S2 E23: House Number 2 SOLD! | Pricing Strategy, Client Trust & a Unique Military PCS Sale

In this episode of the Closing Chapters Podcast, Brittney shares the story behind selling the second home for a military family she had already helped once before. What started as a unique situation involving an ex-wife, nanny, and two houses on the same street turned into a powerful lesson in trust, pricing strategy, and proving your value as a real estate professional.

After successfully selling the first home over asking price, Brittney was given the opportunity to list the second property when the family received PCS orders. Even though the second home wasn’t quite as updated as the first, the pricing strategy paid off again — going under contract in just two days and closing quickly.

Brittney also pulls back the curtain on how she personally calculates a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) using a simple but strategic process. From averaging comparable sales to analyzing price per square foot, she explains the practical approach she uses to create a confident listing range for her clients.

If you're curious about the real stories behind real estate transactions, especially within the military relocation world, this episode gives you an inside look at what it takes to build client trust and deliver results.

Key Takeaways

• Unique client situations are common in real estate — flexibility and professionalism matter.
• Trust is built when you consistently deliver results.
• A strong pricing strategy can make or break a listing.
• A well-researched Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is critical before listing a home.
• Looking at high, low, and average comps provides better perspective on pricing.
• Property condition, upgrades, and finishes dramatically impact value.
• Military PCS timelines often require efficient listings and quick closings.
• Relationships and reputation can turn one successful transaction into multiple opportunities.

Closing Chapters Podcast: Where Every Mission Has A Story

Thanks for listening. We talk all things military real estate, my transactions, the mistakes, the wins, and simple plays you can use right now.

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📧 Email: brittney@homeswithbrittney.com

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Disclaimer: This podcast education only & is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Talk with your own pros about your situation. Opinions are my own.

