Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We have our house listed at what seems like a very competitive price. Before I go any further, I need to explain that real estate in the small town the house is in moves slowly in that price range (above $250,000 - median home price for the area is about $150,000).
We originally listed the house last summer and in a four month period we had about one showing a week and actually got what we considered to be a very low ball, contingency offer right at the end of the listing. We didn't take that offer because:
1) It was $20,000 below the list price of $279,000.
2) It was a contingency offer with a lot of weirdness to it.
3) Most importantly - I was about to have some planned surgery and that was the main reason we were taking the house off the market - to give me time to recover without having to worry about moving.
When it was listed at $279,000 it was fully furnished and we were living in it. I never "staged" it (by that I mean I didn't remove personalizing items) but it was always very clean and neat. We got zero negative feedback about way the house "showed" - in fact, without exception the feedback was "beautiful home - in our top three." The only negative feedback we got was that for several people, the yard was too big (acre lot). The listing was "appointment only" with a two hour notice.
OK, so fast forward to May of this year. I was fully recovered, and we found a house that we LOVED and which was $40,000 or so below market value, so we decided to go ahead and buy the new house and put our house on the market again. This time we listed it at $268,000 which is slightly below market value and a very aggressive price. We also moved into the new house so now the old house is vacant and no appointment is necessary to show it. It is in pristine condition and we keep the sprinkler system going and have the yard manicured once a week. The house is only four years old, so there are zero structural issues, and it is immaculately clean, easy to show, and well priced. We go over there a couple of times a week to be sure it looks (and smells!) good.
IT'S JUST NOT SHOWING...OR SELLING. I mean, we're averaging one showing a week, and without exception, the feedback is always, always the same - "Beautiful home." "It's in our top three." "Made the final cut - will make a decision this weekend." Or - "It's at the top of our list, but we have to sell our house first." But no offers.
Our realtor has had a broker's open house which was pretty well attended. The MLS listing is accurate and well done, with tons of good photos. She is advertising the house regularly in several publications. And no appointment is necessary to show it.
Can any of you think of anything else we could do, other than continue to lower the price????? We have plenty of cushion when it comes to price because we have good equity in it, but at this point, we are actually going to be losing money on it - we bought it at what seemed like a very reasonable price (based on comps) of $245,000 and put about $30,000 into it in landscaping, back yard living area, hot tub, fencing, a large storage building, and some upgraded flooring (hardwoods rather than carpet).
A couple of things are hurting it, in my opinion (and they're the reasons we've moved!):
1) Location - it's a small town and houses in this price range take longer to sell. Even so - it seems to be languishing. Other, more expensive homes HAVE sold in the area since ours has been on the market.
2) Neighborhood - there's some HOA drama (personalities, not actually ugly homes or buildings) and in a small town, that stuff gets out. We have a very litigious neighbor who put up a fence that was outside the restrictions but when the HOA tried to do something about it, the neighbor literally threatened to sue every family who voted to continue the suit against them about the fence. This particular person is a lawyer who works in the DA's office so no one doubts her ability to raise hell. We are not involved in this drama in any way other than simply living in the same neighborhood.
3) Two brand new houses on the same street, as well as the house across the street from ours, are also on the market - and not moving at all. (Ours is priced better than any of them per square foot, though two of them are a little less expensive and one is more expensive.) I feel like this may scare people - as if there's something "wrong" with the street or neighborhood, when actually other than the HOA drama, it's a nice place to live...if you have to live in that particular small town.
I've never lost money on a real estate transaction before but I want to get this monkey off our backs! Yes, we can afford to make two house payments but I really don't like for our property to be sitting there vacant. It worries me. This should be a very busy time of year for showings.
We're considering dropping the price again August 1.
Did you base your asking price on comps? I don't think you mentioned where you came up with the price. I hope you didn't take the $245K you paid, add the $30K you spent on improvements, and then round up to $279K to create some negotiating room because that's just not going to get your house sold. The fact that you mentioned it makes me think it's coming into play somewhere at least in the back of your mind.
If you're getting a good amount of traffic then the agent is doing a good job marketing the property. If people show up and like your house then the property itself isn't the problem. This leaves only the price. My experience is if people say they love the house but don't put in an offer then:
1. They're just being nice and really there was something about the house they didn't like or
2. They don't like the house enough to pay what you're asking.
Did you base your asking price on comps? I don't think you mentioned where you came up with the price. I hope you didn't take the $245K you paid, add the $30K you spent on improvements, and then round up to $279K to create some negotiating room because that's just not going to get your house sold. The fact that you mentioned it makes me think it's coming into play somewhere at least in the back of your mind.
