Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 14:24:09 GMT
I posted about our housing issues a few months ago here. We interviewed a few realtors and the consensus was we need to upgrade the home to help it compete with new construction. So we spent the last 2 months upgrading the house (new floors throughout and new granite in the kitchen to the tune of $15K), selecting a realtor and getting it on the market. The realtor we ended up going with had great reviews online and seemed extremely personable and knowledgeable. She had a great marketing plan, used a professional photographer, helped us stage our house (we have limited furniture right now) and told us we should be able to get a higher price point than we originally anticipated. So we signed with her for 6 months. The first week came and went and we got no showings. We dropped the price $5K. Now the second week has come and gone and still no showings. We've gone back and forth with our realtor a few times and now she tells us it's priced too high for our market (average schools) and the chance of selling is slim. She's putting the blame on us and coming across as very condescending in all of her communication. We're at a loss. This is our 6th time listing our home. We tired different real estate companies and various price points. We're not looking to get rich but know we will be buying another home in a couple of years, so money is a factor. Plus we have two kids headed to college soon, two more at home, a 14 year old mini-van and my husband is set to leave the military next year. We just want to cut ties with this area (which has never felt like home) and head out west. Do you have any ideas we haven't considered? We just want to throw in the towel and walk away from this mess. But that's not an option either. ETA: I decided to remove the listing and pictures because I was uncomfortable with my private information out there. Sorry about that.
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Post by epeanymous on Jun 1, 2016 14:30:01 GMT
I am really sorry that you are dealing with this. I have a friend who has a house she's been trying to sell for a few years in a similar market, and it is frustrating.
Does your realtor have a price in mind? What would that price mean for you, financially? Is it an option in your area to rent the house out and keep the house as an investment property for a while?
I don't have any advice -- the market where I live is nuts and nothing from here would apply to your situation -- but I didn't want to go on by without acknowledging your situation.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 14:32:30 GMT
Thank you for the support! The realtor gave us a price and we went with it but now she's backpedaling and saying it's too high. It's so frustrating because we thought it was too high when she suggested it, but we figured she knew what she was talking about (she ran a CMA twice) and who doesn't want to make the most money they can? There doesn't seem to be a single decent realtor in this entire town!
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Post by epeanymous on Jun 1, 2016 14:37:52 GMT
Thank you for the support! The realtor gave us a price and we went with it but now she's backpedaling and saying it's too high. It's so frustrating because we thought it was too high when she suggested it, but we figured she knew what she was talking about (she ran a CMA twice) and who doesn't want to make the most money they can? There doesn't seem to be a single decent realtor in this entire town! When we listed our house last summer, we interviewed six or seven real estate agents, all of whom had great track records and seemed competent. Each of them gave us an estimated price for our house. The low and high realtors were separated by a half-million dollars .
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basketdiva
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,649
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:09 GMT
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Post by basketdiva on Jun 1, 2016 14:43:59 GMT
Is the realtor following the market plan she showed you? Hopefully that marketing plan includes being on zillow, homes.com,etc. If she is not following the plan, I would be wanting to know why or talking to her broker about lack of marketing.
BTW- the house looks lovely.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 14:49:25 GMT
- From a cosmetic standpoint, I would consider painting the kitchen cabinets white and adding hardware. - Can you provide pictures of the bathrooms and exterior?
I agree with what epeanymous says - interview about five to seven other realtors and see what their price points are.
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Post by buddysmom on Jun 1, 2016 14:56:13 GMT
Well, your realtor seems to have a crappy attitude.
I know some people don't like them but have you considered an open house? (They say that it only helps out the realtor).
But about a month ago a relative of mine put their house up for sale in the northeast for the third time in three years, dropped the price each time.
He was bummed out because the first two weeks this time, no showings or they cancelled.
I suggested an open house--he said NO WAY.
Well, he caved and did have an open house. Guess what--a family from his neighborhood looked at it and thought it would be a great house for their son. They made a really low-ball offer, sob story no more $, etc, etc.
Then another offer came in. They got into a bidding war!! Sweet!!
So the people with "no more money" actually had an approval letter (or something like that from their bank) plus the parents forked over like a $50K gift.
It just takes one person to like your home.
