm just gonna put a sign in your yard and put it on the MLS and wait for the phone to ring, and we're not there. So it's usually not the house, it's the agent. It's the agent, it's not the house. Welcome back. It is time for rapid fire questions and reading questions that you submitted.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

The first person submitted one that says a seller wants to list $50,000 above what you recommend them to do. What do you tell them? How do you navigate that?

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Um, I tell them that I'm not willing to list the house for $50,000 above what they are thinking. I will ask them where they got that number from, and then I will actually begin to pack up my belongings. And why is that bad? Like because I'm not going to, when you list a house, everything that we do is out of pocket. So I'm not gonna go and spend a thousand plus dollars on marketing and photos and video and all the things if you're not even being realistic and it's not gonna sell. Yeah. So why am I gonna go and put you know, all that money out? It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Costs you money.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

It costs me money.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

All right, next one says true or false, you should always accept the highest offer.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

False. Don't always accept the highest offer. You accept the the offer that works best for your specific needs.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Okay, last one. What's the one thing sellers do that kills their own sale?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

I would say a lot of times sellers will post on social media about selling their home. They'll post the link and they'll be like, hey, share it. But then people in the comments are like, hey, where are you going? Oh, we found a house here, oh, we're moving to Florida, oh, we're getting a divorce, oh, you know, I'm pregnant, oh whatever. Everybody can see that. So when people are going to look at their house, they already know that you're in the middle of a divorce. Or like you're moving to Florida and you need to sell like really quickly, or you put an offer on a house two weeks two days ago and you have to sell this really fast to get to keep that house. So it just please be mindful of what you're putting out on social media. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

You don't want to give anyone a leg up. You do not.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Thanks for tuning in. And next episode, we are gonna do something a little bit different. We are gonna have a buyer that had a nightmare of a transaction, and they wrote in, and I'm gonna read all about it and go through it with you and what they could have done differently to not have a horrible experience.