Selling
A pricing strategy built from the last ninety days of comparable closings rather than a hopeful number designed to win the listing. Staging consultation, architectural photography and floor plans included.
Est. 2011 · Ashcombe Heights & the river districts
The house is the easy part.
The number is the job.
A two-agent firm taking forty listings a year, because the person who wins your listing should be the one who attends your inspection. We price from closings, we front the preparation budget, and we will talk you out of a house.
14 Cobb MeadowAshcombe Heights · $1,285,000 · Move your cursor over the photograph
4.9 / 5.0
211 verified Google reviews
15 years
Selling in these districts since 2011
Ranked #1
Boutique Brokerage, Regional Property Awards
14 days
Median time to contract, last 40 listings
How we work
Six ways we are engaged.
Deliberately narrow. Two agents, forty listings a year, and no ambition to be the largest brokerage in the county.
2.5% listing fee · no upfront cost
Buying
We tour with you, not ahead of you, and we will talk you out of a house. Off-market access through the firm's private network, and an offer strategy that does not rely on waiving your inspection.
Pre-Market Preparation
The two-to-six week programme that reliably returns more than it costs: paint, floors, landscaping, decluttering and the four repairs an inspector will find anyway. We front the cost and settle at closing.
Relocation & Out-of-State
Video tours the same day a house lists, neighbourhood briefings written by people who live here, and a closing you can attend remotely. About a third of our buyers never see the house until they own it.
Investment & Multi-Family
Rent-roll analysis, cap rate modelling on real local operating costs rather than a spreadsheet default, and honest advice about which duplexes on this side of the river are not worth owning.
Estate & Probate Sales
Patient, unhurried representation for families selling a parent's house. Contents clearance, coordinating with the attorney, and a timeline that respects what is actually happening.
On the market
Three houses, this week.
For saleAshcombe Heights
14 Cobb Meadow
$1,285,000
5 bed4 bath4,180 ft²
Under offerThe Mill District
3 Weir Street, Unit 8
$612,000
2 bed2 bath1,490 ft²
Sold · 6 daysOld Fenwick
27 Harrow Lane
$845,000
4 bed3 bath2,760 ft²
The firm
Two agents. Forty listings. On purpose.
I spent six years at a brokerage where the agent who won the listing handed it to a junior the following week. Nobody in that arrangement is accountable for the number you eventually accept.
Ashcombe & Hale takes forty listings a year between two of us, which means the person who values your house attends the inspection, sits at the closing table, and is the one you shout at when a buyer’s lender goes quiet. It is a smaller business than we could run, and it is the whole product.
40Listings a year, capped
$3.90Returned per prep dollar
14Median days to contract
98.6%Of list price, averaged
Marguerite HalePrincipal Broker · Licence #RB-55210 · CRS, ABR, SRES
Why this firm
Six commitments, in writing.
We will talk you out of a house
Twice this year we have told buyers to walk from a property they loved — once over a foundation, once over a road that is about to be widened. Our commission is not worth your next five years.
Priced from closings, not wishes
Listing presentations are where agents buy business by promising a number. Ours is built from the last ninety days of actual closings within a mile, and we will show you the ones that undercut our own recommendation.
The preparation budget is ours first
Paint, floors, landscaping and the obvious repairs, arranged and paid for by us and repaid at closing. On our last forty listings, that programme returned an average of $3.90 for every dollar spent.
Photography by an architectural photographer
Not the agent's phone, not a wide-angle lens that bends the walls. Twilight exteriors, a proper floor plan and a drone lot view on anything over a quarter acre — included, on every listing.
Two agents, forty listings a year
Deliberately small. A team carrying two hundred listings cannot attend your inspection, and the person who wins your listing will not be the one who answers your calls.
You keep the data
Every showing note, every piece of feedback, the traffic figures, and what the buyers who did not offer actually said. It is your house and it is your information.
Free valuation
A number, with its reasoning attached.
This runs the same arithmetic we do — price per square foot from the last ninety days of closings in your district, adjusted for condition and for how the bed and bath count sits against the footprint.
—Full comparable set, including the ones that argue lower
—Preparation budget fronted by us, repaid at closing
—Architectural photography and a floor plan, included
—No cancellation penalty before an offer is accepted
AI Home Valuation
Value my house
District
2,400
4
3
Condition
Indicative market value$695,000 – $785,000
- Suggested list price$750,000
- Price per square foot$308
- Expected days to contract≈ 11 days
- Our fee at that price$20,000
Consistently our strongest market; well-prepared houses rarely last a fortnight. The baseline the comparables are drawn from.
At this condition the lever is not more work — it is the first fortnight on market and the quality of the photography.
Request the Full ComparablesClients
Including the ones we cost ourselves a commission over.
★★★★★
They told us not to list in November and to spend six weeks and about eleven thousand dollars first. We were sceptical and impatient. The house sold in March for sixty-eight thousand more than the autumn recommendation.
Questions
What sellers and buyers ask first.
Two and a half per cent of the sale price as our listing fee, with the buyer's agent compensation negotiated separately and disclosed to you in writing before we go to market. There is no upfront cost, no marketing fee, no photography charge and no cancellation penalty — if you are unhappy at any point before an offer is accepted, you can end the agreement.
From the last ninety days of actual closings within roughly a mile, adjusted for square footage, condition, lot and finish level, and pressure-tested against what is currently sitting unsold. You get the full set of comparables, including the ones that argue for a lower number than we are recommending. An agent who arrives with a price and no evidence is buying your listing rather than valuing your house.
Rarely a full renovation, frequently a preparation programme. Paint, flooring, landscaping, decluttering and the handful of repairs an inspector is going to find anyway typically return several times their cost, and we front that money and take it back at closing. A new kitchen, on the other hand, usually returns about sixty cents on the dollar — buyers want to choose their own.
Correctly priced and properly prepared, most of our listings are under contract inside two to three weeks, and closing takes another thirty to forty-five days after that. The single largest variable is the first fortnight: a house that is priced ambitiously and then reduced twice sits far longer than one priced right on the first day, and it usually ends up selling for less.
No, and we will not advise it. There are several ways to make an offer strong without giving up your right to know what you are buying — appraisal gap coverage, a shorter inspection period, a repair threshold, flexible possession, a larger deposit. Waiving inspection in a competitive market is how people end up owning a foundation problem they cannot afford.
About a third of our buyers are. Same-day video tours, written neighbourhood briefings by people who actually live here, honest notes about traffic, schools and flood maps, and a remote closing. We will also tell you when a house does not photograph the way it feels, which is the whole reason a remote buyer needs an agent they trust.
Enquiries
A conversation, not a listing appointment.
We will come and look at the house, give you a price with the comparables attached, and tell you honestly whether now is the moment. There is no obligation and no presentation folder.
(555) 219-4470Mon–Sat, and one of us always answers
office@ashcombehale.comSend an address for a desk valuation
4 Cobb StreetAshcombe Heights · by appointment