And my relative has a 25 year old house with no updates. It's clean and nice but very dated. He had to consider that of course in pricing the home.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 14:58:40 GMT
Is the realtor following the market plan she showed you? Hopefully that marketing plan includes being on zillow, homes.com,etc. If she is not following the plan, I would be wanting to know why or talking to her broker about lack of marketing. BTW- the house looks lovely. She's really not doing much of anything now. She listed it on the MLS and the various websites (Zillow, Trulia, Realtor). But I had to remind her about the video tour, flyers, etc, that she promised in her plan. Also, I've been going to various local Facebook (housing) pages linking the house. Although that seems to drive up the views it hasn't resulted in any showings. We were supposed to get a realtor caravan come through the house, but she couldn't get it scheduled for this week.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:02:19 GMT
We like the idea of an open house, but our realtor made no mention of it in her marketing plan and I sense she wouldn't be keen on the idea. She keeps bragging she has a couple of other house that just went under contract, blah, blah. I don't care about any of that. I feel like I'm once again doing her job for her and I really don't have the time or energy for this. It feels like there's no out of this situation and all of our plans/work/effort has been in vain. :-(
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Post by Susie_Homemaker on Jun 1, 2016 15:03:06 GMT
Is the location bad? Is there something negative about the lot or are3a that you can't change? How's the rest of the neighborhood?
I'm just throwing reasons out there for why it may not have sold. And then it's not the house but something you can't control. It's not real helpful but I'm just trying to think of things other than the realtor or the house itself.
We currently have a house on the market and I think he is the worst realtor ever. He hasn't shown our house once! Don't get me started...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:06:58 GMT
Is the location bad? Is there something negative about the lot or are3a that you can't change? How's the rest of the neighborhood? I'm just throwing reasons out there for why it may not have sold. And then it's not the house but something you can't control. It's not real helpful but I'm just trying to think of things other than the realtor or the house itself. We currently have a house on the market and I think he is the worst realtor ever. He hasn't shown our house once! Don't get me started... The schools are average. There's too much inventory in this area. New construction is still making it impossible to entice buyers (even though it's all very poorly built). That being said, the crime rate is lower here than in the "desirable school districts" which should be a plus. And our home is priced lower than other areas from what I can see online. Good luck on your home sale. I'm sorry to hear you have a terrible realtor and I completely understand the stress of it all. Feel free to vent away!
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Post by buddysmom on Jun 1, 2016 15:11:17 GMT
We like the idea of an open house, but our realtor made no mention of it in her marketing plan and I sense she wouldn't be keen on the idea. She keeps bragging she has a couple of other house that just went under contract, blah, blah. I don't care about any of that. I feel like I'm once again doing her job for her and I really don't have the time or energy for this. It feels like there's no out of this situation and all of our plans/work/effort has been in vain. :-( She sounds lazy. That's a way for realtors to get business even if it's nosy neighbors or for her to get other potential customers. If you want an open house, I would tell her to schedule one. This is the time of year people move (while the kids are out of school) so she needs to work. Call her broker (boss). If it creates bad feelings, so be it and get another realtor.
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Post by wrongwayfeldman on Jun 1, 2016 15:15:01 GMT
We've been in our home for over 20 years, so I don't have any advice as far as the realtor is concerned, but I do have a few opinions about the staging. Since the furniture seems so sparse, do you think that makes the house look small? The pieces are a bit disjointed, and don't feel very livable, so I wonder if it would be better to either furnish it in a more authentic way, or take all the furniture out altogether? I also agree about the cabinet color. The walls look so fresh and updated, as well as the granite, but the cabinets seem dated. Could you paint them white and add pulls to make it look more current? I also wonder if you could splurge just a bit more and add some crown to the ceiling in the form of a wide trim. It's not as expensive as crown moulding, but it makes the room look so much more finished. I also second the idea of speaking to several other realtors. What city are you in? I have a friend in Greensboro that just recently bought sold two houses in three years, so she might have some insight.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:17:22 GMT
This is the time of year people move (while the kids are out of school) so she needs to work. Call her broker (boss). If it creates bad feelings, so be it and get another realtor. Honestly, we would have fired her already if she hadn't paid for the "professional" photos. She didn't say we would owe her any money if we ended the contract early, but I feel guilty about it. So we're giving her a couple more weeks. Hopefully, it will be work it!
