Need some advice......First time home seller (agents, Realtors, agreement)
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Hi, first time on this particular board and am in need of some support. We just put our house on the market 2 weeks ago and had an open house yesterday. To date not one single showing and not one person showed up at the open house. Our house is priced very fairly for the area (got 3 price analyses). I’m getting frustrated and am beginning to wonder if we made the correct choice in realtors. I realize that he can not drag people into our home, but I have a few concerns. Please tell me if I am being overly critical. First aside from it saying “open house” on the mls site there was no other and has been no other advertising. Secondly there was an open house in our neighborhood for a very comparable house with comp price and the realtor had no clue that this house was even on the market. I’ve had to push for a realtor open house, basically wrote my own listing, and had to request that new pictures be taken as the ones used were awful. Sorry for the long post but am I being too harsh? Should we be concerned that no one has seen the house (I realize one of the weeks was Labor day weekend)?
He put 1 sign out 10 minutes before the open house was to start.
You lost me on your 3rd comment. Another home in our neighborhood is on the market (similar home, although they have 1 less bedroom and similar price) and held an open house. It bothered me that our agent had no clue that this other home was on the market. I would think a realtor should be aware of competition in the immediate area.
I can understand that every seller would like to think that their agent is going to go out and "sell, sell, sell" but the reality is such an aggressive stance is rarely productive.
Depending on how things like Labor Day and "back to school" mindset effect the buyer pool that might be in your target this is generally a SLOWER period for many markets. That does not mean you should not have listed now, as many sellers do tend to like a late summer / early fall listing, but you need to realize that many / most buyers for three/ four bedroom homes have school age kids in many markets and it is not a good time to move / shop...
As to what your agent should know about the competition, I would hope that they used the info from MLS about SOLD COMPARABLES to set a good asking price for your home. It is also reasonable for your agent to monitor ACTIVE COMPARABLES to see if there movement should prompt you to adjust your price.
What is the AVERAGE TIME ON MARKET for your area / price point? Stay calm as you approach that number, and realize that you should be prepared to see that number increase with the general fall slow down AND the likelihood that a negative political message will scare off many potential buyers...
Here is a general rule that we go by and it is usually pretty accurate. When there are no showings for several weeks when a home is put on the market it is overpriced, either for the area or for what people are looking for. Who did you get your analyses from?
As for open houses, most agents actually do get few people to come through because they have no clue on how to market an open house. I am not singling out your your agent, I really do mean most agents, especially in today's market.
The house is in NJ and we are listing now due to a job relocation. The analyses were done by three agents from differerent companies. We are actually on the low end of the price range when it comes to comps. One idea i had, but am not sure if it is done in real estate, is to contact the selling agent on the comp house in our neighborhood and try to work together to drive traffic to the homes. I figure if someone is coming to look at my house they will look at the other as well and vice versa. Is this ever done?
The house is in NJ and we are listing now due to a job relocation. The analyses were done by three agents from differerent companies. We are actually on the low end of the price range when it comes to comps. One idea i had, but am not sure if it is done in real estate, is to contact the selling agent on the comp house in our neighborhood and try to work together to drive traffic to the homes. I figure if someone is coming to look at my house they will look at the other as well and vice versa. Is this ever done?
In our area we have agents from different brokerages sometimes getting together and holding combined "agent" open houses as well as "public" open houses. Again, for either one, its how the open house is marketed that brings the viewers. Your listing agreement probably limits your ability to contact other agents for marketing. All those proposals should go through your agent.
Were you expecting hordes of people to beat down your door? Unless you are offering the deal of the century it does not work like that.
You have been listed for 2 whole weeks. What are the average days on the market in your area?
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