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The frustrating part is that we had 14 couples who were willing to pay between $825,000 - $860,000 for it and not one of them could manage to sell their houses or get the mortgage for it. And our realtor was playing games with two very serious buyers and I think she messed it up.
A buyer who does not have the money is not a buyer.
I can't speak for the realtor issues regarding game playing, it could be that her style was suited for a hot bidding market and that it took time to adjust. 10 open houses and months of newspaper advertising does not sound like she didn't put in any effort though.
Tahiti made some really good points.
First you should check with your realtor about feedback from other prospective buyers, not the "really want it but can't..." crowd, but buyers with money/financing who looked at your house but bought something else. Find out what made them go elsewhere.
Second, your competition isn't a split across the street (don't think that owner will get $900k from what you said, unless there are gold floors or a huge lot), but comparable houses in the area. Admittedly your towns streets sound mixed, but what is the age of the house and how much are similar homes going for, only in the past 3 months as comps are changing rapidly. If the home is old (70+), your customer base is completely different from buyers of new homes or 30 year old homes.
Update: Took a look on the NJMLS. Your house seems really nice, lot appears small. You could do with a few more inside pictures and a longer description. I am not familiar with Fair Lawn but the pricing looks all over the place, so I assume location is key - there are duffers at $799 and nice looking homes in the $600 range. I can't say that your pricing looks completely unrealistic, you have just landed in the middle of a really bad RE market.
For what it is worth, how desparate are you to sell? The market may stabilize, or may continue dropping. You certainly don't want to chase the market down, so you may have to make a really hard pricing decision. Hope you have been there a long time and have a lot of flexibility.
Last edited by AnthonyB; 09-17-2007 at 12:35 PM..
Reason: Update after looking at house
Anthony,
Part of the problem is that we have asked our realtor numerous times for the feedback from the other realtors, from the beginning we asked if it was priced too high - she said no and gave us comps - it is hard to compare us to other houses because ours is very unique. right now we are under the price of most 3900 sf. 5 bedroom 3 1/2 bath houses in fair lawn. Our house was completely remodeled with a third floor put on in 2004. The entire third floor has 9 - 11 foot ceilings and 6 half round transom windows, the bathrooms are all natural slate and the master bedroom is incredible 27'4 x 14 with 4 closets!!! In feb. 2007 we redid the kitchen and bath - the original house was built in 1970. There are 4 sections to the backyard . A 75' x 25' section and a 30 x 30 playground section that has a $4000 synthetic turf surface It just looks like beautiful grass all year long. A 17 x 17 hot tub/ bbq area and a 20 x 23 garden area with a brick walkway. Our realtor didn't want to put the picture of the long section of the backyard because she said the picture made it look larger than it was and she wanted people to be pleasantly surprised when they came to see the house and not disappointed that the yard appeared larger! Isn't that crazy? We told her we just needed to get people here to see the house. The realtor put effort in until we moved away and weren't there to see what was being done.
In terms of location - ours is the last house in town next to Glen Rock which is an extremely desirable town to live in. It is in the best section of town, corner lot, trans. to NYC at the end of the block etc....Our taxes were just lowered to 10,700 from 12,500! We can't get a straight answer from our realtor as to what the other realtors remarks are - she says they haven't gotten back to her and she has left messages supposedly. She has said that all the realtors love it and that there are just no buyers in the 700,000 price range. Which is what she said when it was in the 800,000 range and this weekend she told my husband she doesn't know if there are any buyers in the 600,000 range - COME ON!!! Meanwhile, 4 houses in the 700,000 price range sold in July and not one of those buyers saw our house and we have an entire third floor more than those houses. Maybe we need to change up the pictures on the mls to spark interest. We are kind of desperate but I can't see selling the house for much less than 700,000. If someone is interested and the price is 724,900, they are going to offer in the high 6's so I really don't want to go to the high 6's and get offers of 625 or so. It is a joke to sell our house for that if I compare it to what houses are selling in that price range. Plus, if a parent was a stay at home parent, they could take 5 kids in the 1st floor and bring in over $4,000 a month or take over the school or work from home or use it as a mother daughter. I am not sure if I should change the school area in terms of painting it a neutral because it is a large house and anyone with kids would love the downstairs as a play area. Thanks for your time.
