Bunnell land and property blog
Selling a Bunnell house while you live somewhere else
Many houses for sale in Bunnell belong to owners who no longer live there: heirs selling a family home, landlords selling a rental, people who moved for work and kept the house until it sold. A listed house must look ready every day, yet its owner may be hundreds of miles away. This guide covers how dated photos of the property help a seller far away keep the outside ready for buyers.
Selling from far away
Selling a house from another state is common in Bunnell. An agent handles the listing and the showings, and a local service or two keeps the yard. But the seller is the one who carries the cost of every week the house sits, and the one most interested in how it looks to the buyers driving past.
Agents are busy, and between showings they rarely have time to look over the outside of every listing. A yard that falls behind, a gutter full of oak leaves or a stack of flyers at the door can cost a showing before anyone notices.
The main site's guide to keeping a vacant or listed home presentable covers the whole process; this guide focuses on Bunnell.
What buyers see first
Most buyers see a Bunnell house first in a listing online, and then on a drive past before deciding whether to ask for a showing. The drive past is where the outside of the house does its work: the lawn, the beds, the roof line, the front door, the drive and the trees.
In Bunnell, big oaks and pines drop leaves, moss and needles onto roofs and lawns constantly, and the summer rains make lawns and weeds grow fast. A house that looked perfect in the listing photos can look tired three weeks later.
Photos from the street show the house as a buyer driving past sees it, on a date the seller chooses. The main site's guide to the street photo set lists the frames, each named for what it shows.
Between showings
Showings leave small traces on the outside of a house: a gate left unlatched, a porch light left on, a lockbox swinging, a car's tire marks across the edge of the lawn. Most are harmless. Over several weeks of showings, though, they add up, and a seller far away has no way to know.
A set of photos from the street every week or two while the house is on the market shows the front as it stands. A set from the open grounds now and then adds the back yard and the sides, which buyers also walk through during a showing.
Photos are of the property only, never of buyers, agents or anyone else. The main site's questions and answers explain how photos are taken and framed.
The yard in every season
A Bunnell yard changes with the seasons. In spring, oaks drop their old leaves all at once and pine pollen coats everything yellow. In summer, afternoon rain makes lawns grow fast enough to need mowing every week. In fall, pines drop needles heavily. In winter, the grass slows and browns, and a dry spell can leave it patchy.
A listing that runs several months will see more than one of these seasons, and the yard service's schedule may need to change to keep up. Photos every week or two show whether it has.
When a set shows the lawn falling behind or leaves piling up, the seller can send the dated photo straight to the yard service. The main site's guide to a Flagler County summer away describes the busiest growing months.
Signs that a house is empty
A vacant listed house shows that it is empty in small ways: mail and flyers at the door, a newspaper in the drive, trash cans left at the curb after pickup, blinds that never move, a porch light on day and night. Buyers notice, and so do others passing by.
Most of these are easy to fix once someone knows about them. A neighbor or the agent can pick up the flyers and bring in the cans, and a timer can handle the porch light.
Photos from the street show the front door, the drive and the curb on each date, so the seller can ask someone nearby to deal with what is there. The main site's guide to an inherited home managed from out of state describes the same signs from an heir's point of view.
A storm while the house is listed
A listing that runs through summer or fall may meet a tropical storm. Even a weak one can bring down limbs, scatter debris across the yard, tear screens and leave the house looking battered in the days after, just when buyers may be driving by again.
A set of photos before the storm records the house at its best. A set after the roads reopen shows what the storm left, so the seller can arrange a clean up quickly, and tells the agent whether to pause showings until it is done.
The main site's guide to photos after a storm describes the frames to compare, and the hurricane season guide covers the season as a whole.
Heirs selling a family house
Many houses for sale in Bunnell are being sold by heirs, often siblings in different states who must agree on every decision. Dated photos give them a shared view of the house as it stands, which helps when deciding on repairs or on what to ask for the house.
They also help when one heir is covering the upkeep while the house is on the market: the photos show what the yard service and the cleaner have done, without anyone needing to drive over and look.
The main site's guide to managing an inherited Flagler County home from out of state covers the steps before a sale in more detail.
Selling a rental house
Landlords who sell a Bunnell rental often list it while a tenant is still living there, or just after they leave. Each brings its own concerns. With a tenant in place, the seller wants to see the outside of the house without intruding; photos from the street do that, and never photograph the people who live there.
After the tenant leaves, the house is empty and needs the same attention as any vacant listing: the yard kept, the curb clear, the door free of flyers. A set of photos from the street and the open grounds as the house empties shows its outside at the start of the listing.
The main site's guide to an absentee landlord's routine covers the months before and after a lease ends.
When a listing runs long
Some houses in Bunnell sell in days; others take months. A listing that runs long passes through more than one season, and a house that looked fresh in the spring listing photos can look quite different by late summer: faded mulch, a lawn that has had several hot weeks, fronds and needles where there were none.
A run of dated photos through a long listing shows that drift as it happens. The seller can see when the beds need fresh mulch, when the shrubs need shaping, or when it is time to have the drive and walls pressure washed, and can decide with the agent whether new listing photos would help.
Photos taken for the seller stay with the seller; they are a record for the owner, not material for the listing. The main site's service area page shows the parts of the county where visits are made.
The back yard buyers walk through
Buyers who come to a showing in Bunnell rarely stay inside. They walk out through the back door to see the yard, the lanai or patio, the fence, the shed and, if there is one, the pool. The back of a house often decides whether a buyer can picture living there.
It is also the part of a listed house that an owner far away sees least. A lanai screen torn in a storm, leaves piled in the pool cage, a shed door blown open or a fence panel down will be seen by every buyer who comes, and by nobody who could fix it.
A Full Property visit photographs the outside of the house all around from its open grounds, including the back yard and everything in it, without going inside any building. Once a month during a listing is usually enough. The main site's guide to reading your delivered photos shows how to compare the back yard from one set to the next.
A plan for the weeks on the market
For a Bunnell house listed for sale while its owner lives elsewhere, a simple plan works well. A full set from the street and the open grounds when the listing goes live, as the baseline. Photos from the street every week or two while it is on the market, to keep the front looking as it did in the listing. A set from the open grounds every month or so for the back yard. And a pair of sets around any storm.
The regular photos can be set to repeat on a schedule until the house sells, and every set is dated and kept, which also helps answer any question at closing about how the outside was kept.
To start photos of a Bunnell house on the market, visit FlaglerPropertyWatch.com.