Showings dropping off in 2nd/3rd week. How can I improve showings in this market? (Allen: real estate market, houses)

[Rakin]

Never take a "Contingency" unless their house is 1. On the market 2. Under Contract and 3. Past the Option period where their buyer can cancel.

You always want to verify the buyer of your buyers home is very solid & moving forward on the purchase. We are in our peak season & the very next buyer who see's it may pay cash and close in 2 weeks.

There is some very good advice above.

[momof2dfw]

1. Don't be too quick to lower your price. This tells the buyers out there several things all of which could be totally false or 1 or 2 could be true for you: Sellers are desperate. Something is wrong with the house. How much lower will they go if we wait. You do NOT want ANY of that attached to your house especially if it is not true. But that is what buyers think when they see a quick reduction and continue to see a seller knock down the price. The houses that do keep lowering the price get stagnant and often times sell for bargain basement prices even though nothing was wrong but the perception is there.

2. One story homes tend to sell better that two story homes. They appeal to a wider demographic group. Young couples just starting out, young families w/ babies and those downsizing in their empty nest and older buyers that don't want to deal with stairs.

3. You CAN use a home up to 2 miles away in a suburban area IF that is COMPARIBLE to your home if one within the IMMEDIATE area is not available. If the only 1 story homes w/ equal ammenities, square footage, age, lot size, etc is 2 miles away then it IS a comparible.

4. Offering 8% below list is not terribly bad. It is a starting point. The continengency AND a lowball offer is a NO-NO!!! NO-GO! Being that you got an offer w/in that range in the first 2 weeks shows that it is priced right. You had a lot of showings as well and that also means your priced right and there is a market for your size home. Don't be too quick to lower your price. Do it in OTHER ways like updating the home and cleaning out or such. You can spend a little money and turn around and make money off of it in this market in the Dallas area. People WILL pay to buy a home that does not need massive updates, wallpaper removed, bold color walls repainted, new carpet, etc.

5. I'm not a fan of contingency offers at all. Too many buyers out there that can buy your house w/o one.

6. Ask your realtor for an OPEN and HONEST opinion about your home. Have them conduct a realtors open house and have blank comment forms for the realtors to leave you messages. This way it is anonymous AND they will tell you what their buyers are looking for. Get this done as soon as possible and not wait and linger too long on the market before doing this. Then you can make updates, clean out, change, etc while the season is still hot. Ask about EVERYTHING be it any lingering odors, too much clutter, furniture, closest being cleaned out, etc.

[caligurltotx]

Not sure how your house shows, but staging is the new thing now. Especially thanks to HGTV. But momof2 is on point with the Realtors tour. I am surprised your agent never had one. Every office I've worked out of before always did tours. The feedback from other agents is priceless.

[Plano_Pal]

What a wonderful feedback I am getting from all you. This give me a good confidence that we are on the right track but perhaps may have to give it a little more time....

Thank you so much again and looking forward to others opinion...

[Rakin]

Home tours by agents is becoming the old way. Time is short, gas is high and agents just don't participate the way they used to.

Our office has a media room where we have weekly meetings and do a "Video" tour of the house. With the internet, video tours, ect. it's especially important your agent takes very good pics of the home.

We see pics on the system that looks like they used an old cell phone.

[caligurltotx]

Most Brokers are old thinking and don't think outside the box. No offense Brokers.

[Tta]

I would never buy a house via virtual tour alone, but I suppose it is a good method to know whether or not you want to get an actual tour done. A lot of times, pictures give the home a lot more credit than it deserves, and obviously vice-versa.
Either way, all the above advice has been good. I agree with sticking with your price for a while longer, but be ready to negotiate. This is a buyer's market (in some areas, just ever so slightly), and they wield more power than you at the moment.

[Plano_Pal]

Below is what I can infer from all the opinions above and what my realtor's said.

1 - Price does not seems to be an issue at the moment. My realtor strongly agree with this.

2 - Dropping price this early in the game may not improve showings. My realtor says, it's upto me if I would like to drop it but he would not suggest that.

3 - House will just take longer to sell. My realtor says the same things.

4 - Do not accept the offer with contigency. No clear opion from my realtor but we DO NOT like to take offer with contigency. So, we will continue rejecting offers with contigency.

5 - Pictures may not be an issue as we had quite good showings early in the game. So no need to do anything.

Well, if all above is true then WHY we did not have any showings again this week? Quite beyond my imagination. This perhaps, give another thought:

1) Shop for a new 'agent' as we can terminiate agreement after next couple weeks?
2) Give buyers an incentive?
3) Raise buyer's agent comission?
4) Yeah!! Just offer buyers a beer party at home..?

Thank you again for all your great comments and support.

[lh_newbie]

Once you get past the exising buyers in the market, you generally only show homes to buyers coming into the market. It's no secret that there are a lot of people sitting on the sidelines, so new showings won't be flowing like the "good old days".

I sold a home in Allen a couple years ago. Tons of showings in the first week, then it tapered off. There was no activity for a week at times. We had an open house after a few weeks of being on the market (RE had coordinated this with several other homes on sale in the neighborhood), which worked. I got an offer out of the open house - so I was under contract in about 5 weeks - but this was 2+ years ago.

[momof2dfw]

1) Shop for a new 'agent' as we can terminiate agreement after next couple weeks?
If your realtor was able to get a lot of showings in the first two weeks it is not the listing agents fault that buyers are not coming to see your house now. Nothing about the advertisement has changed as long as it is listed on MLS and the pictures are of good quality. This really would not change anything.

2) Give buyers an incentive?
eh. Maybe help w/ closing costs or offer the appliances to stay if you don't mind shopping for new ones yourself. First time homebuyers might like that idea. Afterall, they would have to go out and buy them and if they are already stretching to even buy in the first place this might be a decent incentive if your appliances (fridge, washer & dryer) are decent.


3) Raise buyer's agent comission?
If your not already doing a 3% to any buyers agent I would HIGHLY suggest this. The 3% buyers agent commission is the norm in this area.

4) Yeah!! Just offer buyers a beer party at home..?
SURE. Can we come



Now I DO recommend a Realtors Open House/Luncheon. This DOES work as do open houses. If several in the neighborhood are having an open house why not do it the same day. Gives buyers a nice break on mileage and gas as they can see multiple houses all in one stop almost. This weekend would not be a good weekend though w/ Mothers Day. The rest of the month is going to be spotty as well with all of the high school graduations going along as well as tons of year end stuff (dance recitals, school functions, banquets, etc).