trying to sell house = so frustrated

[lisak1]

no traffic at the open house, and I really think no one showed up for the scheduled showing on Saturday. I plan to do do some work painting this upcoming weekend and see how it goes.

 

[cfknight]

Talked to the realtor last nite, He said he is very suprised we have not had an offer considering the amount of showings we have had. He did say We have 2 very good prospecs..1 they would like to make an offer but are trying to arrange financing(of course) 2 They live out of state and have narrowed it down to 2 homes, and 1 is ours, they come back in town tomorrow to make their choice. So give me some

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Talked to the realtor last nite, He said he is very suprised we have not had an offer considering the amount of showings we have had. He did say We have 2 very good prospecs..1 they would like to make an offer but are trying to arrange financing(of course) 2 They live out of state and have narrowed it down to 2 homes, and 1 is ours, they come back in town tomorrow to make their choice. So give me some

Sending some pixie dust your way! Good luck!

 

[Ava31]

We found a place called Discount Carpet Brokers. I'm pretty sure it's not a chain, but I would guess there are some others out there in other areas. We didn't use a realtor to sell our house, just a flat fee ($500) lister, but one realtor that looked at our house had been in the business for 35 years and gave us the name of this place.

I would like to know where that deal was at...We have a 1200sq ft. home and all I could find was $1600.. That was for cheap..cheap!

 

[CarolA]

We have signed papers wo lower the price on Monday. Turns out our house was also listed in the paper yesterday as the house of the week. A huge half page picture on the front page of the real estate section. I am anxious to see if that brings any new traffic this week.

Just a warning. My house was listed in the paper at $100,000 UNDER my asking price which made it the DEAL of the year. No one even called about it. As my agent said "I never thought the paper did much for us"

 

[dizcrazy]

OH MY! and no calls????

 

[CarolA]

Not from the ad.

We did sell the house fairly quickly.

 

[Martha7]

My Dh went back on Friday to check on the house in Saline, MI. Two dead trees, weeds in all of the flower beds, etc. He was not a happy camper. Our real estate agent didn't even let us know that it was looking that bad, and he's supposed to be the top realtor in the area!

Long story short: the yard maintenance people came by and said that they'd be cleaning out the beds. My Dh called a landscaping company and $2300 later, they're tearing out the dead trees... They'll be coming back to turn on the sprinkler system, replace a valve that froze and cracked, (when our neighbor never got around to shutting off the water for the winter... ), and adjust the sprinklers.

It's miserable to live in a house and keep it clean enough to sell, but leaving it vacant presents its own set of challenges!

Continued best wishes for all of us in this boat!

 

[lulu71]

If you have absolutely no showings in 30 days you're 10 percent overpriced. If you have lots of showings and no offers your five percent overpriced.
.

How interesting! The house that we sold last month had lots of showings and no offers. The actual selling price was almost exactly 5% less than our original asking price. This is great advice people!

 

[ELLE-TN]

Okay So I Thought I'd Take A Minute To Check In With Everyone. Seems Like No-one Had Any Luck To Report Over The Weekend. I Was So Hoping That Someone Would Have Good News. Anyway, The Past Few Days Have Brought Several Driveby's So What's The Deal? Several Friends Have Commented That Our House Looks Great Because We Have Made Several Improvements And Everything Is Spit Shined - So I Don't Have A Clue. I'm Sure That It Is Simply The Fact That The Market Is Overloaded And There Aren't As Many Buyers.

 

[myAAbatteries&aTD]

You are all scaring me!!! We just put our house up last Thursday and w/ my dh already gone to his new job (happened REALLY quickly!) Mon-Thurs. and just me here w/ our 6,4 and 2-yr old I'm about to go crazy! Besides trying to get the house ready (I was going to spend all summer going through the garage and closets - that got pushed up to 2 DAYS!), I started a business last year and have end-of-year (School-year b/c it's business related to schools) paperwork to finish (almost done, phew!), a clinic to attend this week, little touch-ups to do, the list goes on and on and on...... I really like our realtor, but think we may be a little overpriced even thougth we're at the lower end of price per sf in our area and have a practically brand new house. We did have a showing this week-end - didn't call and left 3 lights on... thankfully we were gone and the house was ready! Our realtor says that you normally won't sell a house having an open house, that you'll get bored people w/ nothing else to do and nosy neighbors who haven't been in yet..... She'll do one if we want, but she doesn't think they do a lot of good. Guess we'll wait and see how it goes for a week or so and then decide. She does run ads in the paper, but doesn't think they do much as far as getting the house sold... more b/c she feels that clients expect it when they hire a realtor. We're paying a flat fee which is less than 1% of our asking price and she's really doing a lot for us...

I really hope someone on here sells their house SOON to give the rest of us some HOPE!!!

 

[cfknight]

How interesting! The house that we sold last month had lots of showings and no offers. The actual selling price was almost exactly 5% less than our original asking price. This is great advice people!

Seems to me if their are a lot of lookers and it is true about being 5% overpriced, you would at least get a couple of low ball offers. But I guess not since we havn't had one!

 

[spima3]

Our realtor says that you normally won't sell a house having an open house, that you'll get bored people w/ nothing else to do and nosy neighbors who haven't been in yet..... She'll do one if we want, but she doesn't think they do a lot of good. Guess we'll wait and see how it goes for a week or so and then decide. She does run ads in the paper, but doesn't think they do much as far as getting the house sold... more b/c she feels that clients expect it when they hire a realtor. We're paying a flat fee which is less than 1% of our asking price and she's really doing a lot for us...

