About San Antonio's Oak Hills Terrace

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a closing with another happy seller. He was one of my first property-management clients, back in 2004, and I leased his former home for him when he was transferred overseas. Later, he was transferred back to Austin and took over managing the house himself.

My client contacted me again a couple of months ago and said he was ready to sell the house, since his folks no longer lived in the neighborhood and his tenants had moved out. Now he has his sale proceeds and he is ready to move on with his life.

The new owners are a retired couple who I think are going to love this neighborhood. It seems to be popular with seniors, since most of the homes are one story and it's close to the South Texas Medical Center. People walk their dogs and jog in this neighborhood. Often while driving by, they will slow down to greet each other, even stopping to chat with neighbors working in their yards.

It's a little bittersweet to sell a home with some history--I know because I went through a similar experience. I moved out, rented, and then later sold the first home I lived in when I moved back to San Antonio. It is three streets away.

Here's the link to the Real Estate Show of the home.

After our last batch of tenants moved out, I decided it was time to sell this rental house and simplify my life a little. It was our first home when my husband and I moved back to San Antonio, and it became our first rental property when we found a better home for our needs. It's in Oak Hills Terrace, a quiet neighborhood close to the Medical Center, with big, tree-filled yards and actual 2-car garages, so I hoped it would sell quickly.

I replaced the vinyl flooring downstairs with ceramic tile, totally repainted the interior of the home, and replaced all the carpet. I refinished the counter top in the guest bathroom and updated several of the light and bath fixtures. I also did some "light" staging, and made sure the sprinkler was keeping the grass green.

My favorite thing about this home was the beautiful, stately oak trees in the front and back yards. We had planted some crepe myrtles and a sweet olive tree in the back yard, and they had grown in the last few years. We planted a jasmine vine at one corner of the patio, and it had grown up over the pergola to shade quite a bit of the deck.

We also planted daffodils, and some of them actually came up and bloomed before the squirrels ate them. Vividly colored bluejays hung out in our back yard. We had a resident possum who performed acrobatic feats on the back fence. We had enjoyed this home, and some good (and not so good) tenants had enjoyed it, too.

Anyway, after listing the house for 12 days at the higher, but not the highest, side of the price range of the comparable sales, but not getting much activity, I lowered the price to $145,000. Ten days later, we had a full-price contract for $151,000, including our $6000 contribution to the buyer's closing costs.

Today, the buyer's agent passed on the news that the house appraised for $155,000. So what did I immediately think?

"I priced the house too low! I'm givin' it away!"

...instead of thinking, "Yay! It appraised out!"

So, just as I would with my clients selling their home, I reminded myself of three things:

1. Lenders' appraisals do not reflect market value, and sometimes bear no resemblance to reality either.

2. There is now a happy home buyer who will be very unlikely to back out of the contract if something goes wrong, because she has "built-in equity."

3. And the most important thing: I am one step closer to moving on with my life.