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Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I think the house is lovely. I would re-paint in neutrals...specifically the bedrooms and I think there was black bathroom?
Also, I think it's price. From what I saw, houses in that area go for 187/sq foot and yours is priced at 192/sq foot. Also, the median price looks to be $327,000 and this house is at $370,000. Quite a difference. Your competition is priced lower and the houses are more updated.
Finally, 657 Elmwood recently sold. I can't find the sold price, but it listed at $370,000. If you compare that to yours, there is a difference in upgrades.
I'm not a pro at all and I found all of this info in a few minutes. Your buyers, with their agents, are, too.
FWIW, I had a house that didn't sell in 2019 during a hot market. I got zero offers. I pulled it off the market, switched agents, and re-listed for $100 (yes, $100) less in the spring of 2020 and had an offer in 24 hours. I also repainted a few rooms, and did some other things that only cost about $500.
My house was not really updated. My listing stressed the location and neighborhood amenities, and the best features of my house. It was really well-written.
The address on the listing says: St Louis and not Webster Groves.
I noticed that, too. I've heard of Webster Groves, as a desired place to live, but I'm not familiar with how they do zip codes there.
Is WG "just" a neighborhood that is known but doesn't have its own separate address/zip code? I can see that this house is just inside what would be the WG "limits."
Given the responses, I am guessing either the price is way, way too high, or that is not even close to being a hot market.
A hot market? Yea, that would be areas around Miami, where people drop cash on houses sight unseen, stuff like paint, yard, lighting, staging, all immaterial and realtors and owners do not even care to make an attempt. People flood in and buy, buy, buy. That is a hot market.
I currently have my house in Webster Groves MO listed. Webster Groves is a very hot market with little inventory and a lot of potential buyers. Houses usually move very quick here. We had a decent open house with about 15 couples dropping by. This might have been because a very popular house a few house over had an open house the same day. Since then I only had 4 showings with no feedback and the views/saves online are dropping rapidly. It’s been only 10 days on the market but should I be worried, am I overpriced, anything else wrong? I would love to get some feedback
There's absolutely nothing "wrong" with your house. In fact, I think it's really nice. I don't think you need to change anything except -- apparently -- the price.
In my area, I have noticed that young buyers want move-in-ready...amost to an extreme. It's like they have no idea how to do the simplest DIY jobs, how cheaply some things can be done, nor do they have the desire to lift a finger. They are willing to pay top dollar for that, though. Point being, know your most likely buyer. If they are young and scraping together every penny just to make the purchase, they probably don't want anything they deem a "project".
That is so true across the board. I had an older buyer for one of my homes who was terrified of any work. House inspection came back with petty items, and one included a leaking toilet. The buyer wanted $500 credit. I went to home depot bought a seal replacement kit for $5 or so replaced the seal myself in 5 minutes, problem solved. It cost me $40 in repairs and 30 minutes of my time to do all the repairs. It was shocking that the buyer thought the repairs would cost $500.
Seems like most people don't have any clue about how easy some of the home repairs are. That's why I leave obvious repair items for the inspector, so I can do it all after and save myself a bundle.
Your house has charm, a decent size lot from what the photos show, and beautiful hardwood floors. Assume your agent did a thorough market analysis to determine the price?
A couple of suggestions:
1. Prune the front bushes.
2. Add planters with flowers or plants by the front door and other areas on the porch.
3. Add seating to the fantastic front porch! Adirondack chairs?
4. Ask the neighbor to move the car that is parked in the grass on the side of the house.
5. Remove the Christmas door mat when you first walk into the house. It is July!
6. There is a lot of brown in the interior of the house and it feels heavy.
Add throw pillow to sofas. Stage the table with a pretty tablescape.
7. Neaten the kitchen towels on the stove. Better yet, get brand new kitchen towels.
8. The brown coach near a door looks like it is in bad shape. I would remove it.
9. Add white towels to the bathroom. Maybe a plant or a pretty bin filled with new white washcloths placed above the toilet tank.
10. Paint the red room and dark navy(?) a soft neutral. Paint colors are hard because they vary from house to house but Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray is a popular color.
Staging a house makes in shine in photos but not so easy to live in. IMO softening the wall color, adding plants and flowers, white bathroom and kitchen towels, and staging the front porch would help.
Given the responses, I am guessing either the price is way, way too high, or that is not even close to being a hot market.
A hot market? Yea, that would be areas around Miami, where people drop cash on houses sight unseen, stuff like paint, yard, lighting, staging, all immaterial and realtors and owners do not even care to make an attempt. People flood in and buy, buy, buy. That is a hot market.
I would just be patient and see how additional showings go.
I sold one of my houses in the hottest markets locally, it still sat for a few weeks waiting for showings. Look at average days on market, that's the most telling.
My house still sold under the average days on market, but it was a more expensive home so that had something to do with it maybe.
You have to be patient when selling or buying real estate. Don't let stories of homes selling for multiple cash offers in 1 or 2 days fool you. Most homes take some time to sell, regardless of how hot the market is.
People are busy during some times of the year / month, and there's not enough eyeballs on property sometimes even during the hottest time of the year.
I wouldn't worry just yet, unless you are desperate to sell and need it sold now. If that's the case, lower the price accordingly.
One of my properties had 3 offers, all of which were low ball, one week after another. I never caved in. On the 3rd offer I was able to negotiate with the buyer who fell in love with the house to the fair market value which was close to my list price. I didn't let low ball buyers sway my opinion of the market value.
You either be patient and stick it out, or lower the price, or do some of the suggested work like repainting, to make the house more appealing.
Given the responses, I am guessing either the price is way, way too high, or that is not even close to being a hot market.
A hot market? Yea, that would be areas around Miami, where people drop cash on houses sight unseen, stuff like paint, yard, lighting, staging, all immaterial and realtors and owners do not even care to make an attempt. People flood in and buy, buy, buy. That is a hot market.
Have to agree. I’m having a hard time believing anything in the St Louis area is a “hot market” but what do I know.
Houses in the good parts of Orange County CA are selling like Miami, within 24 hours and for cash. That’s what I call a hot market.
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