Need advice on pricing our home to sell

[jennyL]

Your house is cute.

The house I rent now is going to be sold but it needed some work done to it first. LOL they are in the process up replacing some of the siding and getting it ready for a fresh coat of paint before they put it on the market. I'm being as helpful as I can but since its a rental I'm not going overboard. The owners realtor doesn't think it will take long to sell once she lists it since it is in Cary has a 2 car garage with 1800 sq ft and a first floor masters. She looked online and there is only one other house in our area similiar to it. She plans to start it at 185,000. With all of that being said I think maybe you should lower the price and go from there.

Have a great cruise and hopefully it gets lots of attention while you are away.

I know you have to be getting very excited about the new place. I know I am with mine. We should be getting cabinets this week. WooHoo!!

 

[lecach]

Hi Jenny! Its good to hear from you. We are getting excited but nervous too - its coming along faster than we thought and we're not ready to move yet!

We had a showing today at 12:15 - and we have another at 6:30 tonight. That seems really late to me. We have our house set up that no showings can occur after 7 because our DS goes to bed around 7 or 7:30. So I guess they needed to come as late as possible. We'll just go next door and spy on the people.

The staging lady is coming Friday at 5:00. Her fee is $125 and since the realtor is willing to pay we're going to have her come. Of course Friday is a really bad time since we have to pack for the cruise and vacuum and such. But since our DS will already be with the grandparents its probably for the best that we do it that day. I cant imagine her coming with DS home - we wouldnt be able to give her our complete attention. But who knows - we could get an offer before then!

 

[sajetto]

Leigh, don't worry about a few pictures of your son. I think the whole "have all your personal stuff out of the house" is over rated. Yes, if you have a million precious moments laying around, that is clutter, but a few pictures of an adorable little boy isn't going to hurt your resale.

We went through one house that had to have had 200 photos of their wedding in various frames around the house. We didn't buy the house because it was too small not because we were afraid that they might leave all those pictures behind.

I'll say I agree with this statement. We fell in love with a house COVERED in pictures of the happy couple. Those pics didn't turn us off in any way. I'd leave the pics as they are.

 

[lecach]

The competition is dwindling. There are only 6 houses - including ours - in the $170,000-190,000 category in our neighborhood right now.

Our showing at 6:30 last night looked like it went really well from our vantage point. They spent a lot of time on the deck. And when they left the house the couple and the agent stood in the front yard looking at the house and talking for a few minutes. If they werent even considering it they probably wouldnt have done that. We certainly never stood in a yard discussing a house unless we were considering it. The only weird thing was they went down to the lower level of the deck but they didnt look in the walk in crawl space. We always looked in the basements and crawl spaces....maybe that was just us though.

 

[bananiem]

Storage space was a BIGGIE for me whenever we looked at houses. Are you sure their realtor knew there was a crawlspace back there?

 

[lecach]

The realtor should have known. And they were right at the door. Maybe they dont really care about storage. Or maybe they had decided they didnt like the house already?

 

[lecach]

Thought you all might like to see some of the comments we've received. We had a feeling the people at 6:30 really liked the house - sounds like they do. Our realtor has been in contact with their agent. Fingers crossed If they "only want to live in Woodcroft" as their agent says they arent going to be able to do much better.


5/03/2006 6:30 to 7:00 PM Showing

My clients REALLY liked this house. They loved almost everything. Wish it had a sep. dining room but they are keeping it on their list. They only want to live in Woodcroft so we may be back again.


5/02/2006 2:45 to 3:45 PM Showing

Buyer likes the location - needs a different floorplan for this family. Cute house in a great location.

4/29/2006 4:30 to 5:30 PM Showing

Home was too cluttered and buyers did not like how the front door bangs into stairs.

4/26/2006 12:15 to 1:15 PM Showing

cute home. They liked it but found others they prefer.


4/22/2006 3:00 to 4:00 PM Showing

This house is at the top of my clients list. It is possbie they will make an offer in a day or two. They do want to know what you know about the slope in the kitchen floors.

4/17/2006 1:15 to 2:15 PM Showing

cute....good shape....a tad small for these clients....


4/13/2006 10:30 to 11:30 AM Showing

Julian, Cute home!! Shows well and is in great shape. My buyer (I was actually with him while you were with my father)is narrowing down his choices. I will keep you posted. Thanks!

4/10/2006 1:00 to 2:00 PM Showing

The buyer liked this home but has made no decisions yet.

