Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2016 23:57:39 GMT
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. She ran 2 CMA's and this is the price she told us would bring buyers. I'm curious, did any of the other realtors you interviewed tell you what price they would list the house? If so, how did their prices compare to the price your realtor initially listed at? The other realtors were around the same price point based on the CMA's they completed, give or take a couple of thousand dollars.
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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 2, 2016 0:04:48 GMT
So if we drop the price NOW, that will raise flags won't it? There is NOTHING wrong with the house, but people make a lot of assumptions when they look online. We're just motivated to sell for the reasons I've listed above. But how do we convey that without scaring away buyers with price drops? This process is super frustrating to say the least. Not any more than you've already raised IMO. A few more thoughts: -don't throw good money after bad trying to get the price you have in mind. While you're waiting for the perfect offer, you're making mortgage payments. --Don't do any more upgrades. Offer $$ toward closing costs or allowances if needed. -have you gotten any feedback from the showings you've had? If you haven't, ask the realtor to put a program in place to make sure you get feedback from every showing and hear what it says. As far as pricing...people tend to look in $25,000 increments. For instance $150,000 and under, $175,000 and under, $200,000 and under. So if you are priced at something like $169,000 and drop the price $5,000 to $164,000 you likely aren't reaching any new buyers. This is a pricing issue. You have to make the decision if you are going to waste money on the additional mortgage payments and your time or if you are going to eat the fact you bought at the top of the market and have to bring money to the table...as sucky as that is.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 0:04:53 GMT
3. You've listed all the reasons why you need to see at a high price. But I dont think you will get the high price AND a quick sell. Also? If you bought at the peak of the market, you can't really expect to 'make' money on your home. Just because you (possibly) over paid doesn't mean someone else is going to be willing to cover your mistake. If you bought the home new, you also paid a premium for that. Now that its not new, you can't expect to get the premium price any longer. We never said we were hoping to make money. I stated above we're just hoping to get SOME of the equity back from the house. We just put in $15K worth of upgrades, which OUR realtor suggested we do to make it marketable. If we were greedy, we would have listed it way over the CMA which lots of our neighbors have done. 4. You've had s bunch of realtors. I don't know all the reasons you claim they sucked, but after two 'bad' ones I would start looking internally to see if there is something they are saying that I am not hearing. They are the professionals and for the most part, I would agree to do what they said I needed to do to sell. They know the market, your neighborhood, etc. We never said all of the realtors were bad. In fact, we had 2 GREAT realtors who showed the house in the past but never got it under contract. We've had the house on the market on and off since 2011. We may go back to one of these realtors, but the other one seems to now be focusing on new builds instead of existing construction.
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Post by bigbundt on Jun 2, 2016 0:29:24 GMT
If you are willing to pay closing costs and offer a home warranty, why aren't those things in the listing (of course I would never share the link)? That would catch my eye as a buyer and might prompt me to push to see the house rather than relying on my agent to just happen to know and suggest it to me. I don't think there is anything wrong with appearing to be a motivated seller considering you are in a military town. It isn't like there is something wrong with the house and you are trying to off load it onto some sucker or flip it to make a lot of money, you are just trying to get to the next phase of your life which is not what landed you there in the first place.
The updates were well done, if you find the sweet spot of price and incentives I don't doubt that you will find a buyer. You might need to be more firm with your realtor though, she needs to do something different than what she is doing. It isn't working.