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Rhondito
Pearl Clutcher
MississipPea
Posts: 4,799
Jun 25, 2014 19:33:19 GMT
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Post by Rhondito on Jun 1, 2016 15:18:06 GMT
Can you link your listing so we can see more pictures?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:20:33 GMT
What city are you in? I have a friend in Greensboro that just recently bought sold two houses in three years, so she might have some insight. We're in Fayetteville. The market is terrible here since it's a military town. As for your cabinet suggestions, we'll have to give it a lot of thought. Repainting them would be a long painful process and we would have to take the house of the market during "peak" selling season. We don't have much furniture right now since we sold most of it before moving here earlier this year and we plan to move again, so we want to keep expenses down.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Jun 1, 2016 15:21:38 GMT
We like the idea of an open house, but our realtor made no mention of it in her marketing plan and I sense she wouldn't be keen on the idea. She keeps bragging she has a couple of other house that just went under contract, blah, blah. I don't care about any of that. I feel like I'm once again doing her job for her and I really don't have the time or energy for this. It feels like there's no out of this situation and all of our plans/work/effort has been in vain. :-( Tell her she's breaching what she promised and contracted and cut her loose! I wouldn't sign for 6 months either--3 would be max!
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Jun 1, 2016 15:22:39 GMT
Military town--can you hook up with someone on the base who makes referrals to incoming people?
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Post by melanell on Jun 1, 2016 15:23:31 GMT
I suppose if I were trying to find things to change in those 3 photos, I could, but I don't know that they would really help, kwim? For instance, I would have loved if there was some additional (but minimal) staging on the breakfast bar in the kitchen pic. I personally don't love the look of the cabinets and back splash ending before the counter tops do, BUT, I think if the bar was made up with a few place settings it would really help to make that area feel like a separate area and then it would make more sense that it doesn't match up with the rest of the counter space along that wall. I like the staging in the living room and dining room, although to be very nit-picky, I wish the photographer would have eliminated what I assume is a pull for a ceiling fan from the photo. I also wonder if staging the seating around the fireplace might be better. I'm confused about the 3rd photo, though. What is that room? It appears to be off the kitchen and the finishing makes me think of a dining room, but the dining room seems to be in the other photo where I can see a table and chairs. So perhaps if it were possible to stage that room to make a function for it more obvious, it might help. But overall, I feel like I was really being fussy in trying to find anything that could be improved upon in the photos. My gut feeling is exactly what you've said---that there are simply too many choices available in your are right now. I hope things turn around for you soon and that you receive a solid offer. Best of luck!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:25:01 GMT
Military town--can you hook up with someone on the base who makes referrals to incoming people? I'll look into that, although I'm not sure exactly how. Thanks for the suggestion.
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,345
Jun 29, 2014 18:58:47 GMT
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Post by scrapnnana on Jun 1, 2016 15:25:42 GMT
Your first mistake was to sign a six month contract with that realtor. That gives her six months to sell it, which allows her to take her time. I don't know if you can get out of the contract or not, but it might be worth it, since she apparently has given you bad advice, at least on the listing price.
Do you live in the home? If it is empty, it will take longer to sell. If there is no furniture in the house, the rooms will appear much smaller.
You can add to the listing a bonus to the agent who sells the home. That might help.
Also, if it is not in the multiple listing, it should be. You do not want to have to rely solely on your realtor, even if she is good. Is she doing open houses every weekend? If not, insist that she does open houses for at least a few weeks in a row.
If the listing expires with no buyer, eliminate part or all of the amount of the realtor's commission, and offer it in the newspaper "For sale by owner below market value." However, that will require someone living in the house to show it by appointment and for the open houses every weekend.
The latter is how we sold our first home in a crappy market. Because it was not as expensive a home, realtors didn't want to bother showing it to potential buyers. They always steer potential buyers to the most expensive home that buyer can possibly afford, so they get a bigger commission.
I will probably get flamed for that last comment, but we had a good realtor. She was almost the only realtor showing our home. It was a lower priced home in a less desirable neighborhood. We even had a bonus listed for the agent that sold the house. ONE other agent brought through ONE potential buyer. That was it. The others were brought by my realtor. We had it listed on the multiple listing in two counties. We only had a total of 4 potential buyers come see our house in 4 months. Our realtor suggested letting the listing expire, cutting out her commission, and offering it for below market value so that we could get our new home, which she would get a commission on. It was a home that was almost twice the price of our first home, and she didn't want to lose that commission. The day after the listing expired, I was flooded by calls from realtors who wanted me to list with them, yet they never bothered to show the house when it was listed. They got an earful from me when they called.
