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This listing says 4 bedrooms/2 bath. I didn't see any pictures of the bedrooms or bathrooms. The outside looks nice and well kept, but I think you need more pictures of the inside of the house. I only saw 2 of the inside of the house, the kitchen and I think a living room. In my opinion, that is not enough pictures. You need more of the inside and less of the outside.
This listing says 4 bedrooms/2 bath. I didn't see any pictures of the bedrooms or bathrooms. The outside looks nice and well kept, but I think you need more pictures of the inside of the house. I only saw 2 of the inside of the house, the kitchen and I think a living room. In my opinion, that is not enough pictures. You need more of the inside and less of the outside.
Agree on all points. Without more pictures of the interior, many buyers wouldn't bother making an appointment to look at the home. There are too many pics of the pool. Considering the fact that many people dislike pools (especially above ground ones,) I would limit the number of pictures of the pool to 2 maybe. Also I would get rid of the BLACK FRIDAY BLOWOUT description. It makes your home sound like a cheap trinket rather than the beautiful residence it is. Is your realtor new to the business? She acts like it with the pics and description.
The promotion of this property seems to be going from bad to worse.
My take is that the agent is not committing the proper prep hours and seems to be "in a rush" to throw anything up there, like she was hurrying to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. Either that, or she is just unskilled.
Your agent absolutely should not have posted sub-standard pictures. At the very least, s/he should have clearly stated why so few pictures and the changes that are forthcoming. Though many people look at pictures and only bother to read the description if they like what they see so that is still a horrible strategy. So many people have looked at your home, chosen not to "save" it, and may never see the updates now. S/he should have advised you to keep it off the MLS till it was ready to be photographed. Have her take you around to homes in your neighborhood priced similarly to yours to see how they compare. Strive to be objective when comparing. After seeing those other homes, do you still feel your house is priced appropriately? I am sorry to say, just from what you wrote on the first page, sounds like you are still overpriced. There are 11+ pages of comments and I only read through the first page so sorry if this has already been said.
Edit: Okay I read or skimmed most of the other comments. First, your agent is horrible. Fire her immediately. At the very least insist that she get *professional* photographs. And insist on seeing samples of the photographer's work before she brings in some cousin who took a photography class at the local community college. Insist on *high quality* brochures and flyers for your home. Insist on having a stager come in and give an initial consultation as to how to stage your home correctly. For example, the cat poster on the door... Insist that every note that buyers will see is neatly typed and looks professional, not a handwritten paper that says in big black sharpie letters "Do not take the envelopes." All of these things should be done by your agent on her dime. She will be making a fair chunk of change on your home and she has done you wrong six ways to Sunday. You should *not* have paid for expensive hardwoods, you should have discounted the home significantly and let the new owners pick their new flooring. Would have been quicker to market and appealed to people who want to move up but having a hard time affording it as well as those who can easily afford it but want to change it to their taste. I do agree that paint was a good idea. Rustoleum has a fantastic product to resurface linoleum countertops to make them look like solid surface. Do that in a light color too. Will make a world of difference, especially since your kitchen is small. Kitchens are *huge* for buyers. The stager will advise you about decluttering the kitchen further. If you need to keep a few things out, make sure they are light and bright and modern looking. Anything that does not make your house look more expensive (ie, posters on the walls, inexpensive knick knacks, dish towels, etc.) should be removed or stored in cute baskets. Add a few things that will make your house look better--brand new, fluffy white bathroom towels, a nice bottle of wine with a pretty label and wine glasses stategically placed in the kitchen. Any light fixtures that are significantly outdated can be replaced for less than $50 at Home Depot and will work wonders for making your home seem more updated. If you or your husband smokes--DON'T smoke in the house. Have all air filters cleaned. Painting and removing the carpeting would have helped a lot with that. Don't smoke in the garage or on the porch/deck. Your house will still reek of smoke. Step far, far away from the house to smoke. Even with those precautions, your clothes in your closet and your whole house will still smell like smoke and that is the kiss of death for many buyers. So realize that will have to figure into price as well. And speaking of cats--people do not like to think of pets as being in homes. They think pet stains, pet smells, pet dirt, etc. Remove any but the most necessary items if you have pets (small, clean pet dishes and a scrupulously clean litter box) and remove any reference to loving dogs, cats, etc. I love animals too, but when trying to sell your house, drawing attention to the presence of animals is never a good idea.