4/10/2006 12:00 to 1:00 PM Showing

Nice home--buyer looking for a little more yard.


4/08/2006 1:00 to 2:00 PM Showing

Just not the right one for these buyers

4/04/2006 4:30 to 5:30 PM Showing

Buyer liked this home and may be back at some point.

3/21/2006 5:00 to 6:00 PM Showing

Very nice home, showed very well. Clients just found another home with a floorplan that they liked better.

3/12/2006 3:30 to 4:30 PM Showing

nice listing Julian, my buyer really wants a backyard where his dog can be fenced in....shows well, good luck....

3/11/2006 11:00 to 12:00 PM Showing

Was not exactly what my client wanted, but thought it was beautiful. Shows extremely well and they have very nice, friendly neighbors. Thanks for letting me show.

 

[lecach]

Another update: We got a call about a showing at 10:30 today. DH had to mow (since we're leaving on vacation) so he was just finishing when they got there - he greeted them and said he's pretty sure it was the Wednesday people. He said they were in the crawl space a while (which my Mom the realtor says is good - that you can tell a lot about a house in there) and when they were leaving he asked if they had any questions (he was still working in the yard). They asked when we needed to be out!!!!! He said probably in 2 months but we can be flexible. They said they'd be calling our realtor!!!!!!!! Thats good - right?

 

[DisneyGirl2005]

That sounds very positive! Hopefully you will have some good news, so you can enjoy your cruise without thinking about selling the house.

 

[golfgal]

Another update: We got a call about a showing at 10:30 today. DH had to mow (since we're leaving on vacation) so he was just finishing when they got there - he greeted them and said he's pretty sure it was the Wednesday people. He said they were in the crawl space a while (which my Mom the realtor says is good - that you can tell a lot about a house in there) and when they were leaving he asked if they had any questions (he was still working in the yard). They asked when we needed to be out!!!!! He said probably in 2 months but we can be flexible. They said they'd be calling our realtor!!!!!!!! Thats good - right?

That sounds very good!!! I have my fingers crossed! Our neighbors house fell through (someone approached them about selling and the people buying their house financing fell through) so that will increase house buying traffic on our street. Our house is about 1000 sq ft larger then their house with a bigger garage and about $50,000 more (neighbors have the smallest house on the street, ours is in the middle size/price-wise).

 

[mickeysgal]

I've got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[lecach]

WE HAVE AN OFFER!!!!!!!!

It was for $182,000 - only $900 off our asking price!

They want a June 8 closing which is maybe a week too early - but they are agreeable to a rent back.

 

[DVC Sadie]

Congratulations!!!! Now you can save the money from the re -arranging person. (I can't remember the proper name).

 

[Brutie]

what we learned when selling ours 2 years ago was to price it lower than what you want and let the market bring it up to fair market value. of course we are in california and to me being a north carolina girl, the prices here are OUTRAGEOUS.

anyway, we got an estimate from our realtor and we went below that offer. we priced ours at 640,000.00 and the bids brought it up to what the market was at the time in our area, and we sold it for 700,000.00.

we were also told if you were on the MLS listing longer than 60 days that people start to wonder what is wrong with a house, cause its sitting there not selling and people get a little leary about it. ours sold in 1 day so we didnt have to worry about that, but if yours sits on the market for too long, have your realtor take it off and then put it back on and it will show up as a new listing. you might also want to consider a different realtory with some fresh ideas.

also, try www.zillow.com and look up your addie or your neighborhood, it will give you an idea of the values in the area.

 

[DisneyGirl2005]

That is awesome news! Now you can really relax and enjoy your vacation!

Was it the from the showing this morning?

 

[Buckalew11]

Hooray for you!! See, St. Joseph did help. He was just waiting on the right family to view your home!!!

 

[accomp]

WE HAVE AN OFFER!!!!!!!!

It was for $182,000 - only $900 off our asking price!

How wonderful! Congratulations!

 

[Robinrs]

Great news!!! Congrats!!!

 

[lecach]

DisneyGirl: Yes - it was from the showing this morning. The buyer is a new medical resident (not sure if he's at Duke or UNC). We arent sure if he's married or not. He's from Iowa.

Thanks everyone for your support. All that worry over lowering for nothing. We were going to lower it on Monday.

 

[sajetto]

Congrats!!!! Now you can enjoy your vacation and have the satisfaction of knowing that you didn't have to lower your asking price after all. Have you signed the offer to purchase yet?