I have heard this also. There was even a show on TV about how ineffective open houses are and how most homes aren't sold that way. I "think" they said most homes are sold through agent contacts; basically another agent has a client who would be interested and they recommend your house to them. This would probably be more evident when it's a buyer's market.

We have soooo much work to do on our older home that I would love to buy a move in ready home, but we would take such a loss without fixing it up, that we just can't do it. Still keep looking though!
lori

 

[mommy2twingles]

Well 2 strikes for me today. Realtor had a call from our sign out front but when she tried to call the person back the phone number was not valid.
Our listing says we require 24 hour notice for showings due to DH and I working over an hour away with little kids I can not keep my house ready to show at the drop of a hat. We had a realtor call and ask to show the house within 45 minutes of his call. Nope sorry wash is everywere and kids toys are out.
Hopefully they can reschedule and the first person calls back.

 

[lulu71]

Seems to me if their are a lot of lookers and it is true about being 5% overpriced, you would at least get a couple of low ball offers. But I guess not since we havn't had one!

I know! You would think people would at least attempt an offer. We did when we bought the house we live in now, to the tune of 15% lower that asking. And guess what - we got it! The sellers were on crack though if they thought they would get asking.

 

[famofsix]

If you are priced right an OPEN house can work to your advantage especially if your market is slow. Sometimes open houses attract non-contigent buyers or people picky people like us who want to see everything not just three houses a realtor picked

We sold our house after the open and we bought a house after the seller had an open house.

Also we advertised the OPEN on craigslist and zillow.com as I have mentioned before.

So it just depends.

We did reduce the price 5% and that's when we got the offer from a lady who saw the house once after the open

Those of you with kids and needing time for showings....we did throw everything in a tote and made sure beds were made each morning.

We did use our car for laundry baskets full of dirty or needs to be put away laundry.

I had linens just for showings that the threw on the tables and fake or fresh flowers in a vase. We always went to bed with a clean kitchen and would show the house even if the dishwasher was full of clean dishes.

Try reducing your toys and pput them in storage since you are moving anyway. Save the best ones they play with often.Then have a hide-a-way spot for those toys (under the bedtote or a basket that fits in a closet and small area in the garage for toys. Tidy up before you leave and it will make your life less stressful.

I am telling you those clorax wipes and windex go a long way

Hang in there everyone!

 

[K&KsMom]

Has anyone had any experience paying points? We have a buyer for our house but they are doing FHA and need us to pay points. We told them the sale price of the home will reflect the points now. There is no way I will take a $6,000 hit with the deal we are already giving them.

 

[knovak]

Has anyone had any experience paying points? We have a buyer for our house but they are doing FHA and need us to pay points. We told them the sale price of the home will reflect the points now. There is no way I will take a $6,000 hit with the deal we are already giving them.

Each point costs 1% of the loan amount and reduces the buyer's mortgage payment. So - if the loan is for $100,000 each point costs $1000. You need to know the # of points they are taking and the total loan amount to know what amount you are looking at paying for them. Hope that helps!

 

[CarolA]

Just a thought.... 24 hour notice is TOO much for a lot of buyers.

When I bought my current home, I had ONE weekend to look. My boyfriend and I found it on a drive by one night and we had to look at it the next day or it would have been off the list. We were there at 9 AM.... If you had asked for 24 hours I wouldn't have seen it.

Every time I have bought a house I have been amazed at some seller expections. Here are a few of my "turn offs"

1. Requiring a LOT of notice to show. (A few hours should be sufficient)
2. Putting up signs asking me to take off my shoes
3. Plastic on the floor to protect your carpet. (You just reminded me of WHY I don't want your white carpet!)
4. Pets. Lock them up and get rid of the smell. Sorry, but the cat litter smell is not appealing
5. Clutter. I don't mind a little "last mintue" stuff, that folks understand. However, if every square inch of the home is covered in 'knickknacks" etc. it's just hard to see the house.
6. The owner being there. I have yet to spend more then about 5 minutes at an open house or house being shown where the owner was trailing me around.....
7. Unfinished projects. Finish the deck, basement etc. before you put the house on the market, don't tell me "it will be finished by closing"
8. Dirty/old carpet. I don't want to deal with it first thing. If it's worn your $2,000 carpet allowance probably isn't going to come close to what I want and I know it. (I have replaced some carpet) If it's clean and nice looking even if it's not what I want, I figure I can live with it! Same thing for kitchen flooring.
8. Dramatically outdated decor. The home I bought was "smaller" then the home down the street. The home down the street was owned by an older woman and was powder blue... EVERYWHERE with lots of "flower wallpaper" Just looked old and dated and I knew it would be an investment and a lot of time to bring it up to date.

Now I bought my first house after seeing it at an open house so I guess they do work. Never had one when I was selling.

 

[mommy2twingles]

Truely I would be fine without having 24 hour notice but would like to know the night before that you want to come by that day. Or let me know during the day that you want to come that night. We have a dog to so I have to make sure she is either out of the house or in her cage when you come. Not going to happen if you call me and ask to come in a half hour when I am at work an hour away. I understand having a short amount of time to find housing but at least a little notice is appriciated.