I am really sorry, I wish I had time to write more but as a Realtor it really makes my blood boil to see the crappy work that so many agents do. You should absolutely not reward her with a nice fat commission check for her crappy substandard work, especially knowing what a hard situation you were in, and her horrible advice. Not to mention doing huge price reductions before the work is completed and new photographs up! She really did you wrong, cost you a bunch of money, and caused you no end of aggravation and worry. If you interview other agents, ask to see samples of their descriptions, photographs, and flyers they have done for other clients. Also ask them to show you recent homes they have listed, what they originally listed them for, and what they ended up selling for, whether seller helped with any closing costs or gave other monetary concessions and if so how much, and how long they were on the market.
I think your house is super cute and apparently nicely built, too. I'm sorry you didn't have the good advice and quality service you deserved. Another suggestion would be to have your home appraised by a good appraiser before putting it on the market. They don't have to do a full appraisal like they would do for a mortgage company, but what you call a "market appraisal" where they give an estimate of what they think it will sell for. Keep in mind that even if someone offers to buy it for considerably over market price, your home has to appraise vs. the other recently sold homes in the neighborhood or the buyers will not be able to get a mortgage on it anyway. So, for example, if they offer to buy it for $300,000 but it appraises at $285,000, either the buyers have to come up with the additional $15,000, you have to reduce the price by $15,000, or you meet somewhere in the middle.
And by the way . . . I think renting may be a very viable alternative. Perhaps you have friends in the neighborhood who would be willing to keep an eye on the place for you, arrange for service as needed in exchange for some monetary compensation. Seems lots of good folks are hurting in your neck of the woods, maybe they could use a little extra cash and you could benefit from the steady monthly income. If you do decide to rent it out, initially do so for a six or 18 month lease, not a 12 month lease, so you are not stuck trying to sell it in the dead of winter again if you decide being a landlord is not for you.
Good luck to you! I hope you move on to a happy and comfortable life in Georgia.
Really valuable comments above. So many examples of poor marketing, but one of the worst is the picture of the kitchen with the "crazy cat lady" sticker on the refrigerator. That makes it sound like there are dozens of cats in the house!
I sold a condo once where I did everything to erase any indication I had a dog. When I went to closing, the buying couple asked me if I had a dog. They laughed and said they had seen the dog bowl that I tried to hide at the bottom of the lazy susan. I forgot, buyers look everywhere!
I agree with others that your agent is doing you a disservice. The pictures, the description are seriously lacking. Also, your agent doesn't have a website, the brokerage doesn't even have a website.
According to one of the realtor sites, she has only one other active listing and that has been on the market for 99 days (which also has crappy pictures).
it's like a textbook case study of the overly-obvious. every single thing that has been said has been tossed aside out-of-hand. Everyone is left wondering what the rest of the inside of the house looks like. When "Blowout Black Friday" was mentioned, the zillow link hadn't changed (not surprising) though some of the pictures had been added (including 2 poor exposures of the living area). Now some of those pictures are gone.
You can change your presentation, or change your price. Since presentation appears to be not possible, then be prepared to slash the price.
I The pictures are absolutely horrible! And it's too bad because I think the outside of your property is really cute but then you see the inside and don't get me wrong your home is very nice, but the pictures focus on things that a buyer will not like!
PLEASE insist on new pictures as soon as everything is updated. I think the price drop was a food move, but if you can't get showings it won't matter. The majority of people looking at homes will look online and at pictures first. If the pictures are bad.....forget it!
BTW......as other mentioned, get rid of all evidence of cats at least in your pictures!! Cats are a major negative for a lot of people. I have two cats and had to make sure the litter a food area was spotless. If people see evidence of cats in the pictures, they won't even come to see the home. TRUST ME!
The promotion of this property seems to be going from bad to worse.
My take is that the agent is not committing the proper prep hours and seems to be "in a rush" to throw anything up there, like she was hurrying to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. Either that, or she is just unskilled.
I agree. Crappy agent.
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