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If you continue to have your realtor be there for all showings than you probably won't sell. You have yet to state your reasoning for this? Everything is tracked so your agent knows who's coming and going. To me you might be better off trying to sell it Buy Owner.
Also, MANY realtors overprice homes. Even if there are comp's to support the price, a home is only going to sell for what someone is willing to pay for it!
Yes, but between the showings, both of us working full time, having to hire a real estate lawyer and most likely still needing to pay the buyers agent commission, I am not sure the value is there to save a few thousand dollars.
Thats kind of what I am thinking. Just frustrated with my realtors lack of marketing and easy button of just telling us to keep dropping the price. Is 370 vs 380 really going to open the house up to that many more lookers?
You can hold a FSBO Open House on the weekend when you are both home. Sales commissions are usually much more than just a few thousand dollars and you still need to hire a lawyer to monitor the process. The salespeople will tell you they can sell your house for a high dollar just to get the contract but they don't know the market. If you get a real professional appraisal, it will be strong negotiating tool.
You can hold a FSBO Open House on the weekend when you are both home. Sales commissions are usually much more than just a few thousand dollars and you still need to hire a lawyer to monitor the process. The salespeople will tell you they can sell your house for a high dollar just to get the contract but they don't know the market. If you get a real professional appraisal, it will be strong negotiating tool.
Don't worry to much about Heidi's advice. It's always given with an anti-agent agenda with no thought into your situation. Pretty much copy and paste stuff for her - every time an owner asks for real estate advice she tells them to go FSBO but she lacks comprehensive real estate knowledge. Best of luck to you whichever way you go.
I've shared before here that I'm a successful FSBO seller two times. It's not for everyone and I think anyone seriously considering putting on that hat really needs to be honest if they have what it takes. I believe most people don't and they're only setting themselves up to be frustrated and experience a delay in selling their property, assuming selling is what they really want to do and that they don't want to waste anyone's time particularly their own.
In my experience, a qualified FSBO seller is someone skilled to do it themselves without an attorney and will be guided by a good "how to book" like this one which I used and that I really like and give a five-star rating:
This link is to a newer book and a different author than the one I purchased. Nolo Press products, in my experience, are excellent. This is for a California sale.
We listed our house this spring in a hot market on a whim with wishful thinking pricing. Realtor actually suggested the pricing and we went with it thinking she knows best. In my opinion it was about 20k high based on similar comps. At the time we were not sure we even wanted to move so we surely were testing the waters. We had a lot of showings and interest in the first 2-3 weeks (10 showings) however all the feedback was the same (over priced considering the small slightly dated kitchen) No offers.
At this point our realtor was frustrated after we told her we wanted her to be present at all showings and she suggested we drop the price because we were wasting her time ( after being present for 2 showings). This was fairly frustrating to us as we did not feel we were wasting her time and we were not ready to drop the price just yet as we still had people coming in for showings. Additionally we did not need to move and we did not find a house we loved at an affordable price that would permit us to lower the price of our current home so we decided to pull the house from the market. We even told one potential looker they missed their opportunity ( bad call on our part)
Fast forward to early August ( 3 weeks after pulling it) a few houses we were interested in dropped their prices, making them more appealing. We figured we would give this sale another shot before fall and we dropped our price down to where it should have been in the first place (20k price drop) This only gained us two showings in 3 weeks which is disappointing.
We missed the boat on the hot market, the biggest advantage that our town has is the schools and school is just about back in session. Hence there are less buyers in the buying pool. Now it seems all competing houses have dropped their prices as well and our realtor is pressuring us to either do updates or drop the price again or both. to make matters worse we have found a house we are in love with at a price we like. We cannot however drop the price another 20k as it starts to eat up the equity we need to buy the new house.
We are taking the steps to update a few things with the kitchen and I am contemplating the value of a smaller price drop. Our house has been on the market for over 60 days now and I feel its flying under the radar, even with the price drop. We are well aware that our timing in the market, our pricing and our realtors bad advice/lack of marketing and lack of being present at showings are all factors on why it hasn't sold yet.
