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Old 02-26-2008, 06:51 AM
 
Location: Philly to Odessa
436 posts, read 1,355,387 times
Reputation: 177

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Quote:
Originally Posted by CouponJack View Post
In today's market if you want to sell, you need to STAND OUT. Whether that's price, staging, whatever. You do not stand out and there are mulitple homes like yours. Not sure what the problem if you have a lousy realtor or what, but you will keep treading water unless you do something to make your home visible (ie price, staging..)
Thanks CouponJack, and you're right. Other than a really nice neighborhood, my house does not stand out. Since we already made settlement in the new home, my for sale home is practically empty, so staging is difficult. I guess I am going to go with the price suggestions and put it below what the comparable are in my neighborhood.
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Old 02-26-2008, 09:50 AM
 
Location: NW Georgia
621 posts, read 3,201,815 times
Reputation: 393
You might want to think about taking down the wallpaper. I believe you said you had wallpaper throughout. A lot of people, including myself, will pass by a house with wallpaper. I personally can't stand wallpaper. It's a lot of work to take down and it's very owner specific. What I mean by that, is there are so many styles and textures that it's hard to pick a "neutral" one that most people will like, or atleast say I can live with. Also, I think most people don't want to come into a new house and already have a huge project that they have to do. Unless they are buying a fixer upper. Are you on realtor.com? You could give us your MLS # and see what all of the people on here think. I think that would give a great general opinion/census on your home.
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Old 02-26-2008, 10:10 AM
 
45 posts, read 252,355 times
Reputation: 36
As a buyer I completely agree with the previous poster about the wallpaper. It is in your best interest to strip all of it and paint a soft neutral color...not stark white. We just sold our house and some of the things that you can do to make your house stand out more than the competition (and not cost a fortune): change the hardware/knobs on kitchen cabinets if they are dated, change dated light fixtures, add crown moulding to your living room or dining room (this will draw the eye up and away from the carpeting). I had one of those plug-in scented things from Bath & Body Works (Wallflowers) in the carmel scent plugged in my kitchen and that is one of the reasons our buyers gave for buying our house "It smelled so good, like home". Freshen up the paint in any room that looks dingy. If your carpetting is stained at all, get it cleaned. Replace the carpet in any rooms that are not neutral.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck!
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Old 02-26-2008, 11:22 AM
 
339 posts, read 1,516,592 times
Reputation: 240
Sorry to say, but I am third in line to say take the wallpaper down. Personally, I would pass on a house with wallpaper throughout... mostly because there are other similar houses I can choose from that wouldn't give me such a huge project right from the get go. Even if I had to pay more for one of the other houses, it would still be worth it to me to not have to deal with the wallpaper.
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Old 02-26-2008, 11:26 AM
 
Location: Milwaukee
9 posts, read 71,301 times
Reputation: 11
We're about to close on a house Thursday.

We're getting a great deal on it, most likely because the wallpaper scared off all the other buyers.
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Old 02-26-2008, 11:35 AM
 
Location: Chaos Central
1,122 posts, read 4,101,894 times
Reputation: 902
I loathe wallpaper, but if I found a house I really loved, for a fantastic price, I'd consider buying a house with some wallpaper. But if it were wallpapered in every room, it would have to be an exceptional bargain for me to consider taking it on.
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Old 02-26-2008, 11:43 AM
 
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
1,516 posts, read 4,585,456 times
Reputation: 677
well shoot...glad I took my wallpaper down out of the kitchen. We'll be listing with a realtor in a couple of weeks.
I do miss my sunflowers, though....(NOT)
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Old 02-26-2008, 11:55 AM
 
3,031 posts, read 9,075,883 times
Reputation: 842
Count me in as another who would advise taking down the wallpaper and painting the walls a neutral color. If you have any rooms painted a vibrant color, paint those over too. I'd go as far to say pull up the carpet if you have hardwood underneath. If you don't have hardwood underneath though, that could be cost prohibitive.

Coming on the market priced too high and then lowering your price 3-4 times has hurt you. People are probably wondering why you reducdd and when the next reduction will happen!
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Old 02-26-2008, 01:29 PM
 
55 posts, read 468,648 times
Reputation: 78
If you really want to sell, and that is your immediate goal, forget about how much you're going to make on the house and how much money you need to afford the next one. Lower your price. A low price will trump wallpaper any day.

Here's what we did to sell our townhouse: We dropped our price to be within the lowest THREE of more than 40 townhouses for sale in our neighborhood (all with the same floorplan). We offered an extra 1% commission to the buyer's agent is s/he brought in a full-priced offer by the end of the month.

Within a few weeks we had a stampede of traffic and two full-priced offers within a day.

Mind you, when we sold, all our neighbors thought we were selling out/selling too low. I have checked realtor.com since then, and in two months time, those 40+ townhouses are still sitting there...and the lowest priced is now $46,000 LOWER than we what we sold for. Two months!!!

We are still wiping our brows and thanking our realtor.
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Old 02-26-2008, 02:06 PM
 
17,504 posts, read 38,989,711 times
Reputation: 24196
Quote:
Originally Posted by Agnes View Post
If you really want to sell, and that is your immediate goal, forget about how much you're going to make on the house and how much money you need to afford the next one. Lower your price. A low price will trump wallpaper any day.

Here's what we did to sell our townhouse: We dropped our price to be within the lowest THREE of more than 40 townhouses for sale in our neighborhood (all with the same floorplan). We offered an extra 1% commission to the buyer's agent is s/he brought in a full-priced offer by the end of the month.

Within a few weeks we had a stampede of traffic and two full-priced offers within a day.

Mind you, when we sold, all our neighbors thought we were selling out/selling too low. I have checked realtor.com since then, and in two months time, those 40+ townhouses are still sitting there...and the lowest priced is now $46,000 LOWER than we what we sold for. Two months!!!

We are still wiping our brows and thanking our realtor.
Agnes, that is great advice - I think we will do something along those lines and maybe offer some $$$ toward buyer's closing, that might just get some of those looky-loos off the fence!

To Margel - I really think that is a great way to make your home stand out - offer the buyers something and/or bonus to realtor. I'm excited now!
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