Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In three years, we've had only a few showings. It is lack of interest in the area, more than our particular place.
Have you changed realtors to one who does have ideas, or use multi-list? (Both are silly questions by now...)
Surely in those "few showings," someone has expressed something about reasons to not buy, or to not even make an offer. Apparently not, but it's surprising.
Your home sounds interesting, so maybe they weren't serious about buying at all. There are terms for that, I know, but the ones that come to mind aren't appropriate for CD.
You need to stay off-grid and have somebody show you how a off-grid house works.
I've had a sailboat for thirty years. It's "off grid" by definition. 1kW will not run a normal vacuum, nor I suspect a normal well pump. Certainly not at the same time. One can live with no electricity at all. That's called being in the third world. If that floats your boat, have at it. That few others want to embrace your lifestyle should not be a surprise.
I have been trying to make sense of this problem (house not selling). I have gotten several impressions.
1---The home has been for sale for 3 years, and no buyers. The thing needed is to determine why there are no potential buyers.
2---The home is very small. That fact alone makes it hard to sell.
3---It is powered by a 30 year old, older fashioned under powered (by most peoples standards) solar system. An old style 30 year old under powered solar electric system, is going to turn off most buyers. Cost to hook up to power grid $10,000. A serious problem for most people.
4---No homes that have been for sale in the neighborhood have sold. This means one of two things.
4a---All of the homes are way overpriced and the buyers are looking to other areas to buy property. As with no sales to compare with, there is no way of knowing if the home is at, far below, or far above the true market value.
4b---Your home is in competition to all other homes for sale, in remote areas, not just locally. This would indicate your home/area has no appeal to people that want to get away from it all, and are buying homes in remote areas.
5---No jobs, is a serious problem. This greatly decreases the number of potential buyers, as most people are moving where the jobs are, not to isolated places without decent employment prospects.
6---An unknown: Does your home have high speed Internet hookup. This a no/no in many peoples eyes, and can be the reason sales of homes are not happening in your area, and yours is still on the market. If not available, it makes a number of areas in the country almost impossible when seeking a buyer for a home.
7---An unknown: Is cell phone service available in your community. Today people are ditching their land line, and working strictly from a cell phone. No cell phone service, no buying homes without it. My wife and I am in late 80s. We need a reliable emergency button where we can push a button, and a special operator will check our needs, and get us emergency help. We have the Jitterbug 5* system. It works anywhere in the country with cell phone service. Has GPS, so they can find us where ever we are. For $10 extra we have cell phone service for a total fee of $35 per month. We live in a small town, but other elderly retired are like us, and if there is no cell phone service for their emergency button to reach, we would have no interest. This is already a pattern followed by many, and becomes more important every day.
No cell phone service, and no good (non dial up) Internet service, and you eliminate a large portion of potential buyers.
There are 3 things that will really effect remote rural property today, and more so in the future. They must have high speed Internet, Cell Phone service, and potential decent paying jobs, or you have eliminated nearly all potential buyers. Especially the high earning Californians some tell you to advertise the property to attract. Take away one or all of these three, and your remote property becomes almost impossible to sell due to the very small amount of potential buyers.
I am speaking as someone that was an investment real estate broker, from 1972 until I finally retired and have a pretty good idea of what it takes to market real estate, especially remote property.
I have been trying to make sense of this problem (house not selling). I have gotten several impressions.
1---The home has been for sale for 3 years, and no buyers. The thing needed is to determine why there are no potential buyers.
2---The home is very small. That fact alone makes it hard to sell.
3---It is powered by a 30 year old, older fashioned under powered (by most peoples standards) solar system. An old style 30 year old under powered solar electric system, is going to turn off most buyers. Cost to hook up to power grid $10,000. A serious problem for most people.
4---No homes that have been for sale in the neighborhood have sold. This means one of two things.
4a---All of the homes are way overpriced and the buyers are looking to other areas to buy property. As with no sales to compare with, there is no way of knowing if the home is at, far below, or far above the true market value.
4b---Your home is in competition to all other homes for sale, in remote areas, not just locally. This would indicate your home/area has no appeal to people that want to get away from it all, and are buying homes in remote areas.
5---No jobs, is a serious problem. This greatly decreases the number of potential buyers, as most people are moving where the jobs are, not to isolated places without decent employment prospects.