© 2025 Brittney Frye. All rights reserved. Realtor, license # 352197 in NC. Brokerage: RE/MAX Southern Properties. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey my friend, welcome back to the closing chapters podcast where every mission has a story. He did not believe that I could get the price that I got for the house. And I said, you know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty darn confident with my pricing. I do a pretty good job of it and I actually tend to be conservative. And sure enough, we got up over asking price and it appraised. And voila, I had some trust instilled in me. I was no longer just a young girl that didn't know what she was talking about. Welcome back, friends, the closing chapters. We are kicking it back to July 22nd, 2019. And not only are we kicking it back to July 2019, we're gonna like roll it back to March of 2019. Do you remember about the interesting situation where I told you I got to list a property and it was owned by a gentleman and his ex-wife lived in the property, whom also was his nanny for his children with his current wife. Um it's very interesting. Now, not only was that an interesting situation, they lived in two separate houses on the same street, just separate ends. And when I went to list the house in March, that was the ex-wife's house that she had fixed up, he did not believe that I could get the price that I got for the house. And I said, you know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty darn confident with my pricing. I do a pretty good job of it, and I actually tend to be conservative. And sure enough, we got up over asking price and it appraised. And voila, I had some trust instilled in me. I was no longer just a young girl that didn't know what she was talking about. So fast forward to the summer, June 20th, we listed his house because it was time for them to PCS. And his spouse and children and nannieslash ex spouse moved ahead of time. And then he had to finish out processing and went on behind them to Colorado, I believe. And when we listed their house, we got under contract quickly. It went online June 20th, 2019. We closed July 22nd, 2019. So that means approximately two days on market before it went under contract, and we got full list price for it. Now, here's the kicker, my friends. Their house, the second house, was not as bedazzled or on as big of a lot as the other house. So he got a whopping$1,000 less on his property than the first property. He owned both of them. He did great with both of them. He bought both of them as fixer-uppers and was able to uh get a good bit of return on those properties, which is really cool. So this is like one of those stories just to show like one in real estate in general, we come across some really interesting dynamics and decisions, right? All the way across the board. This is what worked for them, right? And that's okay. And it was really kind of interesting to hear the stories and know what their background was and how it kind of came full circle and that they were able to make ends meet together. Also, it's really cool when I have a moment to show that I am the trusted professional. And I mean that wholeheartedly. I don't mean that in an egotistical way. I mean that in, you know, I try really hard to make sure that I am providing value and proving my value. So when it comes to pricing a house, I do that. Like I do a comparable market analysis by hand in an Excel spreadsheet. I'm a little bit old school with that. I don't use like fancy reports that automatically generate it for me. I really try to keep it relatively basic and streamlined so that we are not getting into like the the nitty-gritty. Because one, I'm not allowed to give a price for a house, right? I am able to give a price range. I am not an appraiser. I am not allowed to deem an opinion of value on the property. So my job is to give a price range. And I do this in my CMA. I have three different averages that I'm looking at and giving a range off of those. I do the list price average of all of the comps that I'm looking at. I do the sole price average of all the comps I'm looking at, and then I do the adjusted price average of all the comps I'm looking at. So then we have typically a pretty good range. And on top of that, I will average out the price per square foot and also give the price there to see if it matches or is in line with the range that we have. So when I do my pricing, I kind of have a double triple check system where it's like if if my opinion or one of those brackets is way off, why? You know, what's the outlier there? And when you are looking at comparable properties, you should have a high one, a low one, and then a couple that are really pretty even par on and can like even things out. So it's good to see the end of each spectrum and keep it in perspective, right? Because then we're able to look and see at the when we're looking at the pictures of the comparables, like, yeah, this is what is high, and this is why it is high. Like if that is justified, we obviously wouldn't have to bring our property up to that standard to meet it, and the adjustments are going to show that. Same thing for when it's on the lower end. Yeah, this house has carpet all throughout, it is visibly loved and needs to be cleaned and have a fresh coat of paint. It has outdated appliances, wallpaper. Does it have the square footage that's the same? Sure. Does it have the acreage? Yeah. Is it the same age? Yeah, but there's some love to be had versus a house that has fresh LVP throughout the whole entire property. Absolutely no um wallpaper. It's been freshly painted, a new appliance package that's stainless steel, um, touchless, printless, whatever, you know, um, appliances in there, right? It makes a difference. So, anyhow, I really think it's important to show that on paper and then also explain what you're doing and why you're doing it. So ultimately, I'm actually kind of really glad that this guy trusted me. He didn't have to. He could have said, I don't believe you, I don't think you can do this, I'm going to find somebody else. And he didn't. He said, I don't think you can get that, but try it. And if I'm right, I'm right. And if you are, then that's awesome, right? Because he thought we should be lower than what we are, we were talking about listing it. So all in all, this was just a really cool learning experience. One, it's not often that I get to help a client to with two different listings, right? I might get to help with like listing a house and then buying a new house, but the fact that I was getting to help with two straight listings was kind of cool and unique. And the fact that they were such similar properties and like in a similar location, this time frame, like 2019, this one road was like my road. I did like four or five transactions within a year on this one um road in this neighborhood. And that was honestly like super cool. It was like, I don't know, everything felt so familiar and it was easy because I knew all the information. And uh obviously, you know, like everybody knew that I was there because my sign was constantly in somebody's yard. So it was really fun and an interesting time in my career. But ultimately, we got both houses sold pretty darn fast for at least asking price, if not more. And everybody got on their merry way. So it was a win-win all the way around. And one of the um cool opportunities that I really got to challenge myself and make sure that my skills were on par and that I could prove my value uh and prove my like skills, honestly. So it was really cool, and I'm really proud that I was able to help with both properties and gain this client's trust and being valued. That is like worth a million bucks to me. So, all in all, very neat transaction, and it wraps up my um opportunity to work with this family by selling their second home in Dalzo. So hang tight and let me know if you are gonna be on the next episode. I would love to know, do you like hearing information like this? Like, do you like knowing the backstory to some of these transactions? Or could you do without? I would love to make