"Unique" home (sorry a little long)

cls78

This is what my realtor calls my house.  Here is a little history...

Ranch built in 1976 with a addition that was added on.  Making it a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom ranch.  The addition includes the extra bathroom with a shower stall (next to the kitchen), a Laundry/Mud room with its own entry access from outside with a closet.  They are not marketing the 4th bedroom as a bedroom, because it has no closet.  I actually use it as a office, but they are calling it a bonus room.  (could be a office, play room, bedroom)  The kitchen is updated with new appliances and cabinets.  Also are house has a newer roof and siding, but the drive way is unpaved.  

We also have a huge detached garage in our backyard, but still have a decent size area in the backyard for BBQ,s kids to play etc.  The garage could use siding, but he just had us do some minor repairs and a new garage door.  

Feed back we are getting isn't things we can really change.  (To small, 2nd bathroom in a weird spot, don't like the garage access, electric heat)  We did just get feed back that they wish we had central air.  (we could maybe change that. )  

At the price we have it listed at now we will be taking a loss and owe money.  I don't really want to go any lower, because I assume we will get a offer at least 10,000 from are asking price.  My husband does not want to take any less then 215,000 for the house.  (we paid 250,000 almost 10 years ago during a sellers market)  We live in a nice development with a mix of new and older homes and live under 10 miles from the beach.  Newer ranches in my area are going around 250 to 240.  Older ranches are listed at 200-225. (some shabby looking ranches are under 200,000)

I have lowered my price twice.  Started out as 239,900 (to high only got 2 showings)  2 months later lowered it to 229,900 got a decent amount of showings and we were short listed once, but no offers.  Now we have been stale again just had one showing yesterday after dropping the price last week to 224,900.

Before dropping the price I asked if he thinks he can sell it before the contract ends in October.  He gave me a very political answer.  Should I have gotten a new realtor or is my home really that unique?  Any time we dropped the price is, because I asked about what I can do.  He sends me report emails every week and he is saying he is plugging away, but I rarely talk to him unless I ask a question.  Feeling helpless in this crap market! 

   

HouseOfGreen

I'm not sure if my advice will help or not but I can give you a little perceptive from a buyer's point of view. Sometimes realtor's will show us a house that is out of our price range but has been on the market so long they the feel they may just take a low offer. When I say out of our price range I mean no more then 10,000.I'm not sure if everyone is like we are, but when we look at a house we start on the outside and look at the roof, and the siding, and the foundation. After that we go inside and look at the ceilings, and walls and floors. Aesthetics don't bother us, those can be cheaply changed over time. We are using a VA home loan so they are strict like a FHA loan. But even if we were using a traditional home we still look at those things. We don't want to spend all this money for a house that we need to put so much more into. 

Did I help at all?

cls78

Yes, it helps!  

The realtor thinks our house is priced fine.  I am just getting frustrated.    

G2SoccerTaz

I am curious how the addition was added. We looked at a ton of houses that had an addition but it was horrible contruction and had all kinds of issues. I really wanted gas heat, but it would not have changed our minds about a house. I would rather have an updated kitchen over central air. But that is just me.

HouseOfGreen

cls78 said:

Yes, it helps!  

The realtor thinks our house is priced fine.  I am just getting frustrated.    

Do you have a for sale sign in the yard? In florida (we are now in New England) The homes their would not only have for sale signs but they had flyers that we could take with pictures, and price. We set up many showings this way. 

GeorgiaRiah

Can you add a closet to the "bonus room"?  It might be a cheap way to open yourself to another market of buyers looking for 4 bedrooms and shouldn't cost too much to do.

cls78

HouseOfGreen said:

cls78 said:

Yes, it helps!  

The realtor thinks our house is priced fine.  I am just getting frustrated.    

Do you have a for sale sign in the yard? In florida (we are now in New England) The homes their would not only have for sale signs but they had flyers that we could take with pictures, and price. We set up many showings this way. 

We have a for sale sign and use to have the flyer box.  He took the flyer box out to try a new marketing approach, because he thought we were giving to much info and they were not calling to look.

We have not had any bad feedback regarding the addition other then the 2nd bathroom is in a weird spot.  I think it was built pretty well.  We actually bought this house from my husbands father.  (big mistake and a whole other story there lol)  

The extra bedroom is small and there is no room for a closet with one already in the laundry room. There is a nice closet in the laundry room.  I don't know why they didn't just put the closet in the bedroom instead of the laundry room.   

moonprincessd

Right now isn't a really great time to sale but a great time to buy, we got our house and a great price and have a really low interest rate due the poor market. 

If there are other houses, like yours, or better, and a buyer can manage to get a better deal, then they'll likely pick that house. I would look at what the houses like yours are selling for if possible. Your realtor might be able to do this or you could hire someone to do an appraisal to see what your house values at (not that you will actually be able to sell your house for that price). 

I think for me, the central air would be the downfall, most people want central air.