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Not sure where your head is at now, OP, and I only saw one picture...of the kitchen. But.....it looks to me like you are going to have to slash the price if you want to sell quickly. I would say that, from what I saw, the house would get a few lookers in six months, and might sell in maybe a year or 18 months at something close to your "desired" price. You would have to be a situation where, for whatever reason the property/house is exactly what someone is looking for. Similar to when you bought it.
However, if you want to SELL IT NOW, you are talking, IMHO, a major discount. I am thinking, from only seeing the kitchen picture, that the place will go somewhere in the 160 area. Not what you wanted to hear, but that's real estate. Poor layout, coupled with the need to do major upgrades, means it is only going to appeal to a bargain buyer. Thus, you need to price it as a "bargain".
I know, it stinks, but sometimes just close your eyes, take the hit, and move on. If you can get pragmatic, the $20 grand you will lose is water under the bridge, it didn't "work out" like you wanted, and you move on. You will be happy in your new location, and won't give a second thought to something which seemed good at the time, but for whatever reason, just didn't work out. It happens to all of us from time to time. Don't fart around with a $3-5,000 price cut. Cut it $20 grand and "get 'er done".
It's OK. It looks spacious and a bit dated, but for the target market it is fine. I would not renovate this at all for marketing purposes, just decorate it a bit with hand towels and a candle or two, that sort of thing.
You guys are very harsh to the OP. Every housing market and neighborhood is unique. I would drop the price a bit, take new photos, and open every blind or window covering. Light and bright is a big selling feature.
We sold our last house after it was empty. That may be the case here.
OP do you have any comps for a 2/1 and half? Let those be your guide.
While I appreciate everyone's advice and input, I need to take a break from this thread and hope that it will disappear. I obviously over-shared, but I did not anticipate that my listing and pics would be shared here for (mostly) constructive criticism. It's just a bit much right now to have our home, our agent and our intelligence disparaged by strangers on the interwebs.
OP: there is some good advice here if you look for it. Your asking price is too high if you are comparing your house to 3/2 homes that have sold. Also, the sales should be from 2014, and really from the last 3 months, to be of use. The only comps that are directly applicable to your home would be a 3/1.5 sale (no listings) with an added on living space, same subdivision, same age +/-, same condition bathrooms, kitchens, similar quality condition, same curb appeal - are there any comparable sales that meet that description, from the last 3 months? If yes, bingo. If there is a sale like that from late 2013, cut it by, say, 5 percent. Bingo.
If there are no mirror image sales, do what appraisers do: adjust the sales to make them more like your house. Bingo.
Even with the correct asking price, it can still be tough to sell a house these days, especially since it sounds to me like you were a little late getting it on the market, and you are scaring away potential buyers with your high price - the killer is the half bath. Did you ever get an estimate for the cost to convert that bath to a 3/4 bath (at least a shower, but a tub/shower if that is the neighborhood norm)? If yes, that would be your adjustment vs an otherwise comparable 3/2 house sale...if there is space available (say from an adjoining closet?) to expand the footprint of the half bath and install a shower, the cost to do something like that could be as low as $15k, but may be more like say $20k...maybe as much of a value shift as a $25k adjustment from an otherwise comparable 3/2 sale. I know that sounds crazy high, but if somebody has to come in and do the work that you and previous owners did not do, they need to profit from it given the risk, expense, and hassle factor vs just buying one of the plentiful 3/2 homes in your neighborhood (your description of the competition you face from superior homes).
Easy math: if a 3/2 house on your street, otherwise comparable in every respect to your house, sold in the last couple of months for, say, $200,000 (made up # - don't know what the sales are actually like there), the value of your house with the 1.5 baths, assuming it could be expanded to add a shower (and updated nicely), might be as low as $175k, to allow a buyer with the vision and willingness to shoulder the cost and burden of adding the shower...I know, it sucks, but it is a very good way to look at your pricing dilemma. Me? I wouldn't do the job, I'd just cut my price and have a cost estimate with a schematic or drawing from a contractor to show potential buyers the possibilities and give them numbers that would allow them to "make money" on the deal vs buying an already existing 3/2 for $200k +/-.
Another way to look at it: if you could get the work done quickly for $15k or so (maybe less with some sweat equity from you and your husband), it could possibly raise the value of your house back up to around the $200k level in the neighborhood for 3/2 houses. The math works both ways...time, risk, burden, and money all matter, and the party who takes on the task will earn the biggest return.
Caveat: if the assumptions about available space to expand the bathroom and the cost estimates I have provided off the top of my head are too high or low, adjust your expectations and price accordingly. If there is no available space to make this improvement, you may be stuck with what is known as 'incurable functional obsolescence,' or roughly a condition that would cost more to correct than the corresponding value it would add; this happens a lot, and may be your situation.
Regardless, good luck. If interested, here is a general idea of how a competent appraiser would evaluate your deficiency to make an adjustment: Estimating Functional Obsolescence
Let me add that appraisers aren't paid enough to do this kind of analysis on a house appraisal, but a competent appraiser can justify adjustments through actual comparable sales analyses that yield these kinds of adjustments to someone who knows what they are looking for, and appraisers, if they are good, do; real estate agents get a blank look on their face when you mention this sort of thing to them.
Last edited by Westbound and Down; 05-06-2014 at 06:56 PM..
OP why don't you ask for this thread to be closed.
If that is how they roll around here (deleting or closing threads) then so be it, but there is some useful information for people other than the OP who are following along. These threads are more than a personal advice column for one person, they are public forums. If anyone has violated the TOS, the admins should step in and admonish them, but I frankly don't see the need to close the thread.
Whatever, good luck to her and anyone else in this situation.
Well the thread did inadvertently reveal the OP's home address so probably a good reason to close out the thread.
Lisa: hope I didn't offend you with any of my comments. I definitely understand how stressful this entire situation must be for you, and feel badly that we might have contributed to that in any way. I wish you good luck with selling your home; hope everything works out for you!
If that is how they roll around here (deleting or closing threads) then so be it, but there is some useful information for people other than the OP who are following along. These threads are more than a personal advice column for one person, they are public forums. If anyone has violated the TOS, the admins should step in and admonish them, but I frankly don't see the need to close the thread.
Whatever, good luck to her and anyone else in this situation.
Yes the OP asked for advice, but given her situation can you blame her? It's an extraordinarily stressful process and everyone is piling on. After awhile, it's too much. Especially when people suggest to drop $15K on the house when she already stated they are frugal.
Well the thread did inadvertently reveal the OP's home address so probably a good reason to close out the thread.
Lisa: hope I didn't offend you with any of my comments. I definitely understand how stressful this entire situation must be for you, and feel badly that we might have contributed to that in any way. I wish you good luck with selling your home; hope everything works out for you!
Clarify - did the OP reveal her address, or did somebody figure it out and "out it"? If the latter, can't the admin just erase that info from the thread? If the OP revealed it, she should ask for that to be erased (one thing I don't like here is the time limit on editing your own posts - just learned it is 90 minutes - why is that limited?).
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