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...Also, the $166,000 home was a short sale as well as the $210,000 home.
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Originally Posted by wakefield622
574 N Erin Ave is also a short sale.
Well, unfortunately, the short sales may be setting the market values for your area unless you can come up with other recent non-shorts that offset their impact.
KNock the bottom out, dont fool around, as others have said, you will do well to not loose less than you paid. Comps should have been presented and still can look and judge from that. Your competing with the current prices.
I have purchased five homes. I have sold four of them. I do not have the expertise of a professional real estate person but I do have some life experience so here is my take on your house:
Firstly-nobody cares what you paid for your house. It's worth what it's worth regardless of what you paid for it.
Secondly-you say there are upgrades to your home but what are the upgrades? Your house looks basic to me. Not terrible, just nothing fancy. What is there that is considered an upgrade from basic? Whatever that is make sure you include it in the pictures. BTW-Lowes fixtures are cheap fixtures. NOT much of an upgrade.
What I meant is that the fixtures are a bit nicer than the normal gold nasty ones they usually put in a home. We were given an allowance and I thought I chose nicer ones. Not everyone has the same taste - But, like I said i've had nothing but compliments on them.
From looking at other homes in developments - I would consider the wood framing around every window and door an upgrade, our fireplace is an upgrade. The deck off the back of the house an upgrade as well. The driveway isn't really...but, some do have rock driveways around here - so it may be. The house has also been painted - each and every room.
Since you have an ordinary home in an ordinary neighborhood you need to do something to make your home stand out. Make your house look a little fancier with things like nice bed linens, etc. Buy a tablecloth and leave your table set for a nice dinner when you have a showing. Put a picture of the set table on MLS. Help buyers imagine themselves living in your house.
Good suggestions.
TAKE BETTER PICTURES. Your MLS pictures are not good.
You only need one picture of the family room. The fireplace could be nice but right now it's plain and the tv is more noticeable than the fireplace. I would feature the fireplace more (put the tv on the wall where the love seat is now and rearrange the furniture). Put a pretty mantle above the fireplace.
Your kitchen is cluttered. Take all the stuff of the counters except the coffeemaker and toaster. Get fancy kitchen towels. Take the magnets off the fridge.
Cluttered? All I have is a coffee maker and toaster and a few canisters.
Keep your yard nice. Plant flowers in the front of your house. Have some hanging baskets on your front porch. You have a lot of weeds in your yard. Get rid of them and replace the pictures of weeds that you currently are featuring. I would consider taking a picture of the furniture and grill on the deck. Again, get buyers thinking about actually living in your house.
Good ideas.
If you look at homes that have been on the market a long time you can figure out which homes are not well priced. If you compare your house objectively you can figure out where you need to be priced.
100 Ludlow Lane has been on the market a long time. It's really similar to yours and they are asking $209.9. Obviously, it is not worth that much money. Yours probably isn't either. I can't say for certain because I am not an expert in your local market but I can make an educated guess.
KNock the bottom out, dont fool around, as others have said, you will do well to not loose less than you paid. Comps should have been presented and still can look and judge from that. Your competing with the current prices.
Please explain. I think I know what you are saying...
My realtors did show comps. These were more new construction and larger - but, really only comparisions of non-short sale homes.
The decor is neutral for the prospective home buyer.
I don't know what passes for neutral in Delaware, but down here...that decor isn't neutral. Sorry.
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Low end fixtures? We went to Lowes and picked them out before construction was finished on the home. Def not the builder grade gold fixtures. And i've had nothing but good feedback on that from people who have bought in big communities and years later have the cheap fixtures.
That's what they look like in the photos. There's no need to be defensive. Remember, you asked US.
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Won't argue with you on the landscaping. But, to me that is a blank canvas for the next person.
All it says to me is you were either too busy to do anything with the yard, or just didn't want to spend the money. Either way it's a huge minus.
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I asked about price and comps around...not on nit picking of my home. Have a GRAND day!
Surely you realized that when you asked anything about selling your home and posted the MLS number of its listing, you would receive feedback on all aspects of the listing?
If you don't like the answers, stop asking the questions. Good luck selling your house; you're going to need it.
LOL - Why don't you ask me....without asking someone else why "they" are looking to sell in a bad market.
I don't forsee the market improving and we want a bigger home. There ya go! What is up with this unhelpful tactic from some of you????
I meant no disrespect in saying "they" Sometimes OP's start a thread and then disappear. This advice was not an unhelpful tactic. It is the same reality I am facing and it is true that your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Folks here have given you some great advice to make the interior look bigger and to make it look like a home someone feels comfortable in. I was told to remove anything personal so the buyers can picture it as their own and not cluttered with pics of my family or having a bedroom being obviously for a boy or girl as the lookers may see that and think that the 1st thing they have to do is paint that room because they only have sons. I removed all magnets and pics from my fridge. I angled my furniture so it was not square against the walls and it created the illusion of a bigger space. I also planted flowers in my garden when the early bloomers were gone but the mid summer flowers have not bloomed yet. I added red bark to my flower beds and it really looks great and was not expensive to do. Hanging plants are a quick fix if you do not have a flowerbed. And you don't have to hang them if you do not have the means to. You can sit them on the steps etc and they look inviting.
In my area, we are very rural and have 43 acres and a pond. My home was originally listed at 154,900 and the first offer I received was 120K so it was 35K below asking. I am at $149,900 and the same people countered 130K with all of my furnishings as it would be a 2nd home for them. So when I spoke about only having 5K of wiggle room I was thinking of how some buyers in this market think they can get a steal so they offer low, expecting some kind of negotiation.
I sincerely wish you luck and hope your home sells quickly!
I thought the pictures were fine. The colors were not what I would have chosen myself, but many buyers are going to repaint anyway. The biggest negative I see in the photos is the backyard. It looks like the clover has taken over. I had trouble seeing the nice size of the yard past all the clover (or whatever the little flower weeds all over the yard are). There were too many photos of the living room, but I didn't have a problem with the proportions or think it looked cluttered.
I agree with most people here though that price is everything. As others have said, real estate is local, but in my area, 2007 was pretty much peak pricing (just past, but not very far), and most people's homes are worth less, and usually substantially less than 2007 values. My guess is that you are priced far too high.
Finally, you keep dismissing short sales, but if they are a substantial part of your market, they are your competition. You can price SLIGHTLY higher than a comparable short sale, for not having to jump through hoops, but not a lot higher. If you are more than 10% higher than comparable short sales, most people are going to go with the short sale. You sound like you are 25% higher. I doubt you will get an appraisal that high, even if you find a buyer.
Thank you all once again. I appreciate it. As my husband and I talked..it's not the end of the world if we do not sell this time. We are not comfortable selling for less than we owe - which is the reason why we are priced where we are. If we can sell this time around..we will wait and re-list at another time. I have hopes we can sell and I am not unrealistic in the way where if we need to dip to where we make nothing that is okay.
We bought this home young (both were 22 years old) So, we have time. Just looking to better our family with location, school districts and so on.
Any recommendations on killing the clover in our yard without killing the entire yard? or is that the only way to go?
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