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I think I found your house. And it's probably one I would go see because I like unusual but.... If I found the right one, the pictures are not the best. There are no pics of the outside of the home and that's a huge red flag for most home buyers. I expect to see multiple views of the exterior. Are the windows frosted? That confused me. The pics made it look not quite finished and liveable as is. The pictures may explain why you are not getting many showings. If you decide to market the home in SEA and SFO I would get better pics! Are you waterfront? If that river is on your property, you are way underpriced! Can you see the water from your porch/deck? That needs to be in the pictures!
It is a gorgeous area! Beautiful!
I looked at everything for sale there and it looks like everyone has at least 5 acres. And the prices are all over the place. I think some of the prices are way out of line for the area. If I was moving to an area that small, I would look at everything for sale. The good news is there isn't much and all your house needs to do is look like the best buy for the money.
It IS quite a spectacular area, right? But you did not find ours. Yes, the whole valley is 5 acre parcels.
This is not us, but our friend a few streets over. But he is having a hard time too at this price and with only one bathroom and only wood to heat and cook. I admire his passive solar design (he built it). We are only half his price....this realtor needs some professional photography help, LOL.
The prices ARE all over the place because no 2 places are remotely the same. Hard to know how to price it.
And btw, the section of the valley towards the mountain range never has gotten the grid, so they are totally solar with no possibility of connecting. They are all doing fine. One is priced at $400,000----yes, crazy.
I've been to the RE forum a few months ago and got many nice answers, but nothing I could really implement on my own. That was more related to seller-financing which we are also offering.
I tried to look up our listing by MLS number, but it comes up as "nothing found" if I'm at the right place:
Nothing by address either. Is this correct? Or where DO you enter a MLS # to find the listing?
I'm bummed out to see we are not on Realtor.com or Trulia or Zillow, when our realtor said we were.
I came to this forum because I was trying to find some "green" site I might advertise on.
Not "why isn't my place selling" because I pretty much know that answer.
Have you searched for your MLS number on realtor.com or Zillow? If it's not coming up, that's a HUGE problem that your realtor needs to fix like literally right now. No one is seeing the house listed.
For perspective: $400K will get a you a really nice house, probably barn & outbuildings and 40 or more acres of woods, possibly (probably) harvest-able &/or rent-able crop land in southern WI where there's plenty of industry and a shortage of workers. Property can also be used or rented for hunting (deer are considered rats with antlers around here). While you may have to take steps to protect your calves from wolves, you're still only 2-3 hours from Chicago and all the trappings of civilization.
I was surprised my off grid cabin in the Ozarks sold pretty quick. I did have to take a loss. About 20%. I'm sad about that, and I will miss the place, but no job there, end of story.
I was surprised my off grid cabin in the Ozarks sold pretty quick. I did have to take a loss. About 20%. I'm sad about that, and I will miss the place, but no job there, end of story.
Good for you! Did you use any particular marketing strategy for such a unique property?
Check Facebook for Off Grid Living site. Also there are tiny house for sale sites. I'd give you more details but am on android phone-makes me crazy! Deb
Op, I've worked in real estate on the business end (not as an agent) and I have some suggestions.
A. Fire your realtor. If you can't find your own house on the internet then neither can anyone else.
B. Don't list it again for a while. Your house has gone very cold (if it was even listed properly...it could be your agent is not internet savvy) and taking it off the market for 6 months to a year might help. Because when it does get relisted, it will be a "new" listing (even though it's history will be available). Be prepared to tell potential buyers why it was previously on the market for 3 years (I'd blame the agent, and I think, rightfully so: didn't list it right; wrong address; lousy pics; or, sorry but, you were naive enough to trust that they had put it on the internet when they hadn't)
C. While it's off the market, consider connecting to the grid, OR invest the same amount in solar (you said your husband was in the biz?...perhaps you could save money on the install then?). $10k would add 10x the amount of solar you now have.
