Need Help With Selling My Raleigh Home--ANY IDEAS!!!

[golfgrl]

Originally Posted by raleighgal

Hi City Data Family, I NEED YOUR HELP!!

Today's market is tough and I am feeling it. I have a beautiful single family home in North East Raleigh...everyone that has seen it has said they really love it... but no serious buyers yet....just a bunch of investors with insulting offers......great location...with community pool and tennis courts.....it has been on the market for 42 days...I have only had 4 realtor showings in 42 days.......I am going crazy trying to figure out what else can be done to get some showings.....Open houses brings more neighbors than real buyers..."just lookers". Its posted online on several websites....no luck...it is listed with a RE Company and is on the MLS but....still no luck......We are flexible and are motivated to sell. WHAT ARE THE SECRETS TO REALTOR SHOWINGS... OR TO GET SERIOUS BUYERS?? I NEED IDEAS FAST!!!

Thanks
--RaleighGal

I don't know if this info will be helpful to you but here goes. My husband and I recently sold our home in NY. It was on the market from May 2007 until October 2007. We had 4 Open houses, with one ridiculous offer until Oct. We lowered the price three times until it was a realistic price. Then we sold it to someone in the neighborhood whose timing and situation were perfect. It wasn't easy. Realistic being the operative word here. We had to stop being offended by the lower price. We are closing on our new home here in Raleigh at the end of the month. We must have looked at 40 to 50 homes before we ended up revisiting one neighborhood that we had glossed over. It was so hard to find a house that had almost everything we were looking for and that was in our price range (175K to 210K) but was in a decent neighborhood. There is a lot of inventory out there, especially in this price range, but all houses are not created equally. When your contract expires with your current real estate agent you might consider changing firms. I understand that they are not all created equally also. Some work harder for you. Moderator cut: removed Good Luck.

[Cara Keys]

I would suggest having your agent pull pending and recent sale comps and other properties currently on the maket. Take a good look at what your immediate competition is and then position your property as the most appealing one. Best price, best package (home warranty, assistance w/ closing costs etc) best all around.

[tsmithgolf2000]

I was in the same situation last summer. Listed my house, thought it was priced right, 30 days later, maybe 3 or 4 showings, dropped the price by 3%. The flood gates opened, had a ton of showings but still no offers over the next 3 weeks. I had to sell and plus I was getting very impatient so I dropped the price another 3% and then bam, a week later I had 2 competing offers. So after about 9 weeks on the market, 25 showings, 2 offers, I had it under contract. So it really hurt to drop the price that much, but looking back I don't have any regrets except for getting myself in a situation where I had to sell. If I had to do it all over again, I would have sold my house, rented, and then purchased my next house but that's another discussion.

[Funky Chicken]

This is kind of becoming my "standard" post in response to questions of this type.

Assuming that your house is priced properly-

Go stand across the street from your house. Try as hard as you can to pretend you don't live there. Now, look HARD at it. How does the mulch look? Are the bushes trimmed? Is the front door freshly painted? Does the driveway have any stains on it? Could you plant a couple of flats of flowers or hang a few baskets? Can you see a garbage can when you are driving by? Does the lawn look as good as it possibly can (mowed, trimmed, edged, no weeds)? Have you done EVERYTHING you can to enhance curb appeal?

It takes about 15 seconds for a buyer to determine their level of interest in a given home. Obviously there could be something inside the house that changes their mind, but those first 15 seconds are crucial in a high inventory market. People need to pull up to your house and go "WOW" no matter what the price point. If your house doesn't blow people away, it's just like all of the others, AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHERS right now.

If your agent did their job right, you should have information to compare your home to in terms of average days on market for your neighborhood or zip code, other homes currently for sale, recent sales prices and the percentage of list to sale price for those sales. How does your price and the 42 days on the market compare?

If your agent did their job right, they priced your home to sell. They also based the price on your time expectations. Is the home priced higher than the agent's recommendation because you are in a position where you need to "clear" a certain dollar amount? If so, it is likely overpriced.

As always, this post is meant to help. It's based on my personal experience selling and buying within the last 180 days, as well as my knowledge as a licensed (but not practicing) NC real estate agent.

[VickiR]

I'll add to Funky Chicken's post...

Have your agent check comps and your competition at least weekly!!!

When your home looks like the BEST VALUE for that price range, then you are priced right. However, if your neighbor has more square footage and a better lot, it may be necessary to drop your price now.

Its a slow market out there...great for buyers, frustrating for sellers!

Vicki

[raleighgal]

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. I am working on some new strategies based on all the feedback I got here... I really needed some outside opinion on this and it was well worth it........THANKS!! a MILLION...
--Raleighgal