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Post by ro on Jun 2, 2016 0:39:16 GMT
@trezmom I feel your pain. I put my house up for sale 3 weeks ago. I posted here too because I was so overwhelmed (putting family home for sale all alone). I was so stressed because I have 2 big dogs and showings were going to kill me. I sold it in one day. Well it took 1.5 weeks to finalize it because of home inspection condition. I chose a realtor because I knew he was the big seller in my area. He has the reputation for asking way more than the price, which worried me, but he got i15K more than I expected. He provided a great photographer and an amazing stager. And that was part of the reason I sold so quickly. It is q buyer's market here and I hadn't upgraded the carpets upstairs nor did the landscaping that many houses have -- no deck in the backyard etc. do I had to sell the i'interior' of my house. Granted I do live in a desirable neighbourhood, but houses in my price range don't move quickly. My neighbours kitty corner to me have the same model and they had priced it too high and they haven't sold it yet. Here are my tips (and some gleaned from my stager) First of all your house is lovely with great colours. But I persionally find it cold. There doesn't seem to be artwork on the walls. Funnily enough when I had the contractor here fixing it, he painted over the nail holes and my stager put back all of the art work up (except for a couple of nudes Pillows. For whatever reason, peolple love seeing lots and lots of pillows -- so I bought a 2 pillow pack (4x) and displayed those. My kids weren't allowed to lie on them to keep them fluffy. Glade vanilla plug ins one on each floor. Subtle smell that masks odors of pets, cooking etc. If you have nice hardwood floors, get rid of rugs -- they make it look like you're hiding something. Lamps help and light them when taking pics and when you're showing the house. Books! I had packed boxes and boxes of books and put in storage, and my stager made me get some and place them to decorate. If you have nice granite counters, leave very little on them -- no plates or bowls. One in the corner -- maybe a white bowl with lemons and limes -- colorful fruit. Same with bathroom, get rid of all the soaps etc and place rolled up towels (preference for white to give spa feel) I hope some of these have helped. Sorry for the length of the post. A few more things: Because my ex took half of the furniture, I borrowed and got furniture really cheaply on local Kijiji sites to fill empty rooms. Half the stuff I will now resell. I also went to ikea and spent 500$ buying lamps, and decorative items -- like more frames, fluffy duvet covers etc. most of the stuff will be useful to me in my new house. The feedback I got from the buyers was that the woman loved my style. Ha! Had she only been in my home 3 months prior and she would have seen the cluttered mess I lived in! I wish you the best of luck. Hang in there. It will happen!
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Rainbow
Pearl Clutcher
Where salt is in the air and sand is at my feet...
Posts: 4,103
Jun 26, 2014 5:57:41 GMT
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Post by Rainbow on Jun 2, 2016 0:42:33 GMT
It might be worth it to drop the price just to get it over and done with, if you just want to get rid of it. The schools are average, but I'd rather average instead of bad. My oldest graduated from Douglas Byrd of all places, and the youngest from Pine Forest (which is OK). I would say that the pictures of the house are lacking curb appeal. Kinda plain and nothing special. You want to draw people in from the outside. I would say the price is high for the area especially with so many brand new ones available. Can you green up the lawn a bit? And add a few flowers? Something to make it pop?
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Jun 2, 2016 1:27:18 GMT
You know in terms of pricing our agent put us into what he called "range pricing". So say you are looking for 200k, the range might be 190-200k "buyer willing to entertain offers between" those values. I thought he was a crackpot. It actually worked. Our buyers offered full price with closing costs (they were VA) and we sold it.
Might be something someone who is in real estate can explain better. But just an idea to consider so it isn't necessarily a price reduction that way.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Jun 2, 2016 1:30:54 GMT
I'm sorry - truly. I think you're in a pickle at this point. I too saw the listing, and frankly I think you should fire your realtor. A very cursory look at the comps in the area and more importantly YOUR listing history shows that she/he over priced it. In a strong market putting in 15K of improvements and raising the price 30K might work - but I'll be blunt - it doesn't work in a soft market. This truly is not about the color of your kitchen cabinets or if there are enough flowers on the porch. I STRONGLY urge you to not put any more money into the house. Just how saturated is YOUR market. I could nitpick the pictures, but again I'll be blunt - the pictures aren't bad enough to explain why you're not having ANY showings. You're either that overpriced or your market is just that bad. I'm truly sorry to be a Debbie Downer - but I really, really urge you to find good professional help. I'm sure there is a good realtor in your area, unfortunately I don't think your current agent is the one.
I've bought and sold in all kinds of markets. We sold in the Bay Area right after the dotcom explosion - bad markets suck. There's no way to sugar coat it. But a realtor who's blowing sunshine up your ass isn't going to help anything. You need to know cold hard facts. At what price point are houses moving in YOUR area. It does you absolutely no good to look at comps for houses that have sat on the market for a year plus - unless of course you're willing to do that. SOLD HOUSES are what matters if you're looking to SELL.
Good luck to you - truly.
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Post by mom on Jun 2, 2016 2:04:30 GMT
Thinking about this some more:
How is the # of bedrooms and baths? I mean, you didn't turn a 4 bedroom home into a 2 bedroom house, right? (Like making super huge bedrooms vs. # of bedrooms).