I don't really understand what you have said about the 1st floor being a school that could be used as a MIL apt. Is the entire ground floor is a "school" and then your house starts on the second floor? As a buyer I find this very strange and I think that is a huge barrier for a sale. I would have no interest in bringing in more kids to watch....I would think the majority of people would could afford a house for $800k wouldn't want to run a day care out of the house. Those that would are the people who would have issues getting financing and that has been your experience. Can you convert it all back to one house?
The house was a bi level it is now a tri level. The first floor (ground level) is the school. It has 2 large rooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms and a galley kitchen. The school has been closed since June. It has a separate side entrance or you can access the ground level through the stairway in the house - there is a door to the school at the bottom of the stairs. You cannot tell it is a school from the outside. It can easily be turned into a plain living area with some berber carpet and neutral paint. It just seems everytime we are about to do that, a prospective buyer comes in and loves the murals on the walls for their children. It doesn't look dirty or cluttered and I believe it is easy to see it as just a part of the house. When you walk into the house, you are not walking through the school, as a prior bi level, at the landing you go up or down. Going up brings you into the family/living room to the right and the new gourmet kitchen is straight ahead, there is a dining room, a full bathroom and three bedrooms or 2 bedrooms and a den on the first floor with a deck. upstairs there is a library/office another large bedroom and a huge master suite with a large bathroom and another deck and the laundry room. The materials used throughout the house are top of the line and it is in move in condition. If you consider the ground level as a "above grade basement" it is an incredible extra finished space. But maybe I should bite the bullet and put more money into the house and change the paint and flooring. Thanks for your input.
Can you post some pictures or a link to the listing so that we can see?
I like the daycare idea, but selling it as a mother / daughter would be great and may get you more interest. There are a lot of people caring for or that will eventually be caring for their parents. Houses set up like this will eventually be in higher demand.
It sounds great for adult kids that can't afford a place of their own. We'd love to find something like that for our 2 boys to share since neither can afford an apartment yet.
Am I allowed to post a link to the listing on this site? Maybe I can just post some of my own personal pics of the house. it's on the NJMLS. I'll put some pics on later or tomorrow. Thanks again for everyone's responses.
I have found 14 couples who wanted to purchase my house but could not sell their houses or could not get the financing. I located these people through my own marketing strategies - not my realtors.
Honey, anyone can find 14 people who CAN'T buy your house. Try focusing your marketing strategies on people who CAN buy your house.
Over the past 5 months, my realtor has done maybe 10 open houses if that, and advertised in the paper for the first 3 1/2 months , almost every week, but for the last seven weeks, she put one ad in the paper and has not had one open house since July 31st. She claims it is the market and that there are no buyers in the price range of our house.
Since your realtor works on commission, you doubt her because ..... ???? BTW, 10 open houses is a lot. On the other hand, the website does nothing to showcase the house. List those ammenities and show loads of photos.
We were told by 12 realtors in April that our house's market value (comparitive to what was on the market) was between $825,000 - $925,000. We put it up for $875,000 .
Yeah, because they all wanted you to get dollar signs in your eyes and list with them.
The area that the school is in is very clean and not cluttered looking, you can see past it being a school and invision it as family space.
For 200K, I'll envision my heart out all over a fixer-upper. For 875K, I can build it the way I want from scratch insead of paying someone 875K AND paying a contractor to redo a pre-school into living space. The other house listed for 875K has a heated glass enclosed pool, 5 full baths and a fireplace. Which would you rather envision? A) A dip in the heated pool while watching the snow gently fall outside through the glass enclosure followed by a romantic evening in front of the fireplace or B) waiting in line behind your 3 teenage children for the bathroom while listening to circular saws and hammering right after you write a fat check to a contractor. I would pick option A.
Other than continuing to lower the price to a ridiculous number, what can we do?
You can get realistic and ask why, no b.s., your house isn't selling. You are so eager to blame the realtor that you aren't looking at the whole picture. Something is turning people off. Perhaps your house is more deluxe than the others in the neighborhood. Location is everything. You can get more for a not so fabulous house in the best neighborhood than you can for a fabulous house in a good but not the absolute best neighborhood. Also, most people in your price range have to get jumbo loans. Jumbo's are a lot harder to get than they used to be.
We have approximately 1300 more square feet than any other house in town at this price range
You also have twice as many bedrooms as you do bathrooms. Serious drawback.
And our realtor was playing games with two very serious buyers and I think she messed it up.
