My house is supposed to be listed today... (Howe: lease, neighborhood)
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We don't have to sell, if we don't get what we want/need we won't sell it.
Wow.
In Realtor industry parlance, we call sellers employing your level of motivation "tryers" and not "sellers". "Tryer", is in fact an apt term. If your listing is priced right, well staged and has no obstructions to showing access, you have a decent chance of selling during this time of year and in this market, depending on your location.
But it's a serious market out there and the serious motivated "sellers" are cleaning house on the "tryers". I'm hoping, for your sake, you are actually more motivated than your comment suggests. Otherwise, your Realtor has done you a disservice by taking your listing.
Here are some stats, hot off the MLS, which I'm working on this morning:
For August 2008, the percentage of Expired and Withdrawn listings ballooned to 46%, up from 41% last month and 32% a year ago. I expect it will come close to 50% in September and go higher through December. Prices are down 2% from a year ago, though the median sold price is up 2%. The market is still treading water.
On the other hand, homes that actually sold did so in 63 days average, 43 median days on market (not bad numbers at all), and sold for an average of 96% of list price. A year ago in August, homes were selling at 97% of list price and in 54 days avg and 34 median.
Knowing these stats and current market conditions, your Realtor should have leaned on you agressively regarding pricing strategy, how long after listing date you'll drop the price, how much you'll drop it, and what to do to get the most out of each showing (staging).
I know this is unsolicited advise, but I find in general that sellers often want to throw the home on the market, unstaged, priced high, then "hope" that someone will come along and pay their price, when in fact that rarely happens. If that describes what you're doing, it simply won't work.
To answer your original questions, the others are right, it should show up today, but your agent can email a link to you, which by the way, if you are serious about selling, should be of a listing with 12 outstanding photos taken after staging the home.
And what Austin-Steve didn't mention is that you're saying you won't sell unless you get what you want, however, did you read your listing agreement? No where in the listing agreement does it say your Realtor is to "sell" your house. The listing agreement only talks about bringing "ready, willing, and able buyers" to the house. If you receive offers you don't like and then just decide not to sell, you owe the 5% commission you agreed to pay.
Most people don't think that what they're signing is an actual CONTRACT, but you've signed a contract for services and those services do not say to sell the house. THink long and hard before you just turn down offers because they aren't what you "want/need", as you put it.
In Realtor industry parlance, we call sellers employing your level of motivation "tryers" and not "sellers". "Tryer", is in fact an apt term. If your listing is priced right, well staged and has no obstructions to showing access, you have a decent chance of selling during this time of year and in this market, depending on your location.
But it's a serious market out there and the serious motivated "sellers" are cleaning house on the "tryers". I'm hoping, for your sake, you are actually more motivated than your comment suggests. Otherwise, your Realtor has done you a disservice by taking your listing.
Here are some stats, hot off the MLS, which I'm working on this morning:
For August 2008, the percentage of Expired and Withdrawn listings ballooned to 46%, up from 41% last month and 32% a year ago. I expect it will come close to 50% in September and go higher through December. Prices are down 2% from a year ago, though the median sold price is up 2%. The market is still treading water.
On the other hand, homes that actually sold did so in 63 days average, 43 median days on market (not bad numbers at all), and sold for an average of 96% of list price. A year ago in August, homes were selling at 97% of list price and in 54 days avg and 34 median.
Knowing these stats and current market conditions, your Realtor should have leaned on you agressively regarding pricing strategy, how long after listing date you'll drop the price, how much you'll drop it, and what to do to get the most out of each showing (staging).
I know this is unsolicited advise, but I find in general that sellers often want to throw the home on the market, unstaged, priced high, then "hope" that someone will come along and pay their price, when in fact that rarely happens. If that describes what you're doing, it simply won't work.
To answer your original questions, the others are right, it should show up today, but your agent can email a link to you, which by the way, if you are serious about selling, should be of a listing with 12 outstanding photos taken after staging the home.
We're definitely not "tryers", our home is staged and clean, the lawn is mowed and edged. We are ready to go, we are definite competition for other homes in our neighborhood. It's definitely not worth the effort and the stress to just "try" to sell. What I meant was that we don't have to take any offers that are less than what we consider our bottom line, we aren't desperate and can afford to wait for the right offer, or take the house off the market.
My biggest concern are the 3 houses that are foreclosing on the street next to us, and how that will figure into potential buyers comparing prices etc. We are priced right and our realtor said we would look at the stats and consider lowering a little in a few weeks if we're getting poor feedback or very few showings. I feel comfortable with that.
Thanks for the stats, they have given me a little (very little) hope that we may sell. We have a 3 car garage and live on a cul de sac(something that is very rare in our area) so I'm hoping we stand out from the rest of the homes on the market.
We were on realtor.com and austinhomesearch as of last night and our professional picks and virtual tour should be up there tonight or tomorrow morning.
Thank you for the advice (even if it was unsolicited)
My question would be do you "need" to sell, or are you just kinda wanting to sell, as in if you don't sell will be just fine. The reason I say this is that I think Austin's market is a bit behind in the downturn time line compared to California's. Austin seems to be exhibiting the same symptoms we had last year: Slowing sales, etc etc.
I know a number of people who claimed they wouldn't take less than what they wanted for their house, turned down offers that were sometimes only 10-20k less than asking, only to have to sell it for 75-100k less than what they originally offered once the market got really bad.
Sometimes its worth considering lower offers and getting what you can versus hoping for a return of the market, which I'm taking a very pessimistic guess won't be back for at least a few more years.
The listing agreement only talks about bringing "ready, willing, and able buyers" to the house. If you receive offers you don't like and then just decide not to sell, you owe the 5% commission you agreed to pay.
I don't know how it works here in TX, but in NJ, you only owe the realtor a commission if they bring you a "ready, willing, and able buyer" who makes a full-price offer. A seller can refuse to sell and owe no comission even if the offer is just $1 less than the listing price.
And what Austin-Steve didn't mention is that you're saying you won't sell unless you get what you want, however, did you read your listing agreement? No where in the listing agreement does it say your Realtor is to "sell" your house. The listing agreement only talks about bringing "ready, willing, and able buyers" to the house. If you receive offers you don't like and then just decide not to sell, you owe the 5% commission you agreed to pay.
Most people don't think that what they're signing is an actual CONTRACT, but you've signed a contract for services and those services do not say to sell the house. THink long and hard before you just turn down offers because they aren't what you "want/need", as you put it.
We have had a few withdrawns in our neighborhood, a couple in our section. I know these people, and none said that they had to pay commission, what state are you talking about here? Not Texas, yes?
If no sell, no realtor get commission. What's so hard about that?
That's how the game works when I hired my past two realtors.
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) hope that we may sell. We have a 3 car garage and live on a cul de sac(something that is very rare in our area) so I'm hoping we stand out from the rest of the homes on the market.