Because it was listed below market value, we had a lot more potential buyers come the first open house weekend than we had had in the entire four months that it was listed, and it sold by the second weekend's open house to a couple who had come through the first weekend. People were looking for a deal, so a house selling below market value meant they had immediate equity as soon as they bought the house. Our real estate attorney handled the closing. It was a lot less expensive to sell our home that way, and it was not really that difficult.
The only downside was that we personally had no equity in the home, and we ended up losing about $3,000. We hadn't lived in the house long enough to build up equity.
After our experience, I decided that I never wanted to deal with selling a house through realtors ever again if I could avoid it. We'll see if it works a second time. We are about to put our house on the market, "For sale by owner below market value," and see how it goes this time. We have been in our current home for 32 years and just finished renovating. We don't expect to recover all of our renovation costs, but we have a lot of equity this time around, so we can be somewhat flexible. We probably won't even have to eliminate the entire 6% realtor's commission.
Good luck!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:28:17 GMT
I suppose if I were trying to find things to change in those 3 photos, I could, but I don't know that they would really help, kwim? For instance, I would have loved if there was some additional (but minimal) staging on the breakfast bar in the kitchen pic. I personally don't love the look of the cabinets and back splash ending before the counter tops do, BUT, I think if the bar was made up with a few place settings it would really help to make that area feel like a separate area and then it would make more sense that it doesn't match up with the rest of the counter space along that wall. I like the staging in the living room and dining room, although to be very nit-picky, I wish the photographer would have eliminated what I assume is a pull for a ceiling fan from the photo. I also wonder if staging the seating around the fireplace might be better. I'm confused about the 3rd photo, though. What is that room? It appears to be off the kitchen and the finishing makes me think of a dining room, but the dining room seems to be in the other photo where I can see a table and chairs. So perhaps if it were possible to stage that room to make a function for it more obvious, it might help. But overall, I feel like I was really being fussy in trying to find anything that could be improved upon in the photos. My gut feeling is exactly what you've said---that there are simply too many choices available in your are right now. I hope things turn around for you soon and that you receive a solid offer. Best of luck!! I know what you mean about the staging in the kitchen. It was not how I wanted it or envisioned it, but the realtor insisted we remove EVERYTHING. As for the other room, yes, that's the dining room, but we use it as a sitting room. I wish we had more furniture!
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Post by melanell on Jun 1, 2016 15:33:15 GMT
I suppose if I were trying to find things to change in those 3 photos, I could, but I don't know that they would really help, kwim? For instance, I would have loved if there was some additional (but minimal) staging on the breakfast bar in the kitchen pic. I personally don't love the look of the cabinets and back splash ending before the counter tops do, BUT, I think if the bar was made up with a few place settings it would really help to make that area feel like a separate area and then it would make more sense that it doesn't match up with the rest of the counter space along that wall. I like the staging in the living room and dining room, although to be very nit-picky, I wish the photographer would have eliminated what I assume is a pull for a ceiling fan from the photo. I also wonder if staging the seating around the fireplace might be better. I'm confused about the 3rd photo, though. What is that room? It appears to be off the kitchen and the finishing makes me think of a dining room, but the dining room seems to be in the other photo where I can see a table and chairs. So perhaps if it were possible to stage that room to make a function for it more obvious, it might help. But overall, I feel like I was really being fussy in trying to find anything that could be improved upon in the photos. My gut feeling is exactly what you've said---that there are simply too many choices available in your are right now. I hope things turn around for you soon and that you receive a solid offer. Best of luck!! I know what you mean about the staging in the kitchen. It was not how I wanted it or envisioned it, but the realtor insisted we remove EVERYTHING. As for the other room, yes, that's the dining room, but we use it as a sitting room. I wish we had more furniture! So, then what's the purpose of the area where there is a table in the living room pic? (Oh, wait, I see it has different flooring...that's still part of the kitchen I'm thinking?) I agree with you about the furniture. I prefer to see a home with some staging than an empty or almost empty home. I am terrible with spacial relationships, and empty rooms always look smaller to me than they really are. If there is furniture it gives me something to compare in my head, kwim? I can say "Oh, look, they have a dining table for 6 here and there's still plenty of room for a buffet or for a larger table.". But in an empty room I find myself thinking "Man, can we even fit seating for 6 in here?".