Is what you have the 'standard' in your area?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 2:10:50 GMT
This is a problem, too, and I don't know what the answer is. Is there any way that a realtor can get market history (not actual sales, but when it was listed/delisted, etc) removed from the MLS?
I know that when we are looking at real estate, we look at sites like Redfin and if there is a long history of years of a house being on and off the market, we don't even bother to look at it. To me, it suggests that either the sellers are unreasonable or there is something significant wrong with the house. It doesn't sound like that is actually the case here, but you may be turning potential buyers off before they even look at it without realizing it.
I'm sorry you're dealing with this - it sounds like a nightmare.
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Post by Belia on Jun 2, 2016 2:39:52 GMT
I'm sorry you're going through this- selling a house in a bad market is a special kind of hell. Hang in there.
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Post by lisacharlotte on Jun 2, 2016 3:15:23 GMT
In the previous thread linked in the OP these same issues were brought up. I urged the her to not put in upgrades and to price the house for what will sell. They need to use appropriate comps for a 10 year old house surrounded by new construction. I just think they don't want to hear what the realities are. Now they've sunk an additional $15k into a house and they aren't going to sell until they drop their price significantly (if they're lucky). For all the major advice given in two threads, I bet nothing changes other than blaming realtors or the vaguely less desireable school district.
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Post by melissak on Jun 2, 2016 3:52:33 GMT
We own a home in Fayetteville and it is all about location and price.,Our home is in the Jack Britt school district and we currently rent it out. It rents immediately because we price it below market and people want to be in our school district. The same goes for selling here. Without good schools you need to be priced very well or you will not be able to sell. I know you said before you were not interested in renting it out, but it might be your only option.
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Post by mlynn on Jun 2, 2016 6:49:54 GMT
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Post by anonrefugee on Jun 2, 2016 9:05:36 GMT
The suggestion to pay a sales incentive is direct and to the point. Put your efforts and your remaining dollars toward a sale, not more changes.
And even though it's time you stop handling this emotionally, it's good for you to recognize buyers will choose with theirs. Market what you've already got: Hang the porch flag, add text about fenced yard (not just photo) to your description, mention the school has a great________(choir, math club, art class, principal). Just because it's average doesn't mean it doesn't have heart. You've raised four good, college bound kids there!!!
Good luck!
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Post by mlynn on Jun 2, 2016 11:41:53 GMT
There is such a thing as lease to own for houses now. I am not sure it is called that or something else. Anyway, it is kind of a combination rent/buy thing. The house is rented for a stated period of time and there is a set date for when the option to purchase kicks in. A certain amount of the rent is kicked in as part of the down payment. If they do not exercise the purchase option by the stated date, they do not get anything back. DH's brother-in-law purchased a home that way.
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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 2, 2016 11:48:04 GMT
There is such a thing as lease to own for houses now. I am not sure it is called that or something else. Anyway, it is kind of a combination rent/buy thing. The house is rented for a stated period of time and there is a set date for when the option to purchase kicks in. A certain amount of the rent is kicked in as part of the down payment. If they do not exercise the purchase option by the stated date, they do not get anything back. DH's brother-in-law purchased a home that way. I'm sure there are other scenarios but let me tell you my experience with this. The only people we have approach us about this are doing so because they don't have other options. They don't have any credit to buy and for some reason they aren't being rented to. In the entire time I've worked in our office I have not seen one single case of this work. We do have one investor who is ok doing it...because he makes money at it. Invariably the people walk away, because they didn't get to the point of no credit and nobody willing to rent to them by making good choices, and the house is in terrible shape and the owner either takes a hit in pricing to sell or they sink more into fixing it up to put it on the market again.
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
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Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Jun 2, 2016 11:48:44 GMT
Can you clarify what you are looking to do as far as money? Are you just trying to break even on what you owe or are you trying to make money?
I ask because when listed with the main desire to just get it sold, we listed below what we paid in 2003. Crappy market hit everyone hard. We knew what our break even point was and we were willing to ultimately lose money if we had to to get out of it. We sold for nearly 20k less than what we paid. Luckily we pay extra every month so we didn't pay money to sell but we would have. We didn't want to rent and live across the country.
A friend of mine in the military ate 100k on a house in Ohio because it was never going to come back to peak when they bought it. Paid 300k sold for 200k. Sucks but they wanted to be done.