Short version:
Does a 5k price drop make a difference on a house priced at 380k? Will it get more views/showings? What about a 10k dollar price drop?
What does " hot market" mean to you?
Nothing precluded a buyer from offering $350K at any point in time, with the intention of maybe meeting in the middle. Yet none did so.
The market has a way of punishing those who over price their homes for sale.
Showing customs are variable all over the US. In most places, the listing agent's and/or owner's presence is unwelcome, except for very high-end or unique listings. Both buyers and sellers have a tendency to make judgments about eachother based on all sorts of things.
Many buyers with preschool aged children or those without children house hunt in the fall. What you need or want from the sale of your property matters to no one other than you.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like you may not have the equity at this point in time to achieve your real estate objectives. There's always next year.
I don't see any problem with a small price drop. It may not change the world but it creates some activity on your listing and it may catch somebody's attention.
Nothing precluded a buyer from offering $350K at any point in time, with the intention of maybe meeting in the middle. Yet none did so.
The market has a way of punishing those who over price their homes for sale.
Showing customs are variable all over the US. In most places, the listing agent's and/or owner's presence is unwelcome, except for very high-end or unique listings. Both buyers and sellers have a tendency to make judgments about eachother based on all sorts of things.
Many buyers with preschool aged children or those without children house hunt in the fall. What you need or want from the sale of your property matters to no one other than you.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like you may not have the equity at this point in time to achieve your real estate objectives. There's always next year.
.
Agreed, hot market in the spring was low inventory and houses selling within the first week or above asking price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueherons
People ***** about agents but the OP is a classic case of a client thinking they know more than the agent.
not following you here? If i was the agent i would have never suggested the original list price in the first. place. I thought it was high. You could say that's on me and you can call me a wishy washy flaky client because at the time were not in a rush to sell and we were hopeful about her suggested price since it was her professional opinion and the hot market.
Regardless. If it doesn't sell this fall, it will be disappointing but we don't need to sell and it will give us some time to address some of the feedback we got over the winter and relist with an agent that better fits us in the spring.
I still have heard mixed reviews about small price drops. From what I am hearing most people think they are annoying ploys that keep the house "visible in the market" but do not really accommodate those with lower budgets.
Agreed, hot market in the spring was low inventory and houses selling within the first week or above asking price.
Yes, sadly as you've found, the market can change dramatically from spring to fall. You are now competing with a pool of desperate sellers, most of whom have made larger price reductions than you are contemplating.
You mention in an earlier post that you are thinking about making changes to the kitchen. Unless they are very minor (e.g., replacing old light fixures or drawer pulls, or painting) or there is something really ugly or damaged (e.g., linoleum flooring) you will not get any return on your investment. You will come out ahead by lowering the price and letting the buyer make changes to his/her own tastes. I looked at a comp to my property that was on the market last year. The kitchen had a beautiful Mexican paver floor that was in character with the rest of the house. Some <idiot> had plunked down an awful cheap granite slab on the countertop that was glaringly out of place -- I'm guessing so that they could say GRANITE COUNTERS!! in the ad. The house finally sold after multiple price reductions for about 10% below the original asking price, and I'm betting the countertop didn't help at all.
In multiple house purchases and sales, I can only remember twice when the listing agent was present. She didn't do anything constructive in either case.
The basement door issue can be easily resolved by installing a slider bolt that can only be opened from the inside. Put up a small sign that says "Please use front entrance." Potential buyers can open the door from the inside if they want to verify that it works.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris410
Regardless. If it doesn't sell this fall, it will be disappointing but we don't need to sell and it will give us some time to address some of the feedback we got over the winter and relist with an agent that better fits us in the spring.
As others have said, if you truly want to move--and it sounds like maybe you don't yet -- you're going to have to price your house attractively to match your competition, not for what you hope to get. You'll be successful if you force yourself to be realistic next spring when the market heats up again.
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