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:33:45 GMT
Do you live in the home? If it is empty, it will take longer to sell. If there is no furniture in the house, the rooms will appear much smaller. You can add to the listing a bonus to the agent who sells the home. That might help. Yes we live in the house, which adds to the stress factor. The rooms appear really large with the furniture we currently have IMO. Also, our realtor hates the idea of an incentive for a buyer's agent (we asked her about this a few times). She feels only "unscrupulous" buyer's agents will bring their clients to our house for the incentive. I think she's crazy. We've done this in the past and it DID lead to higher traffic. Maybe we'll just insist she do this anyway?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:36:19 GMT
So, then what's the purpose of the area where there is a table in the living room pic? That's the eat-in kitchen area!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:39:47 GMT
Can you link your listing so we can see more pictures? Here's some more pictures: ETA: Pictures removed.
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Post by snappinsami on Jun 1, 2016 15:40:05 GMT
Thank you for the support! The realtor gave us a price and we went with it but now she's backpedaling and saying it's too high. It's so frustrating because we thought it was too high when she suggested it, but we figured she knew what she was talking about (she ran a CMA twice) and who doesn't want to make the most money they can? There doesn't seem to be a single decent realtor in this entire town! We've had that pricing problem happen with the last two houses that we sold. The first time (selling in 2005, at the height of the housing market), our Realtor wanted to start at $625K. We got no showings. We dropped it by small increments twice with very little attention. Once we dropped it to $599K though, things picked up. Getting right below that x00 figure gets a lot of potential buyers who just don't want to go above that x00 number. If you're listed just over the hundred thousand dollar mark, it might we worth dropping the price to just below it. The second time was just a disaster. In the end (after FOUR YEARS of having the house as a rental while we lived 3,000 miles away), we finally sold it but took a $100K loss. Ouch. We're still smarting from that one. (Lesson learned... don't buy at the height of the market and try to sell when it's crashed. Not that we could help it at the time...) It does sound like your Realtor is lazy and not looking out for you best interest. It might be worth a call or meeting with her boss to see if you can light a fire under her or at least get her to stick to the plan that she had presented to you. If they can't do that, ask for them to let you out of the contract so you can interview and find another Realtor who will be better for you. I wish you the best in this process. It can be extremely frustrating, but at least if you can find a good Realtor to work with, it should be a little less so.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 15:43:04 GMT
The second time was just a disaster. In the end (after FOUR YEARS of having the house as a rental while we lived 3,000 miles away), we finally sold it but took a $100K loss. Ouch. We're still smarting from that one. (Lesson learned... don't buy at the height of the market and try to sell when it's crashed. Not that we could help it at the time...) This is our problem too. We bought at the height of the market, thought it had recovered, but will be losing tens of thousands of dollars. When we buy again, it will be in another state where we anticipate paying a lot more again. We're torn on what to do and the stress is taking a huge toll on all of us.
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Kerri W
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,790
Location: Kentucky
Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Jun 1, 2016 15:46:59 GMT
This is our 6th time listing our home. We tired different real estate companies and various price points. We're not looking to get rich but know we will be buying another home in a couple of years, so money is a factor. Plus we have two kids headed to college soon, two more at home, a 14 year old mini-van and my husband is set to leave the military next year. We just want to cut ties with this area (which has never felt like home) and head out west. Do you have any ideas we haven't considered? We just want to throw in the towel and walk away from this mess. But that's not an option either. I work in a real estate office but I am not a realtor so take my *opinion* for what it's worth. The market will tell you what the house is worth. The market doesn't care if you have kids headed to college, an older vehicle, etc. If a property is overpriced, it's overpriced and it won't sell. I'm not saying that's your case but it seems that you've changed a lot of the other variables and had many different professional opinions, so it's the first place I'd start. Sometimes people do simply have to take a loss to be out from under a house that doesn't work for them. It sucks. What *I* would do in your shoes: -get REAL about the price in your area. -get the broker involved. -Once the broker is involved, HEAR what they have to say. You've had six agents. They aren't all wrong. -start noticing if there are open houses in your area. Open houses are unheard of in our market and an absolute waste of time.
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Post by *KAS* on Jun 1, 2016 15:47:03 GMT
What area of NC is this in? Does it appear to be a soft market? Do you know anybody else whose listed recently and what their results were?
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