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gsquaredmom
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Posts: 4,092
Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
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Post by gsquaredmom on Jun 2, 2016 12:00:40 GMT
If you lower the price to a perceived bargain price, it will sell. My sister had to bring 21k to the table to sell her first house, as she did not hold it long and the market declined a bit. We are talking a 78k house, so 21k was a huge hit. But it lost a lot fast, and the buyers had demands and she paid closing, their down payment, etc. It was a serious buyers' market, but she had to relocate quickly.
I am stunned at recent home sale prices in my town. Excellent schools and amenities. I bought 8 years ago at 250--a serious fixer upper--and that was a bargain at the time. I have been upside down for awhile. Recent comps were 117 and 134! I understand your situation, but if I HAD to sell, I could only get what the market will bear.
Good luck to you.
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Post by melanell on Jun 2, 2016 12:03:22 GMT
One of the tips in that article is to have a fence, which makes the previous suggestion of being sure that the listing specifically points out that the yard is fenced sound even better.
I wouldn't expect buyers to just see the fence and think "oh, fenced yard!" because they may not be sure which fence belongs to which house if several neighbors have fences also.
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 6:41:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 12:21:04 GMT
I'm sorry you're going through this- selling a house in a bad market is a special kind of hell. Hang in there. This is 100% true!! The reason it's been so hard for us to make a drastic move is because our life is in limbo right now with my husband currently still in the military (but hoping to retire next year). IF he had a good job prospect elsewhere it would be a much easier pill to swallow (losing this money) because we'd know there was a guaranteed income somewhere else. Since our financial future is up in the air, we're at a loss at the "right" move. As for the upgrades, we were advised by the REALTOR to make these move to compete with new construction. We KNEW we would need to do something to set it apart. There are plenty of other homes for sale in our neighborhood with NO upgrades and they have sat for months. YES, price is obviously, the biggest factor. So we will work with our Realtor to try and figure out the best price point to get the home shown. OR we'll find another realtor. We will also ask her to put in all the things mentioned above (fenced in yard, home warranty, seller pays closing costs, etc). Thanks for all your suggestions and support everyone.
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 6:41:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 12:22:05 GMT
Can you clarify what you are looking to do as far as money? Are you just trying to break even on what you owe or are you trying to make money? We're not trying to make any money. We know that's not even a remote possibility at this point.
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Post by janet100 on Jun 2, 2016 12:39:47 GMT
What an education. Thanks everyone for posting.
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Post by BoilerUp! on Jun 2, 2016 13:38:13 GMT
We just listed last week ourselves, but we are in Indiana. I didn't see a listing or photos anywhere, or I would've given my opinion. Best of luck to you! I hope something favorable changes for you soon!!!
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 6:41:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 13:50:15 GMT
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 peasapie on Jun 2, 2016 13:58:28 GMT
I haven't read all the responses, so I hope I'm not being repetitive. Have you gone around to look at other houses for sale? I did that before selling mine and got lots of good ideas on what works and what doesn't.
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 6:41:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 14:16:49 GMT
I would put some greenery in your home.
And bury the saint.
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raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Jun 2, 2016 14:31:27 GMT
Can you clarify what you are looking to do as far as money? Are you just trying to break even on what you owe or are you trying to make money? We're not trying to make any money. We know that's not even a remote possibility at this point. Ok I thought somewhere you mentioned equity but I'm not sure and it's hard to find on my phone. I think I would figure out how much more I had to spend then be willing to drop the price to the point where I was losing it there So if you have 10k more and you need a break even of 200k then sell it for 190k. Also I saw you said you removed the listing. Do you mean you took it off the market again?
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jun 2, 2016 14:32:24 GMT
One thing that hasn't been mentioned but I thought I would throw it out there--do you have pets that are making the house smell? It sounds like part of the problem is getting people in to see it, so smell may not be the problem. There is a house here that has been on the market for awhile. It is nice and looks good in the pics, but the house smells horribly like dog. I assume that is a big reason why it hasn't sold, since houses are selling quickly here and this one is priced well.
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Deleted
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Oct 8, 2024 6:41:12 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2016 14:40:50 GMT
Also I saw you said you removed the listing. Do you mean you took it off the market again? No I just took the pictures off of my post.
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