Help! Bad realtor, great house lowered the price $150,100 how can I market it myself? (Fair Lawn: hardwood floors, mortgage)

[sarimcg]

I am desperate!!! My house has been on the market for 5 months. During that time, I have found 14 couples who wanted to purchase my house but could not sell their houses or could not get the financing. I located these people through my own marketing strategies - not my realtors. Over the past 5 months, my realtor has done maybe 10 open houses if that, and advertised in the paper for the first 3 1/2 months , almost every week, but for the last seven weeks, she put one ad in the paper and has not had one open house since July 31st. She claims it is the market and that there are no buyers in the price range of our house. We were told by 12 realtors in April that our house's market value (comparitive to what was on the market) was between $825,000 - $925,000. We put it up for $875,000 .We also had a well known preschool on the entire first floor of our house that I owned for the past twelve years and never advertised. I closed the school but would include it as a turn key business to a qualified person. The area that the school is in is very clean and not cluttered looking, you can see past it being a school and invision it as family space. It could easily be a mother daughter with a separate kitchen or any in home business - it has a separate entrance - or it can be an awesome above grade level finished family room/entertainment area, etc... When the house didn't sell after one month, we lowered the price to $850,000 then to $759,900 now it is at $724,900. We have approximately 1300 more square feet than any other house in town at this price range and it is in completely move in condition. There is NO clutter, the kitchen is brand new - granite, ss appliances,the bathrooms are brand new, all freshly painted, all hardwood floors and mouldings, etc... top of the line everything,the whole house has been redone between 2004 - 2007. We are running out of time for this selling season and I am hoping to get some ideas as to other ways to market it. There was a house across the street that is a typical split level (we are a newly renovated three story house) it was under contract in ONE day!!! Three offers and it sold for $620,000. Another split level house went on the market on our block for $900,000. We have approximately $175,000 more dollars in upgrades than this house. Other than continuing to lower the price to a ridiculous number, what can we do? Our town is wonderful and we live on one of the best streets, very quiet- NYC trans at our corner and a ton of restaurants and ammenities down the block, close to the parks, etc... We moved four months ago and are living with my Mother in Law, running out of savings paying for the mortgage not to live there! Any suggestions?

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by sarimcg

I am desperate!!! My house has been on the market for 5 months. During that time, I have found 14 couples who wanted to purchase my house but could not sell their houses or could not get the financing. I located these people through my own marketing strategies - not my realtors. Over the past 5 months, my realtor has done maybe 10 open houses if that, and advertised in the paper for the first 3 1/2 months , almost every week, but for the last seven weeks, she put one ad in the paper and has not had one open house since July 31st. She claims it is the market and that there are no buyers in the price range of our house. We were told by 12 realtors in April that our house's market value (comparitive to what was on the market) was between $825,000 - $925,000. We put it up for $875,000 .We also had a well known preschool on the entire first floor of our house that I owned for the past twelve years and never advertised. I closed the school but would include it as a turn key business to a qualified person. The area that the school is in is very clean and not cluttered looking, you can see past it being a school and invision it as family space. It could easily be a mother daughter with a separate kitchen or any in home business - it has a separate entrance - or it can be an awesome above grade level finished family room/entertainment area, etc... When the house didn't sell after one month, we lowered the price to $850,000 then to $759,900 now it is at $724,900. We have approximately 1300 more square feet than any other house in town at this price range and it is in completely move in condition. There is NO clutter, the kitchen is brand new - granite, ss appliances,the bathrooms are brand new, all freshly painted, all hardwood floors and mouldings, etc... top of the line everything,the whole house has been redone between 2004 - 2007. We are running out of time for this selling season and I am hoping to get some ideas as to other ways to market it. There was a house across the street that is a typical split level (we are a newly renovated three story house) it was under contract in ONE day!!! Three offers and it sold for $620,000. Another split level house went on the market on our block for $900,000. We have approximately $175,000 more dollars in upgrades than this house. Other than continuing to lower the price to a ridiculous number, what can we do? Our town is wonderful and we live on one of the best streets, very quiet- NYC trans at our corner and a ton of restaurants and ammenities down the block, close to the parks, etc... We moved four months ago and are living with my Mother in Law, running out of savings paying for the mortgage not to live there! Any suggestions?

my disjointed thoughts:

1) you know the saying "you don't want to have the nicest house on the block"? well, sounds like this is what's in play here. Why would someone pay $725K for a house in a neighborhood of houses for $620k?

2) People don't care that you put in $175K in upgrades.

3) did that house for $900K sell?

4) people are probably confused with "daycare" thing. maybe convert it and market it as a mother/daughter - sounds like you're marketing it as a business. people not targeting a home business will just pass it by.

5) drop the price.

good luck!

[sarimcg]

Thanks for your input. We were considering changing the school so far everyone that wanted to buy the house wanted the school as well...but I guess it's too late for that. All throughout town there are 1,000,000 houses mixed in with 500,000 - 650,000 houses. It is definitely the nicest house on the block. The 900,000 house just went on the market - I'll be sooooo upset if that sells before ours. Anyway, thanks again for the advice.

[Roselvr]

What town are you in?

[sarimcg]

Fair Lawn.

[gore2008]

You can sell it on BUYOWNER. They have a "u" in the name.

I have sold 3 of the five properties I want to without REALTOR on buyowner.com.

[krusher]

People don't care that you put in $175K in upgrades.

This is a really good point. You shouldn't assume that just because you paid $175k for upgrades that your house is now worth $175k more. It's worth what someone will pay for it at a given time.

[sarimcg]

The frustrating part is that we had 14 couples who were willing to pay between $825,000 - $860,000 for it and not one of them could manage to sell their houses or get the mortgage for it. And our realtor was playing games with two very serious buyers and I think she messed it up.

[sarimcg]

To Gore2008
Thanks for the site - I tried it but they are not set up for North Jersey.

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by sarimcg

The frustrating part is that we had 14 couples who were willing to pay between $825,000 - $860,000 for it and not one of them could manage to sell their houses or get the mortgage for it. And our realtor was playing games with two very serious buyers and I think she messed it up.

The problem is people can't get loans for a house that price.