Chris Handles Everything

“Chris quickly looked over our situation with experience and penetrating intelligence and gave us definitive advice. He brought in the right people to help us with everything. It’s difficult for an old person to downsize, but Chris made it easy.”

Deciding to move from a long-term home and downsize one’s possessions can be an overwhelming process. Not only are there decades of belongings to deal with, but often there’s also work to be done on the home to get it ready to sell. Making all these decisions and finding the right people to do the work can be daunting. Luckily for Ed Feigenbaum and Peni Nii, Chris Iverson managed everything for them. He got their house on the market quickly, with as little stress as possible, and sold it for an astonishingly good price.

Getting Ready to Make a Move

When Ed and Peni decided to sell their home of 40 years on the Stanford campus, they knew they would need a lot of help. They began talking to realtors two years ago, asking for advice about an outbuilding on their property. They consulted with three local real estate agents, and Chris Iverson immediately stood out from the rest.

“Chris quickly looked over our situation with experience and penetrating intelligence and gave us definitive advice,” said Ed. “Chris’ suggestions were way better than any other realtor. He was very businesslike and he could answer all our questions about our circumstances, like how do we downsize and how do we go about the process of selling. Every step of the way, he gave us very good, rational advice.”

Chris continued to advise them until the time was right to make a move. “The most important thing for me was that he was very patient,” said Peni. “He wasn’t pushing us to sell the house. He gave me time to deal with it.”

Forty Years of Stuff

One of the biggest issues of getting ready to sell was what to do with their lifetime of belongings. “We had been living here for 40 years and we had a lot of stuff. There were a lot of memories to process,” said Peni.

Chris brought in a company that specializes in helping seniors manage their moves. They were able to guide Ed and Peni through the process of deciding what to keep, and what to give to their kids, donate, sell or throw away. “They gave us a lot of options and they had people who were knowledgeable about everything,” said Peni. “They had people who knew about auction houses, consignment, tax deductions and all the different places to donate things.”

“All we had to do was make decisions. They took care of all of the execution and it happened immediately,” said Ed. “That was great because making the decisions takes a long time and the execution is painful and dull.”

Preparation: Handling it All

In addition to deciding what to do with the belongings in the house, there was also all the typical pre-sale preparation of making repairs, painting, landscaping and staging. Chris managed it all, while respecting the owners’ timeframe and getting it on the market in time for the spring selling season.

“I worked the prep and sales process around them, as opposed to them working around the process,” said Chris. “In January I started laying out calendars and timelines of what needed to happen to get the house on the market by spring.” When the time was right, Chris managed to get all the prep and staging work done in two weeks and put the house on the market the next week.

Presenting and Pricing the House

After their children moved out, Ed and Peni made some changes to the home to better fit their empty-nester lifestyle. They had converted the living room into Ed’s home office, removed the dining room and made two upstairs bedrooms into one big office for Peni. While that floor plan was perfect for them, it would likely not appeal to people Chris had identified as potential buyers.

Chris tackled this with creative staging, arranging Peni’s office into two separate rooms and focusing on an open family room with eat-in kitchen dining. He also was prepared to explain how the home could easily be converted back to its original floor plan.

Looking at the most current comparable properties sold and on the market, Chris set a price of $1,998,000.

A Quick and Smooth Sale

Once the house went on the market, things moved very quickly. Chris held a brokers’ tour and weekend open houses, and he accepted offers the following Wednesday. There were four offers and the house sold for $2,223,000, with no contingencies and a free two-month rent-back. “The house sold for over $1,000 a square foot, which is a big number for a house on the Stanford campus,” said Chris.

Ed and Peni were thrilled with the results. “I loved working with Chris,” said Peni. “He was always cheerful. He was available any time and he was helpful with even the most minute details. He was wonderful and I would highly recommend him.”

“Chris has experience moving people our age,” said Ed. “He was calm, cool and straightforward and he had answers that made sense. A word comes to mind when I think about Chris. That word is ‘classy.’ Chris is a classy person.”

Q&A with the Sellers

Q: How did you find Chris and why did you select him to sell your house?

A: We had been thinking of selling our house for some time, so we were accumulating mailers that realtors had sent us. One of those belonged to Chris. We interviewed three realtors, seeking advice an outbuilding on the property. We liked Chris immediately. He was calm, cool, businesslike and straightforward—no bull. I’m a computer scientist, so that made sense to me.

Q: How did Chris help you prepare to sell your home?

A: The first thing he did was to recommend a service that is in the business of helping elderly people downsize. They knew everybody and had all to contacts to help us get rid of our stuff, like places to sell or donate things. Another realtor recommended someone who only dealt with auction house stuff, but these move managers dealt with the full spectrum.

Q: How about repair work, painters, landscapers and stagers?

A: He handled it all. Chris has working relationships with these people, so when he called, they came and got the work done.

Q: Tell us about the timing.

A: At the beginning on 2014 we were ready to move ahead, but we were moving slowly. Chris encouraged us to get the house on for the spring market because that’s when new professors are looking for houses. He told us, “There are about 10 houses sold each year in Stanford. The seventh is coming up and you want to be the eighth. If you wait until you’re the eleventh, you won’t sell it.” I liked that straightforward approach.

Q: Selling a house on the Stanford campus is not your typical real estate transaction?

A: Not at all. It is very complex. Chris really understands the process. It’s as if he’s been working in the housing office! We had constant questions and he was holding our hands all the way.

Q: What did you think about how Chris priced the house?

A: We accepted his strategy. You hire a guy like Chris because you trust him. You know he is working for you and trying to optimize things for you.

Q: What was most memorable part of the experience for you?

A: Just sitting at the dining room table and having Chris explain the process. He was so patient. Also, that it was such a smooth ride—like riding on the freeway instead of a bumpy road.

Q: Anything else?

A: Just that we would recommend Chris to everybody. We had a great experience. You look at his photograph and he looks like a nice person and he is.