If you're getting a good amount of traffic then the agent is doing a good job marketing the property. If people show up and like your house then the property itself isn't the problem. This leaves only the price. My experience is if people say they love the house but don't put in an offer then:
1. They're just being nice and really there was something about the house they didn't like or
2. They don't like the house enough to pay what you're asking.
Thanks for the feedback.
Oh no, we based the price on the most recent comps, not on what we've got in it. We also bought the house at the very bottom of the housing market and the market has improved since then. And finally, when we bought the house, we considered in the comps that it didn't have a fence, or a storage building, or landscaping. All those things should add SOME value. When we bought the house, the market had crashed and the builder had just lowered the price by $25,000 and we jumped on it. It was actually below market value at that time, but then...market values were hard to pinpoint at that time due to the real estate crash.
I agree that in the end, price solves just about any problem. I guess I'm just alarmed because the ONLY negative feedback we've gotten, even from the other realtors, is that for a couple of potential buyers the yard is too large for their preferences, but no offers other than that very weird contingency offer right at the holidays last year. Our realtor does a good job of following up diligently on every showing. Also...one showing a week? Wow, it just seems so slow....but then compared to the comps, our house is very realistically priced.
And yet...other houses in that price range either sell, or are taken off the market in frustration. I just don't know...
Our builder built the other two new construction homes that are in our neighborhood and they are both priced higher per square foot (significantly in fact) than ours. I visited with her the other day when she was at one of those listings and she was expressing the same frustration and concern that I was. I felt that listing our house below the other new ones in price, even though it's less than five years old and has MANY more upgrades than the new ones, would possibly help ours, but so far, no luck.
It's 2465 square feet, four years old, four bedrooms, two living areas, open concept but not overly so (kitchen is tucked around a corner but pretty open once you walk around that corner), upgraded finishes (lots of beautiful wood trim, light fixtures, hardwood and tile floors with carpet only in the minor bedrooms, granite in kitchen and bathrooms), oversized two car garage, and it's comparable to other homes in the neighborhood, though it's one of the newer ones. There is nothing weird about the floor plan. The outside is attractive. The only real negative I can think of from an aesthetic point of view is that the yard only has two trees of any significant size in it - one very large oak tree and one other sort of tree - elm maybe? We planted some other trees, and we've done extensive landscaping with perennials that offer year round color with little maintenance. The grass is in very good shape and nice and green. It has good drive up appeal.
I just don't get it.
Here are some pictures before we moved out - the house is vacant now. These are from the MLS. Maybe we should post pictures of the house now that it's vacant.
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 07-26-2014 at 09:57 AM..
I need to add - I used to practice real estate right here in Texas. I was very successful at it too, but my husband and I decided to start our own business (not real estate) so I haven't practiced real estate in about seven years - prior to the crash. Our area of Texas is doing pretty well, but the town the old house is in is very oil and gas dependent and much of that business has moved out of the area and to south Texas, so that has hurt the market for what (in that area) would be an upper end home - though I consider the home to be nice but definitely not a luxury home. Still - houses in lower price ranges move quickly but houses about $250,000 move very slowly in that small town.
We're not panicked but we have other things we'd rather do with that money, and like I said, we don't like the idea of the house sitting there vacant. Plus it's about an hour drive from where we moved, so twice a week...yeah, that gets old.
Our plan is to reduce the price by about $5000 August 1 or so. I just wondered if there was any other advice we could implement from realtors who are actively marketing homes.
You have many nearby houses for sale that have been on Zillow much longer than yours.
I would say: very slow market.
LOWER the price.
Or, wait for Rick Perry to become President.
Here's why I don't like Zillow - bad information. For instance, note that it has our home listed as a "townhouse." It's NOT a townhouse - not even remotely a townhouse.
It's also 2.5 baths, not 3 baths.
The aerial view is VERY outdated - showing our home surrounded by unimproved,empty lots when in fact there is only one lot left in the neighborhood which hasn't been improved or built on.
On the aerial view, it has our house on the wrong lot altogether.
It has our heating as "other" when we have central heat and air.
There are eleven rooms, not eight.
I think that's about it, but considering how WRONG they got this listing, I think it's safe to say that they don't have the pricing/values too accurate either.
I checked the other sites as well - homes.com and Trulia, among others and found all sorts of misinformation about our home - that it is 1300 square feet, that it was built in 1981, that it's value is $174,000, etc etc - I even found one website with a completely wrong house shown! A house that's not even in our NEIGHBORHOOD.
Sheeze, where do people get all this misinformation????????? I sure hope they're using a licensed realtor and at least looking at realtor.com instead of relying on these other sites for information.
Looks like your agent didn't claim the zillow listing.
If she did, she could edit the info. You could also report wrong info through a link at the bottom of the zillow listing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
