I need my house to sell so I can get to Disney

[3girlsfun]

We recently moved to the Orlando area. We moved here to hopefully improve my husband's job situation. At any rate, we have rent here in Orlando, and a mortgage back home. Our house has been fore sale for 3 months. I just need it to sale already!!! I feel like the house has been up for sale for an eternity (even though it has only been 3 months). We aren't going to incur any additional debt, or make any large purchases until our house sales. Which means, no Disney AP's until our house sales.

What can I do from my side. I feel like our realtor is working on getting it sold, I just thought I might be able to get things moving along.

 

[MomToOne]

Three months and no offers? The price is too high - lower it.

The other option is to make improvements to the home that make it worth the price you are asking. Does it need a new roof, or something along those lines? Then address those issues.

 

[3girlsfun]

We have lowered the price once. I'm getting very close to doing a drastic price lowering. I am just not sure if I want to wait until the relator's contract is up or do it now.

It seems to me there should be some other marketing plan than just lowering the price.

 

[LJSquishy]

Assuming your property is listed on the MLS and has decent photos online, there really isn't any other marketing done these days...people decide from the photos whether they want to see your home or not.

So, that leaves one thing: It's priced too high. Your home is only worth what someone will pay for it (and what it appraises for) so if you aren't getting offers, it's not priced appropriately. How much did you lower the price when you did a price drop?

We just went through selling our home (signed closing docs yesterday actually!) and we started at $145k and only had 2 showings in a two week period (which also happened to fall on July 4th weekend which is dead in terms of real estate traffic) so we did a drastic price drop and lowered it to $139,900. Had two more showings the day we lowered it and had an offer from viewer #3 a few days later. They low balled at $129k and we countered at $135k because we wanted to sell NOW, not 3 months from now. Our house was priced too high at $145k. Average days on market in our area is 30-120+ days so we were priced to sell after we lowered it.

If it were me I would do another price drop...the longer it takes for you to drop the price and get an offer, the longer you have to pay for two residences. To us, it was worth it to accept a $135k offer instead of having the house potentially sit on the market for 2 months and sell for $137-$139k and have to pay the mortgage anyway.

 

[ellochka]

Most sales happen in time for the school year to start, especially, if you are in a good school district. If not, it would not matter as much, but still, home sales take a nosedive in August. Ask your agent if s/he has heard any feedback. Consider lowering the price or it may languish till February.

 

[cel_disney]

I agree with asking the Agent for advice. Also - make sure that the pictures are favorable - should they be retaken? Staged different? Additional ones added? Is there anything that can be added to the listing to imply more value about the home or location?

We carried our condo for sale for 3 YEARS after we moved and bought our new house - so we had the double mortgage for that whole time. In 2006-2009 it wasnt a price issue but a demand issue - we could have cut the price in half but there just wasnt anyone looking anywhere!

Good Luck!

 

[wenrob]

I agree with asking the Agent for advice. Also - make sure that the pictures are favorable - should they be retaken? Staged different? Additional ones added? Is there anything that can be added to the listing to imply more value about the home or location?
Good Luck!

This. What do the photos look like? How many are there? Did you leave anything out? When we sit down to look at possible houses and scroll through pics it definitely will sway whether or not we put it on the "to look at" list. No photos of the kitchen? Why, what's wrong with it? Stuff all over the counters and floors? Must not care too much to sell it or not well maintained. Garish paint job? Yes, I can paint it but it's going to immediately impact how I feel about the house. Dark, poorly exposed photos. It just looks bad and gives the house a somber feel when it should appear light and airy. Personal stuff should be put away, it needs to look like someone could move right in and make it their own.

Would you care to share the listing and maybe get some feedback?

 

[Baptist]

One previous poster mentioned a buzz word in a realtor's world, staging. Is your house staged properly? Staging is very important. First impressions mean a lot (don't fool yourself into thinking any different). You want people to come into your house and feel like it is "move in ready". If you have a broken cabinet in your kitchen that everyone sees, fix it. If your roof needs repairing, that is o.k., people don't tour the roof.

A realtor friend of mine has a basement full of home decorations that she uses to stage her houses. She has some nice things from Pier One and World Market (nice mirrors and larger decorations). It might sound silly, but it actually works.

Do you have any friends that are interior decorators? They tend to have some great skills to have your home visually appealing.

Good luck.

 

[Kristie911]

I feel your pain. Our house has been on the market for 5 years...yes, years, 5 of them. It sucks. We have renters in there which is both hurting and helping. Helping because with the house empty we had a rodent problem and we had to do all the upkeep and didn't have that kind of time. Hurting because we can't control how the house looks when people walk through. Now we have to do a new roof and back steps and it's costly. Not to mention we're still paying insurance and property taxes and rent doesn't cover that.

It's not a good place to be...I hope you sell quickly.

 

[artemis4]

Assuming your property is listed on the MLS and has decent photos online, there really isn't any other marketing done these days...people decide from the photos whether they want to see your home or not.

So, that leaves one thing: It's priced too high. Your home is only worth what someone will pay for it (and what it appraises for) so if you aren't getting offers, it's not priced appropriately. How much did you lower the price when you did a price drop?