D. Do your research on agents. Find the ones on realtor.com in your area who have the most SOLD listings. I mean they were the ones who sold houses as the listing agent, NOT the one who was working for buyers. Look at the pics they've taken of their sold houses and make sure they're great, as well as the text they publish. Is it polished? Refined? Then call the top 3, interview them (Don't you dare believe them if they say they already have a buyer...they don't...if one of them says this during the interview process, say "well, maybe you can make up a single-showing listing contract for that". Watch their mouths drop because you know this. Watch that "buyer" disappear into thin air.) Pick the honest one. Who doesn't lie about a buyer. Who doesn't seem like a bully. Who has a polished appearance. The most professional even if you don't like everything they say (expect negatives about your house - keep your spine stiff and listen) Who has been the listing agent on several sold houses. You may have to have an agent from afar, but it seems like the close one sux rocks.
And google more for yourself..."off-grid homes" ..."rural homes"
Good luck.
PS: if your house isn't here: http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...989,9&qdm=true
it isn't anywhere useful. Go to the map view, use your cursor to move the map a tiny bit and a "search when moving map" sign will appear in the upper left of the map. Click on that and houses outside of moab proper will appear; move/zoom to where your house is. Not there? fire your realtor. If there's too many houses to see yours, adjust pricing (in the "Any Pricing" box above the map) to closely reflect your pricing.
Last, but not least Fire Your Realtor. (But I said that, didn't I?) Doesn't matter if they're a friend/neighbor. This isn't personal, it's business.
Oh, and for heaven's sake, if a river is on your property make sure it gets listed as Waterfront; if it's not on your property, but you have a view of it, then it should be listed as Waterview. That's a HUGE selling point. And did I read about horses too? (Sorry...I'm running out just now): Waterfront/view Horse Property, is how it should be listed. If it is a trailer, that might keep the stampede down, but still. Yeesh.
Fire. Your. Realtor!
Now, I have a grandchild I have to go play with. Check back tomorrow.
Last edited by crusinsusan; 08-13-2017 at 12:40 PM..
Some people say fire your Realtor, and replace with the agents most successful in selling homes.
They simply do not understand, your Realtor is the only one available in the area which you have told us. The next closer agents are half an hour and more away, and really are not capable of handling your listings, beyond putting it in the MLS in their area not yours.
Telling you to take the listing off of the market for a year, as it is a stale listing in your area, is not the solution. When it went back on the market, it would still have many handicaps as it does now.
No property in the area is selling. That is the real problem. For some reason, your area is not a highly desired and sought after area for new residents. Lets look at some problems.
1. For retired people. It is too far from good medical facilities.
This is #1 desire, for the modern retired person. My wife and I as an example at late 80s fit into this category. We live in a small town area, but medical care is great. A branch of a top medical system, 1.5 miles away, and if needed the system with a major hospital is only 40 air miles away. They 2 helicopter ambulances for quick transport if needed. They are the major medical provider for Montana, Western Dakotas, Northern half of Wyoming, and part of Southern Canada, so they own 2 twin turbo engine airplanes for transport further away. All staffed with great air transport crews. They are one of only 7 hospital systems that are good enough they have become affiliates with Mayo Clinic. That is a major reason we live where we do. The remoteness of your home, makes it almost a no go for retired buyers.
2. Job prospects for a good job. This is what will keep most people away from buying your home.
3. The beauty of the area, is rugged, and spectacular and draws a certain type of tourist. But it becomes boring real fast for permanent residents, and the vast majority of the people will not want to live there.
4. It is very remote, and too far from what the majority of people consider to be recreational necessities. No great dining experiences, no theaters, no casinos, etc., etc., etc. Today people are not happy without the types of facilities modern people are looking for. This greatly reduces the desirability of buying it for a vacation home. Too far away from population/work centers, to be a place they can run to for a weekend getaway.
