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We have been in the market for about 6 weeks now, and priced low compared to the other homes in the neighborhood.
Home is a great condition: curb appeal, staged, and new appliances and on a private lot.
Had about 10 showings in the first 2 weeks and one second showing too.
Everybody agreed Home shows well and looks great but some did not care for Basement !! (finished with media room etc which is rare here)
After showings started to slow down, we dropped price by 2% and then we had another showing right away. Feedback from Buyer's agent was that they really liked it and it was on their short list and will get in touch when they make an offer.
Is there anything else the Listing Agent should be doing?
He is allowed to be a Dual agent also.
He has only been forwarding feedback from buyers so far and only after we called to ask his advice about slow showing, he advised us to drop the price which we did.
Is it a bad idea to reach out to the buyers and ask if they have made a decision or will that come across as desparate?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
PS: we are in a hurry to sell.
Well a lot depends on your market. Out here 6 weeks is nothing for time frame. The only homes that sell faster are those with big discounts compared to the comps.
If I know a buyer has interest, I check in with the buyer agent every so often to see how things are going. I have one of those right now where my listing is on the short list and I check in every couple of weeks.
You might want to ask your agent to ask the buyer agent what would make them want to offer on the house right now...essentially you are finding out what they don't like about your house that is causing them to not write an offer. For my listing, it only has one bath. My seller's aren't going to be adding a second bath, so there isn't a lot I can do to push that offer along.
If you are priced right and are confident that there are not too many better values near by it might be OK to have your agent send a professional but direct email to some of the folks that went through the house.
Something along the lines of "Since you indicated that you thought this property might make a good home for you we wanted to remind that the price has been reduced to $xxxx,xxxx. If you would like another showing or more information about how the expiring home buyers incentives might make this home even more affordable please contact Sunshine Realty or your agent."
Frankly 2% price reduction is generally not going to motivate many people, but since email is essentially free the return on investment for your agent is pretty high...
In 2007 it was merely average that a home spent less than 6 weeks on the market. Meaning half the homes sold spent more than six weeks on the market. And that was at the peak of the real estate boom. The average these days is 4-6 months. And March is hardly a good time to be selling.
If the house is in the top 10% of the local housing stock prices, expect it to take 6 months minimum. For every 1% above that 10% mark, add another 3 months.
If you are priced right and are confident that there are not too many better values near by it might be OK to have your agent send a professional but direct email to some of the folks that went through the house.
Something along the lines of "Since you indicated that you thought this property might make a good home for you we wanted to remind that the price has been reduced to $xxxx,xxxx. If you would like another showing or more information about how the expiring home buyers incentives might make this home even more affordable please contact Sunshine Realty or your agent."
Frankly 2% price reduction is generally not going to motivate many people, but since email is essentially free the return on investment for your agent is pretty high...
Thanks for the advice!
That is what we asked for our Agent to do, to inform the previous lookers that the price has been reduced recently. We were not sure whether or not to check in and risk low ball offers.
In 2007 it was merely average that a home spent less than 6 weeks on the market. Meaning half the homes sold spent more than six weeks on the market. And that was at the peak of the real estate boom. The average these days is 4-6 months. And March is hardly a good time to be selling.
If the house is in the top 10% of the local housing stock prices, expect it to take 6 months minimum. For every 1% above that 10% mark, add another 3 months.
March is generally a busy time in our area, and especially now with the Tax credit incentives. We realize 6 weeks is not long nowadays, but I also see Realtors advising that the first 2 weeks are the best and if there is no offer then, it is a problem. Thanks for the advice!
but I also see Realtors advising that the first 2 weeks are the best and if there is no offer then, it is a problem!
Dont listen to this! This is absolutely not true in this market, trust me! Mightve been true about 5 years ago when the economy was MUCH better. But people are really picky and cautious about how they are spending their money today. You need some patience. Many people are just looking and wasting your time. It can be awhile before someone comes through and is ready to seal the deal.
When I purchased my home, it had only been on the market for 5 days when we made our offer. We had been looking for about a month and had a very good idea of other options in our price range.
Now, that was real quick and even quicker then even the seller was anticipating. The main factors for us buying it were location, price and size. It was where we wanted to be, it was priced well for the area and it had the space we needed.
However, there were two other properties available in the same development that were similar and generally the only differences were cosmetic, except that the home we purchased did have an extra breakfast "room" while the others had a "nook".
The one thing that really stuck out to us was the presentation of the home. The sellers and their agent had prepared a very nice booklet about the house. It was printed in full color and was presentation quality in a nice binder.
The book detailed the following:
-Floor plan of the house.
-Sketch with dimensions of each room with full color photos.
-A list of all upgrades done to the home, with the date they were done, model numbers and names of things like flooring and paint, as well as who did the work with their business name and number listed.
-A list of all the appliances in the home with model numbers, dates they were purchased and warranty information.
-The make and model of the HVAC system with a list of all services performed and who did them.
-Monthly averages for utilities cost for the past year. As well as the name of the utility companies with contact info.
-Current taxes and tax history for the past three years.
-A letter from the seller describing why they originally bought the home, why they were selling and what they liked best about living there.
-A list of a couple local recommended places to try for good take out.
-Demographic (wikipedia style) info for the neighbrohood as well as info about the schools.
Overall it gave us a great idea of the house and how it had been cared for. When we sat down to discuss which one we liked best every other house only had the generic MLS listing information, while this house had everything right there for us to look over. That book was also our bible as we prepared to move in as anything we needed to know was right there for us.
This is just an idea and something I had never seen before in any of the 30+ houses we looked at. It really set this one apart especially considering we had 2 other options in the same development that were the same floor plan, albeit a little smaller.
I'm sure it cost them a decent amount to put together, but in their case it really paid off.
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