<snip>

If it were me I would do another price drop...the longer it takes for you to drop the price and get an offer, the longer you have to pay for two residences. To us, it was worth it to accept a $135k offer instead of having the house potentially sit on the market for 2 months and sell for $137-$139k and have to pay the mortgage anyway.

Excellent advice here. The only thing I'd add is this: What is the average days on market for comparable homes in your area? If average days on market 4-6 months, that 3 months without an offer isn't a huge red flag. If average DOM is under 90 days AND there are good photos online, then you need to start thinking about price drops. I'd also say ask your Realtor to take new photos. Put the photos online and then immediately do the price drop, minutes later. That way, when it pops in the alert searches for agents and buyers, it appears to be a new listing.

 

[danygirl]

We are in the process of selling our rental property. We went with the agents with the best marketing plan. Our house had a website , there is a virtual tour an every internet real estate site. They hosted a big open house and they got us a full price offer in two weeks

We deep cleaned the house, put in all new floors throughout , painted everything the color the stager advised, power washed house, fence and deck and patio, painted the backyard shed , bought some new light fixtures and updated the ceiling fans and installed brand new appliances.

 

[North of Mouse]

You were brave to move before selling. It's a buyer's market in our area and the homes that sell the fastest are the ones that are lived in.

People that cut the clutter to the minimum, but still retain that warm lived in look with adequate furniture, fresh paint and up to date maintenance are the ones that sell the fastest (also are priced competitively) here. There is a gorgeous home a block from here that is in A-1 condition, 'but' it is empty and has been on the market much longer than others here.

Good luck to you and your dh's job hunt!

 

[OhMari]

I feel your pain.
Our house has been on the market 25 days and 2 people have gone through with realtors that were not even ours. We have done everything our stager asked us to do, and I am asking our realtor to retake pictures and lower our price.

We had feedback on one showing and they just praised the yard and said it was above average, not much we can do with that.

 

[NewRVLady]

OP-what town is it in?
Are other homes selling nearby?

A couple I know in TN JUST sold their house after years on the market-they just would NOT go down in price and their town wasn't prosperous-so not many buyers

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

We recently moved to the Orlando area. We moved here to hopefully improve my husband's job situation. At any rate, we have rent here in Orlando, and a mortgage back home. Our house has been fore sale for 3 months. I just need it to sale already!!! I feel like the house has been up for sale for an eternity (even though it has only been 3 months). We aren't going to incur any additional debt, or make any large purchases until our house sales. Which means, no Disney AP's until our house sales.

What can I do from my side. I feel like our realtor is working on getting it sold, I just thought I might be able to get things moving along.

You moved to Orlando to improve his job situation? What field is he in? Most move away from Orlando to improve their job situation.

 

[3girlsfun]

My husband is in sales and retail, lots of options here.

We have moved out of the house, so, there isn't anything in the house, so, nothing to stage with.

The yard is well maintained, all of the main rooms have been repainted, and it has been cleaned from top to bottom. The outside has been pressure washed. The relator has re-taken photos now that it is empty.

The average house in our area sells in 5 months. We have had the house on the market 3 months. Once the relator gets the new pictures up on the site, I will share the listing here (no point if it is going to change in a day or so).

I guess if lowering the price is the only marketing plan, then we will lower the price soon.

Is it best to lower the price and post the new pictures at the same time?

The biggest thing about the house not being sold yet is the school year starting. That is what is so discouraging.

Being a teacher, there is a small window that I could move, so, that is why we went ahead and moved. Since we have been here, my DH has already gotten a promotion within the company he transferred down here with, so, it is definitely working to improve his job situation. I believe we made the right move in moving, I just need this house sold so we can get out of an apt. here, and move on with life. Selling a house is such a downer.

 

[3girlsfun]

Ok, price dropped $9,100. Hopefully this will get me somewhere, and the new pictures are going up today. The agent also sent out an email blast to all the local agents letting them know everything that has changed so that they can show the house today while they are out and about.

 

[LJSquishy]

Ok, price dropped $9,100. Hopefully this will get me somewhere, and the new pictures are going up today. The agent also sent out an email blast to all the local agents letting them know everything that has changed so that they can show the house today while they are out and about.

That sounds great! Hopefully the new price drop put your house in a different price bracket (like going from $258k down to $249k will get buyers in the "under $250k bracket". I hope you get some traffic and a reasonable offer soon!

 

[pineappletreat]

Ok, price dropped $9,100. Hopefully this will get me somewhere, and the new pictures are going up today. The agent also sent out an email blast to all the local agents letting them know everything that has changed so that they can show the house today while they are out and about.

We just moved a month ago and one of the things that a friend recommended and I'm very glad we did was we had the house independently appraised. It costs $425 and should there have been a problem with the official closing appraisal, they would have fought for us (it wasn't necessary). We'd had 4 realtor interviews with pricing differences of almost 75K, we went with the one the had the most houses in our neighborhood (also the highest). Still, she suggested we list at $499,900 which we did, house sat on the market with a few viewers for 6 weeks (houses in my neighborhood go in a matter of days or they languish for 6 months, I didn't want to languish). Had it appraised at $480,000 and lowered to $489,000. We got a low ball offer of $460,000 and was able to negotiate up to $480,000. Sure it was an additional $425 but if I think about it sitting on the market because it was overpriced or accepting a lower offer, it was definitely worth it.

Good luck!