This N.J. house sold for 21% over asking price after a dozen offers

The open house at a home for sale in Fair Lawn drew such a line that it had to be extended an hour longer than planned.

About 100 people came to see the three-bedroom, 2½-bathroom cape cod on a large lot in a popular neighborhood in Bergen County.

“The Radburn area is close to the schools, shopping, it’s easy for commuters to get to routes 17 and 208. It’s a prime area,” said Ashley Bullock of LeConte Realty in Hasbrouck Heights, the listing agent.

Even before the open house, Bullock received one offer from a buyer who said, ‘We’ll pay this much if you don’t hold the open house.‘

The home has two bedrooms and one full bathroom on the first floor, along with the kitchen and living room, that overlooks a deck. The second floor has one bedroom and a half bathroom, and the other full bathroom is in the basement.

“It was a smaller home, to be honest,” Bullock said. “It was for somebody who came in and saw a vision.”

The home to the left was an expanded version of the same home. “We had a lot of builders come in,” the listing agent said.

The home, priced at $499,000, got 12 total offers.

“We priced it strategically,” Bullock said, noting that renovated homes in the area were selling for about $600,000.

“I thought it would go for $560,000 to $580,000,” she said.

The winning offer was the highest.

The home sold for $605,000 — which is $106,000 or 21% more than its asking price.

The buyers had been shopping with their agent for a couple of months for a home in Glen Rock or Fair Lawn, said Tatiana Makovsky of Re/Max Properties Select, the agent who represented the buyers.

They had bid on at least four houses with her representing them. On one house, they were in attorney review and a higher offer came in, so they lost the house.

“It’s the same for everybody,” Makovsky said. “It’s tough for buyers now.”

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