As no property is selling in the OP's area, is proof that a combination or all of those 4 reasons, is the reason the property is not selling. NO PROPERTY IN THE AREA IS SELLING.
When in the business, I moved some very difficult to sell property like this one. Due to the extra effort needed I charged a 10% commission to compensate me for using my knowledge and ability to move it. I may have used it in a 4 to 8 way property exchange. A property like this, being by far the smallest property involved. Once it got to the exchange circuit, it may go through a dozen different owners, till someone ended up with it and decided to use it a a vacation retreat or something like that.
Example. A man came to me with an impossible to sell property worth at time $15,000 40 years ago. Had been for sale for 5 years. I asked him if he would be willing to exchange it for rental property, etc. He said yes, as that was his goal. I asked him what he could add to this. He said $50,000 cash. I went to an exchange meeting, where exchange specialists gather. I offered $50,000 plus this $15,000 property had to be taken as part of the down payment. Had 20 plus offers made that day. He selected one located about 10 minutes from his home and he loved the property. Went to closing 3 weeks later. Over the next 5 years, I saw this same property offered as part of an exchange probably 20 times. Always used the same way I did, as part of an exchange. It went through I don't know how many owners, over the years.
There are ways to move any real estate, that is not the conventional sale method. I never found a property I could not move within 30 days, no matter how long it had been on the market. I have been out of the business several years now, and do not have my old contracts to refer the OP to, to help. The ones I worked with, are like me, retired or in some cases dead of old age. But the system I worked under, still works but it is hard to find a specialist that can handle it.
The old saying still is true, "There is a property for every buyer, but there is not always a buyer for every property". I made a real good living, handling the unusual properties along with regular income properties from single family homes, to large commercial, development land and farms/ranches.
The OP lives in an area, where no property is selling, which indicates it is not because the agent is doing a bad job. It will not sell, no matter who lists it for sale, and attempts to sell it as a regular sale. It is what is known in the business a problem property. That does not mean there is anything wrong with the property, but is a problem trying to find someone to take it off of the sellers hands. The property needs to be listed by someone qualified to think outside of the box, and handle it differently than a normal sell to a user property. There are people that specialize in handling real problem property like property in that small town in UTAH, and to get them to take the problem on, will cost a 10% commission and be worth every penny.
I do understand your area. I retired to St George, and lived there till the smog started to build up and drove us out of town. I have been through that part of the state where the OP has the property many times.
Last edited by oldtrader; 08-14-2017 at 12:40 PM..
We are one hundred percent off the grid on five acres in a very scenic part of SE Utah.
Grid is at the driveway, but we never hooked up. There is no seller's market at all where we live, in a small community of four hundred, with no services. A popular, bustling tourist town is just twenty miles away; Moab. We are just three miles from the CO River; rafting, hiking, etc.
Our property has horse facilities, and you can ride right out the gate to wonderful areas. In three years, we've had only a few showings. It is lack of interest in the area, more than our particular place.
Any advice for more specific targeted marketing in the "green living" community; suggestions of websites or anything?
Kind of at wit's end...thanks for any advice. Realtor has none....
Has anybody in this thread suggested a CONTEST or DRAWING? Something along the lines of you sell a certain amount of tickets for say $100.00 EACH. The drawing will take place only IF you sell the amount of tickets that will cover the value of the property you need by a certain date, and expenses as you'd NEED to advertise this all over (back to my suggestion for "back to the land" type magazines, etc). IF that doesn't happen (can't sell enough tickets) the money will be refunded to the buyers. Of course, that means you'd have to check into the laws in your state for something like this, maybe register and/or pay for a license of some sort. I'm sure you'd then have to set up an Escrow account for all monies received, and of course keep track of all people names and addresses for buyers, etc.
So, each person has a chance of owning the property FREE and CLEAR for only as small as a single $100 investment for a ticket.
That may be worth a consideration, and is certainly better than simply walking away from it.
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