6---An unknown: Does your home have high speed Internet hookup. This a no/no in many peoples eyes, and can be the reason sales of homes are not happening in your area, and yours is still on the market. If not available, it makes a number of areas in the country almost impossible when seeking a buyer for a home.
7---An unknown: Is cell phone service available in your community. Today people are ditching their land line, and working strictly from a cell phone. No cell phone service, no buying homes without it. My wife and I am in late 80s. We need a reliable emergency button where we can push a button, and a special operator will check our needs, and get us emergency help. We have the Jitterbug 5* system. It works anywhere in the country with cell phone service. Has GPS, so they can find us where ever we are. For $10 extra we have cell phone service for a total fee of $35 per month. We live in a small town, but other elderly retired are like us, and if there is no cell phone service for their emergency button to reach, we would have no interest. This is already a pattern followed by many, and becomes more important every day.
No cell phone service, and no good (non dial up) Internet service, and you eliminate a large portion of potential buyers.
There are 3 things that will really effect remote rural property today, and more so in the future. They must have high speed Internet, Cell Phone service, and potential decent paying jobs, or you have eliminated nearly all potential buyers. Especially the high earning Californians some tell you to advertise the property to attract. Take away one or all of these three, and your remote property becomes almost impossible to sell due to the very small amount of potential buyers.
I am speaking as someone that was an investment real estate broker, from 1972 until I finally retired and have a pretty good idea of what it takes to market real estate, especially remote property.
I appreciate the depth of your response, OldTrader, outlining all the defects of our property.
But do you really think we can change lack of cell phone service on our own? Some more powerful cell phones DO get coverage.
Yes, there is adequate internet. Again, beyond that, is beyond us as individuals.
Cannot change the size of the house.
Cannot single-handedly create jobs for people. As I stated earlier, there are jobs aplenty in Moab and lots of entrepreneurs. Earlier I stated I was making $30 an hour, not too bad. My husband had a successful business.
Why is $10,000 to hook up to the grid a deterrent? We would deduct it from the price if someone asked. No different than any other shortcoming. Like an old furnace or a/c or roof....tons of these issues on the real estate forum.
With all your expertise, could you offer some suggestions that are within our realm of possibility?
I appreciate it! Like, what DOES it take to market this rural property?
Sounds lovely. Are you listed on Realtor.com or something?
There are two big lotteries this week, maybe I'll be in touch.
So what would your price be without the solar, and how much would it cost to hook up to Utah Power and Light, or whatever it is?
Post your multilist #, I'd love to look.
Thanks, sent it to you privately. It's Rocky Mt. Power and we estimate around $10,000 to connect.
I'm not clear on what the home being solar has to do with anything to the extent that there is power available 27/7. If that's an issue, then Tesla offers a solution (Tesla Powerwall) to store solar power in wall mounted batteries to ensure that power is always available.
I've had a sailboat for thirty years. It's "off grid" by definition. 1kW will not run a normal vacuum, nor I suspect a normal well pump. Certainly not at the same time. One can live with no electricity at all. That's called being in the third world. If that floats your boat, have at it. That few others want to embrace your lifestyle should not be a surprise.
My 1 k generator won't run my fridge. The initial draw is too high.
I, too, saw that gorgeous home for sale built into a sandstone alcove. Amazing property. If we already didn't have a bought and paid for home on the PNW, I would have jumped at it as I loved the desert Southwest.
How about advertising on High Country News? When I subscribed, I saw a number of ads for homes like yours. Or, as someone suggested, the Mother Earth News. You probably need to find a national realty company that specialize in your location or similar and recreational properties or off grid. Best of luck.
I'm not clear on what the home being solar has to do with anything to the extent that there is power available 24/7. If that's an issue, then Tesla offers a solution (Tesla Powerwall) to store solar power in wall mounted batteries to ensure that power is always available. https://www.tesla.com/powerwall
For certain small values of "always." The advantage of TESLA Lithium packs is they are somewhat smaller than the Lead acid batteries used for years in this application, and tend to last for more charge/discharge cycles.
You can increase the value of "always" by purchasing and installing more batteries, but then you'll need more solar screens.
Without the batteries, solar is available an average of 12/24 hours per day, approximately.
As the OP says, you have to get used to it and plan ahead. Being off grid worked well for us from about 1500 to 1900 when things began to change.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
