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Need to vent for a minute
We have had our house on the market for a month as of yesterday. And we haven't had a single showing! That's what's bothering me. I know the market is bad, but I'm getting discouraged by the "Buying a Home" board here on the Nest and even the Pittsburgh board (lurking for the most part on both) because I can see that other people in other areas and in the Pittsburgh area are getting showings and still selling...
I have read a few articles the last few weeks about prices for housing falling even more, which is just insane. I bought almost 5 years ago and I don't know if I would even be able to sell for what I paid for it 5 years ago!
We can't lower our price much because we want to make a profit for a down payment on our next house... And at this point I think listing it was a big mistake. Mortgage rates are so low, it would be much better to just refinance, go from a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage, and get as much equity in the house as we can... Then sell in a few more years maybe.
And I know, lots of people have it way worse and we don't need to sell. I had just gotten my hopes up and it was exciting to be looking at houses and I'm just so bummed.
I will be buying a St. Joseph statue and burying it upside down, facing the house, in the backyard, to see if that helps. But if we don't sell soon I really want to take it off the market and refinance. It will be sad to bring stuff back in from our storage place though, I think.
Ok, end vent. Thanks. I'm not sure I feel better but Dave keeps telling me to be patient, and, I am just NOT a patient person, haha! I think a month with no showings is a bad sign.
Re: Need to vent for a minute
I don't think a month is bad at all really. Plus it only takes one showing to get that buyer. Try not to be discouraged. If you trust your agent let them guide you. Hang in there.
That sounds very frustrating but I agree with Dave. Selling and buying a home is all a waiting game. Is there anything else that you can do to make the house more appealing? Have you had anyone critique your listing to give you some feedback?
Have you guys found a house/neighborhood you love and want to move to when your house sells?
~~~MARRIED BIO~~~
Thanks... I do feel a little better actually after venting. And, I updated my status on facebook as well. One of my coworkers saw it and she searched for my house to see if she could help or give advice... The house is kind of weird- Pittsburgh is laid out weird. I'm going to give some personal information on here, hopefully it's not too much. (Tell me if it is and I'll dd later.) So I live in the borough of Plum which is also the Plum School District. It's a good area, but Plum has 5 zip codes. Only one is actually Plum, PA. The others are 4 different areas. Mine is New Kensington, which is not a great area (but I actually live in Plum, pay taxes to Plum, and our area is within the Plum School District). New Kensington is a bit depressed but is a few miles away from where I live and the only association we have is that our address is New Kensington. In fact, if I wanted to join the library, they would not let me join the New Kensington library; they would say, go to the Plum library.
Anyway, so my coworker searched on Plum and my house doesn't show up! If you were to put in the school district, it would show up, and if you put in New Kensington, it will show up. I bet that would explain, if people are searching on their own online and just looking up Plum itself... My coworker did find one that had our zip code but is in the Plum area, and they did show up on the searches. So something about their listing was modified. I told my realtor about it, and she's looking into it to see if we can list ours the same way.
So please cross your fingers for me on this one! Hopefully this is the answer. I did a huge comparison to other houses in our neighborhood, both past sales and current listings, and we're lower in the pack as far as pricing! So if this is why we aren't getting any interest, I would feel so much better.
And I think I could be more patient if there was at least SOME interest... what's frustrating is the complete lack of showings. I don't expect to sell the house instantly...
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Ok, to answer your questions... I have been trying to figure out what to do to make the house appealing and there are a few small things we were going to do anyway (seal the driveway, re-stain and re-seal the back deck...) but we had a pre-inspection and fixed the (all minor) things that he commented on, and picked a very very thorough inspector... we staged the house, de-cluttered and cleaned. And everyone I talk to who has looked at our house online has said that it looks great, no negative. We can't get an objective opinion from buyers who don't know us until we have a showing.
So I've tried to get what I can...
Our neighbors have a daughter about my age, and it's sad- she JUST bought a townhouse and would love our house but can't sell her townhouse yet. Too bad I didn't know she was looking or that she didn't know we were thinking about selling! And she gave positive feedback as well (although she's partial because she wants to be close to her parents- her townhouse is already in the same housing plan).
We're actually pretty flexible about where we move to. We were looking, but pretty much have stopped that (did stop by a few open houses the last weekend of June) because we don't want to find something and then be really disappointed we can't buy. We do know the areas we would look into- either where I work, north of the city, or between there and downtown, where Dave works. It would depend on what houses we find and the prices. I figure if we sell we'll move into a small apartment with a month-to-month lease so we don't feel rushed into looking. And we're both fine with that; we've talked about it a lot.
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Lots of house selling dust sent your way!!!!!
It sounds like you have a good plan. Every day take a few minutes to focus on everything working out just the way you want it to. When I visualize positive things happening they normally do.
~~~MARRIED BIO~~~