sure that I am bringing value to you and to this podcast. So tell me, what do you like? What would you like to hear about in the military real estate realm? I am all ears. Welcome back, friends, the closing chapters. We are kicking it back to July 22nd, 2019. And not only are we kicking it back to July 2019, we're gonna like roll it back to March of 2019. Do you remember about the interesting situation where I told you I got to list a property and it was owned by a gentleman and his ex-wife lived in the property, whom also was his nanny for his children with his current wife. Um very interesting. Now, not only was that an interesting situation, they lived in two separate houses on the same street, just separate ends. And when I went to list the house in March, that was the ex-wife's house that she had fixed up, he did not believe that I could get the price that I got for the house. And I said, you know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty darn confident with my pricing. I do a pretty good job of it, and I actually tend to be conservative. And sure enough, we got up over asking price and it appraised. And voila, I had some trust instilled in me. I was no longer just a young girl that didn't know what she was talking about. So fast forward to the summer, June 20th, we listed his house because it was time for them to PCS. And his spouse and children and nannieslash ex-spouse moved ahead of time. And then he had to finish out processing and went on behind them to Colorado, I believe. And when we listed their house, we got under contract quickly. It went online June 20th, 2019. We closed July 22nd, 2019. So that means approximately two days on market before it went under contract, and we got full list price for it. Now, here's the kicker, my friends. Their house, the second house, was not as bedazzled or on as big of a lot as the other house. So he got a whopping$1,000 less on his property than the first property. He owned both of them. He did great with both of them. He bought both of them as fixer-uppers and was able to uh get a good bit of return on those properties, which is really cool. So this is like one of those stories just to show like one in real estate in general, we come across some really interesting dynamics and decisions, right? All the way across the board. This is what worked for them, right? And that's okay. And it was really kind of interesting to hear the stories and know what their background was and how it kind of came full circle and that they were able to make ends meet together. Also, it was really cool when I have a moment to show that I am the trusted professional. And I mean that wholeheartedly. I don't mean that in an egotistical way. I mean that in, you know, I try really hard to make sure that I am providing value and proving my value. So when it comes to pricing a house, I do that. Like I do a comparable market analysis by hand in an Excel spreadsheet. I'm a little bit old school with that. I don't use like fancy reports that automatically generate it for me. I really try to keep it relatively basic and streamlined so that we are not getting into like the nitty-gritty. Because one, I'm not allowed to give a price for a house, right? I am able to give a price range. I am not an appraiser. I am not allowed to deem an opinion of value on the property. So my job is to give a price range. And I do this in my CMA. I have three different averages that I'm looking at and giving a range off of those. I do the list price average of all of the comps that I'm looking at. I do the sole price average of all the comps I'm looking at, and then I do the adjusted price average of all the comps I'm looking at. So then we have typically a pretty good range. And on top of that, I will average out the price per square foot and also give the price there to see if it matches or is in line with the range that we have. So when I do my pricing, I kind of have a double triple check system where it's like if if my opinion or one of those brackets is way off, why? You know, what's the outlier there? And when you are looking at comparable properties, you should have a high one, a low one, and then a couple that are really pretty even par on and can like even things out. So it's good to see the end of each spectrum and keep it in perspective, right? Because then we're able to look and see at the when we're looking at the pictures of the comparables, like, yeah, this is what is high, and this is why it is high. Like if that is justified, we obviously wouldn't have to bring our property up to that standard to meet it, and the adjustments are going to show that. Same thing for when it's on the lower end. Yeah, this house has carpet all throughout, it is visibly loved and needs to be cleaned and have a fresh coat of paint. It has outdated appliances, wallpaper. Does it have the square footage that's the same? Sure. Does it have the acreage? Yeah. Is it the same age? Yeah, but there's some love to be had versus a house that has fresh LVP throughout the whole entire property. Absolutely no um wallpaper. It's been freshly painted, a new appliance package that's stainless steel, um, touchless, printless, whatever, you know, um, appliances in there, right? It makes a difference. So, anyhow, I really think it's important to just show that on paper and then also explain what you're doing and why you're doing it. So ultimately, I'm actually kind of really glad that this guy trusted me. He didn't have to. He could have said, I don't believe you, I don't think you can do this, I'm going to find somebody else. And he didn't. He said, I don't think you can get that, but try it. And if I'm right, I'm right. And if you are, then that's awesome, right? Because he thought we should be lower than what we are we were talking about, listing it. So all in all, this was just a really cool learning experience. One, it's not often that I get to help a client to with two different listings, right? I might get to help with like listing a house and then buying a new house, but the fact that I was getting to help with two straight listings was kind of cool and unique. And the fact that they were such similar properties and like in a similar location, this time frame, like 2019, this one road was like my road. I did like four or five transactions within a year on this one um road in this neighborhood. And that was honestly like super cool. It was like, I don't know, everything felt so familiar and it was easy because I knew all the information. And uh obviously, you know, like everybody knew that I was there because my sign was constantly in somebody's yard. So it was really fun and an interesting time in my career. But ultimately, we got both houses sold pretty darn fast for at least asking price, if not more. And everybody got on their merry way. So it was a win-win all the way around. And one of the um cool opportunities that I really got to challenge myself and make sure that my skills were on par and that I could prove my value uh and prove my like skills, honestly. So it was really cool, and I'm really proud that I was able to help with both properties and gain this client's trust and being valued. That is like worth a million bucks to me. So, all in all, very neat transaction, and it wraps up my um opportunity to work with this family by selling their second home in Dalza. So hang tight and let me know if you are gonna be on the next episode. I would love to know, do you like hearing information like this? Like, do you like knowing the backstory to some of these transactions? Or could you do without? I would love to make sure that I am bringing value to you and to this podcast. So tell me, what do you like? What would you like to hear about in the military real estate realm? I am all ears. Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for being here and listening in on this episode of Closing Chapters with me. I truly enjoy putting this content together, and I hope that you enjoy it too. If so, could you like, subscribe, and share this episode with somebody you know that will enjoy it just as much as you did? Thank you so much.