If they were serious, they would have signed a contract and started attorney review. Unless your realtor won the mega-millions drawing, she wants that house to sell just as much as you do. It's the only way she will ever get her commission.
We moved four months ago and are living with my Mother in Law, running out of savings paying for the mortgage not to live there!
Then move back in until it sells. Or rent it until the market gets better.
I took a look at the realtor.com listing and it's not great. Why is there only a featured tour no pics? The tour makes your kitchen look TINY. Also no pics of the outside and the size of the lot isn't listed. Makes me think it's on a .25 lot with no lawn. Even the sq ft of the house is missing which makes me think it's tiny. Also, why doesn't it say possible Mother / Daughter for people that are looking for that? I would make your realtor update it right away.
Am I allowed to post a link to the listing on this site? Maybe I can just post some of my own personal pics of the house. it's on the NJMLS. I'll put some pics on later or tomorrow. Thanks again for everyone's responses.
I think I found it on realtor.com MLS 2729420
I have to run out, will look it over more when I get back.
For a house in this price range, IMO you need an agent that will have enhanced listings. I just posted agent questions in the real estate section the other day. Grab a copy of it and start looking for another agent.
The house is 724,900 now, not 875,000. Our house has 3 1/2 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms isn't that the norm w/ 5 bedroom houses? The school doesn't need any contracting work to be done, just paint and a carpet if they don't like the flooring which is only 3 years old. The garage area if wanted to be turned back to a garage would be 5,000. We got an estimate and we told all prospective buyers if they wanted the garage we would convert it back for them before the closing. Not one person said it was an issue and preferred to have the extra living space as a work shop or playroom area. Maybe it is an issue for some people.
The RANCH with 5 bathrooms has been on the market 2 x. Well over a year this time. It has one floor of living space and the pool costs 8,000 - 9,000 a year to heat it according to the owners. The house itself is small all bedrooms & baths and I was told all bedrooms look at the pool which I think would be strange. The entire house also smells like chlorine. But if you are saying it looks more appealing, then maybe we do need to change our pictures and put some sizes of our rooms in. I agree the tour of the kitchen does look much smaller than it is from the angle it was taken. All the rooms do. You have to click on the tour to maneuver the angle up and down to see a little of the cathedral ceilings upstairs.
The jumbo loans have absolutely been a problem in our scenario.
Some of the reasons we aren't moving back are:
My husband started his job July 9th and they waited three months for him to move. Also, my daughter is 5 and she just started kindergarten. She has had a very hard time leaving our house it is a kids dream house! So I don't want to step back emotionally for her and have her have to make the break again. It's very hard for me to leave the house as well. When I go back I think I am crazy for leaving the house and my neighborhood...but we have to move for many reasons.
All the comparable houses that were on the market at the time we went on were priced at our level or higher.
I didn't get into the reasons I am dissapointed with the realtor, but there are too many to list. I know people have looked at our mls and I don't want to bash her but she definitely did not do what was promised and hasn't been truthful in many areas to us.
She told us we would be on realtor.com when we signed but "forgot" to tell us she didn't subscribe to the membership needed on realtor.com to be able to put any description or pictures. When I first asked her about the lack of description she made up some excuse and when I insisted that she put pictures and a description on after three conversations regarding it, she finally told me she has to pay money to be able to put pics and a description on the site.
I counted the open houses and there were actually 8. Is that considered alot for 5 months? Our realtor said she would do one every weekend till it sold or she would have an agent from her office do it or her husband if she was unavailable. I know she thought it would sell right away(she said so) and didn't expect it to drag on for 5 months. I think she is tired of putting any money out there back in July and gave up figuring the MLS would bring a buyer and she'll get her percentage.
The lot has four areas to it ( we are on a corner) our block is an L with the woods to a bicycle path at the end of the block. There is a 30x30 area with 4,000 synthetic turf, a 17 x 17 hot tub area, 2 decks off the house, a 75 x 25 foot grassy area and a 20 x 20 area with a garden and brick pathway.
The realtor said it is illegal to call it a mother daughter and we have to say extended living. Even though the set up was a mother daughter originally.
As to renting, I am afraid someone won't take care of it the way we did...it has all refinished hardwood floors and everything is brand new and freshly painted, etc... I don't want to have to worry about someone having it a mess if an agent shows up with someone to see the house. We may have to think about that as an option though if it doesn't sell by the winter.
Thanks for your feedback. I think I'll change up some of the pictures.
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