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My Garner house has been on the market for about three weeks. We have only had FOUR calls from Central Showing and THREE were no shows! One agent wanted to show the house in 15 minutes from the call. These agents have to know you are practically breaking your neck to get the family, the dog out of the house and every last crumb off the floor. Anyway, the agent never showed up,never called to cancel. After an hour and 1/2 we went back into the house. I called Central Showing to find out what happened, they said they would find out and call me back, that was 3 weeks ago I still haven't heard...OK done venting
Anyway, we have "staged" the house, painted inside and out, done all repairs (house is 10 years old) no one even comes to see it, we live in a nice neighborhood, other houses that are for sale around me have same experience. Do you all know something about Garner, I don't? I totallly enjoyed living here for 10 years.
About your house and showings, it all depends. I know that is vague, but it depends on location, price point, pictures (does your agent have a good number of pictures on mls, realtor.com, etc), how else is your agent marketing the home? How is the school district you are in? The triangle is a big place, and most people who are relocating have heard of the "suburbs" of cary, apex, holly springs, and wake forest (knightdale and clayton are close behind), but people haven't been knocking down my door to talk about garner. Not that garner is bad, I am just saying, it is not the first place people outside of the area think of in terms of moving.
I would talk to your agent, ask them what their expectations are for showings, etc.
Hopefully it will pick up soon.
Leigh
Last edited by SunnyKayak; 10-10-2007 at 09:18 AM..
What does your agent say ? You can call CSS and give them your showing instructions. e.g., one hour's notice please, or two phone numbers to reach you at. Home number and cell phone number, and request they call both.
Your agent had to fill out the CSS form when you listed the property and had to give showing instructions at that time. You may need to change your showing instructions. You definitely need a talk with your agent, at the very minimum.
The real estate market has slowed down in general, it's not as "hot" as it was last year, so hang in there and find out what your competition is price-wise. Also you are very likely competing with all of the new construction going on, called "growth". If similar homes in your area are selling, then you need a new CMA and a price adjustment possibly.
Thanks Leigh and Annie. My agent has said virtually the same things you both said. We are actuallly moving to Wake Forest in May, I am just surprised that no one even wants to see it. We live right near Lake Benson and there is a lot of growth here (Shoping etc.) I am confident if someone would come in the house we could sell it, but as it stands now we can't even get feed back about potnetial buyer impressions. Garner is a teriffic family town, we would stay just where we are but we have a business in North Raleigh so decided to head north for a bigger house. Oh well...there is a buyer for every house right? Out of town buyers, check into Garner (and not just my house you'll be glad you did.
Selling a house is rough, especially with kids, dogs, etc. A few things we've learned over the years:
If it's allowed in NC (not sure about local real estate rules) consider offering a 4% buyer's commision or a buyer's incentive of some sort. We did that with our last house and the first weekend the buyer's commision increased, we had substantially more showings and that continued. Agents will tell you that it doesn't make a difference b/c they think it makes them look bad, greedy, etc. But it does help a lot, and you'll likely get more showings.
Excellent MLS pictures and strong presence on the internet are key. Since most buyers see the house for the first time on the internet, you have to grab their interest from there.
Figure out what differentiates your house from the others on the market - do you have a pool, pond, fountain, jacuzzi jetted tub, updated kitchen, etc, etc, etc - showcase, in your photos, whatever you have that others don't. There are SOOOOO many homes for sale, and most of the look essentially the same. You need to show people what makes yours different that will make them want to see YOUR house over the other 100 that meet their search criteria.
Finally, price - I know you know this, but price is key. Your house is only worth what people will pay for it. If no one is interested in seeing your house at the current price, it should be reduced. Even if it's in the middle of the comps for your area, I'd still reduce it b/c you're not getting traffic at the current price. Obviously this is just my opinion so take it for what it's worth And it depends a lot on how desperate you are to sell your house. If you have 6 months and aren't in a hurry, then sit back and see how it goes for a while at your current price. But if you're in any hurry at all, I'd seriously consider lowering the price. We've had to do this a few times in the past and, yes, it's painful, but it's far worth it for our sanity and peace of mind to sell the house rather then drag it out over 10 or 20K. For us, we'd prefer to sell our house and move on rather then chance having it on the market longer and stressing about it. When you factor in mortgage payments you're making, it's possible you may not be out that much too. Certainly you'd never know for sure how long it would have been on the market had you not lowered the price, but we tend not to really care at that point Do the math, figure out exactly what you have to make out of the sale, weigh the cost of longer DOM, etc., then go from there.
I tend to agree with you though - 3 weeks is a long time to go with only 1 showing. I'd definitely be going pretty nuts in that case.
"Excellent MLS pictures and strong presence on the internet are key. Since most buyers see the house for the first time on the internet, you have to grab their interest from there."
There is no substitute for good photos. None.
Unfortunately some homes or rooms are hard to shoot.
I'm thinking my next camera will be a wide-angle for small rooms.
Every listing should have the maximum 10 photos on the MLS. Any less reflects on the property, property owner, or the Listing Agent.
And the agent's website should have many more.
And "Just say 'NO' to cameraphones."
When I was selling a house after 9/11 when things went downhill. I walked into the Brokers during a meeting and announced to all the Agents the first one to sell my house I will use as my buyers agent.
2 days later, house sold,
We sold our house last year and man what a terrible time with CS! They just did not call and one time we had lookers at the door with me in the shower! Who runs that place! We could never talk to anyone on the phone who could seem to understand that they should call house phone, then cell phone. Half the time they would call my cell phone which was OFF when I am at home, leave a message and we would never get it. I think if someone started a competitor and did it right they could make a bundle.
I agree with Mike about the photos. I think my RA did a terrible job with the photos-just slapped something up there. I went and took my own pics and had to force her to put them up. I mean, she worked for me. Didn't even take pics of the landscaping or big laundry or any of the things that made my house stand out. Get good photos-I looked at the listings online and would not go to a house based on those photos.
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you'll be glad you did.
And it depends a lot on how desperate you are to sell your house. If you have 6 months and aren't in a hurry, then sit back and see how it goes for a while at your current price. But if you're in any hurry at all, I'd seriously consider lowering the price. We've had to do this a few times in the past and, yes, it's painful, but it's far worth it for our sanity and peace of mind to sell the house rather then drag it out over 10 or 20K. For us, we'd prefer to sell our house and move on rather then chance having it on the market longer and stressing about it. When you factor in mortgage payments you're making, it's possible you may not be out that much too. Certainly you'd never know for sure how long it would have been on the market had you not lowered the price, but we tend not to really care at that point 
