Sold your house recently-Help!

[Simba's Mom]

I just want to know what to expect in terms of how often people look at it, how long it takes, etc. I'm so discouraged right now. Our house has been on the market (had the for sale sign up, add in the paper, MLS, etc.) for 9 whole days, and we've only had one family come look at it. Before we put our house on the market, we heard all these remarkable tales of people selling their house the first day or the first week. So this seems so slow! Please tell me what's normal-anyone else whose house has been up for sale and for a few months? I really want to hear some longer stories.

 

[kidzmom3]

here in the northern boston region our neighbors house was on the market from last august and then it sold in February. The house was listed at 375,000 and people kept saying it would sell for more. It did eventually sell at 350,000. A 3 bedroom split iwth 1 1/2 baths and a tiny yard.

 

[4greatboys]

Please dont get discouraged. 9 days really isnt all that long. I havent sold my house recently but my best friend is a realtor so we talk about her work often. She has had her own house on the market for a couple of months but is not worried. It may take a couple of months but Im sure it will sell.

 

[FOJMO]

I just posted a thread this morning ("I'm Sooooo Happy") because our house in Orlando (we live in Tampa) finally closed on the sale yesterday! It had been for sale since March -- almost 4 months.

Because we didn't live in the house, and our realtor (who lives directly across the street from the house) handled all the calls, open houses, prospective buyers, etc., we didn't see, first hand, the people who visited it. But, our realtor told us it had higher-than-average interest calls and interested buyers.

However, it only took that "one" woman who wanted to buy it to make it happen. We actually received a call late one Sunday evening from our realtor. We thought she was calling because we left her a message about lowering the price because it wasn't selling and it was taking a toll to keep paying two mortgages. When she said she had a signed contract, for the full price we were asking for, we almost dropped the phone!

I won't say it was an easy road, as the buyer stipulated that we needed to cover her closing costs ($4200 -- that was why she was willing to pay full asking price), and we had some repairs that her lender required us to make before they approved her loan. Plus, her lender took their good old time getting the paperwork to the title company, so we had about four "false alarm" dates for closing this past 2 weeks. Luckily, we didn't have to be present for the closing, so we didn't waste our time traveling to Orlando for naught.

But, this morning we saw the proceeds in our bank account and we're already beginning to pay off CC debt that we planned to do and life is good.

The quickest we ever sold a house (we've sold 4 altogether) was two weeks. The longest was almost a year and we had to take a $40,000 loss!!!

Keep the faith and keep your chin up. It only takes that ONE buyer and yours is out there somewhere. VAL

 

[Pembo]

We closed on June 10. Our house was on the market 7 weeks and I thought that was incredibly long! However the War in Iraq started a week after we put our house up.

We dropped the price twice, $2500 both times. We had open houses every other Sunday and quite a few showings. I was getting really annoyed with having to keep things clean and picked up (we have 3 kids, one an infant). But in the end it was worth it. We got our asking price!

Some suggestions-I just kept cleaning. Bought this orange stuff to clean my kitchen cupboard doors, smelled great and made them shine. In the course of selling, we emptied book shelves and hid them away. I kept organizing stuff to make the rooms look bigger. I got really good at stashing stuff. After all that cleaning, once our house sold I STOPPED. The house was a pit for a couple weeks and I didn't care. LOL!!!

Good luck and don't get too discouraged. It all happens quick when it happens.

 

[Sonya]

We sold ours 2 months ago. I'm sorry to say it took only 2 weeks for it to go. We had someone over about every other evening, but no offers. So we held an open house and our realtors called everyone who had clicked on our MLS link (or something like that) to tell them of the open house. We had about 25 people show up and 4 offers! So perhaps an open house is just what you need?

 

[believe]

Our home also sold at the first open house we had, for only $500 under the asking price. I agree with, Sonya, if you want to sell fast try an open house.

 

[Robinrs]

I sold my house is ... you're gonna hate me... FOUR days because my loan was one of the last NENQ loans.

My parents' house took about 3 months to sell, but only a week after it was vacant. I think the fact that no one lives there really helps.

 

[Jdubbs]

I tried to sell on my own with just no luck.When I got a real estate and had my first open house I had two buyers bidding for my house..This was just last week.I was really cutting it close because my new house is being built.Hope you have luck because all it takes is just that one person to come along who likes your home...

 

[palmtreegirl]

We just closed on the sale of our house last month.

We listed it on the first of March and we had a buyer for about 4,000 under list price in the beginning of May. But we ended up backing out of that deal because they couldn't come up with their down payment and they lost their mortgage. I was so upset.

So then we put it back on the market and it sold 2 weeks later, right at the end of May and we closed July 3rd. The best part- there was a bidding war and it ended up selling for 4,000 above our asking price, which was a really nice surprise and well worth the wait.

Hang in there, your just at the start because after you accept a bid the games begin and that was the biggest pain of all. Dealing with the attorneys and inspectors drove me looney.

But in the end all the aggravation was well worth because we just closed on our loan to build our dream house.

Good luck I hope you sell real soon and it all goes well!