Buying A Home
Kitty1225
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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trying to sell...question
Hi,
I have never been on this board, but I have a question and you all seem helpful!
DH and i listed our house almost a year ago and we had activity, but no offers. we just switched realtors, someone who actually lives in our town and we are comftorable with her. our house is priced right, but we are getting frustrated. What do you think of money towards closing? we were thinking of maybe $1500 towards closing or something like that.
Thanks!
Jenn
Re: trying to sell...question
Honestly, many buyers would ask for money toward closing anyway (that's at least the norm in my area), so offering help with closing costs probably isn't a huge incentive.
Is there an HOA? Could you offer to pay HOA dues for 6 months or something?
I hate to say it, but if the house has been listed for almost a year with no offers, the price is probably not right. I know you think it is, but dropping the price a few thousand would probably make a bigger difference than offering other incentives.
Mr. Sammy Dog
This exactly.
What type of feedback have you gotten from showings?
hi!
We just lowered it when we swichted realtors as of 12/1. People really like the house. The last person to come in right before the holiday said that they thought we had 3 layers on the roof (we dont and they came at night)....the feedback from other realtors say the price is right...
If people want closing cost assistance they will ask for it when they put in their offer. In our area requests for closing costs are a given and most requests are well over $1500.
What is the average days on market for your area? This will help you understand your market better. If average DOM is 90 days and your house has been on the market for over a year, then something is wrong and most likely it is the price. A lot of times a REA will say price is right, but unfortunately they are wrong. Did your REA show you comps of recent sales in your area that support your price?
Anyway you can post pics here so we can give you some feedback?
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I'd suggest dropping your price $1500 over offering a $1500 closing credit at your current price. Like everyone else has said, price is the main thing when selling a home. A lot of realtors recommend dropping the price by a certain percentage every 30 days a home is on the market. Since you've been on the market for about a month, it might be time to ask your realtor what pricing strategy they suggest. You could also ask your realtor to show you other properties on the market at the same price point as yours so you can see what potential buyers are seeing when they look at your house versus others, which can help with your pricing.
You can also feel free to post photos of the house here and people can help with staging your home. It doesn't sound like your listing photos are too much of an issue though if you're having showings, just no offers.
Thank you for the feedback everyone. We have it listed at 250,000. it was listed at 254 before this new realtor but she said 250 is better since we will catch people looking in a certain price range, like on realtor.com. I know it is probably the price. we get nervous going too low becasue then there would not be a lot of wiggle room to negotiate. it is just so frustrating.
we want to move so our son can be closer to my husbands job (movng near it) so one of us can easily get him during the day. below is the link to my house.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/408-Raritan-St_South-Amboy_NJ_08879_M50027-43194?ex=NJ544076430
Again, I really appreicate your feedback with this! and if you know anyone looking in central jersey...pass it on, lol
Thanks, yeah we put all clutter away. everything is pretty empty right now. our house has a ton of doors, there is nothing we can do about that, lol. i believe at one point, the kitchen was an addition because it used to be on another floor, or so we have heard.
Thanks!
OK, if you've put all the clutter away, take new pictures. I agree with everything pp says about the current pictures in your listing. They would actually discourage me from seeing your house in person.
You also mention that lowering the price doesn't leave you much wiggle room, but I think you need to realize that you might have to bring money to closing if things are that tight. It obviously isn't an ideal situation, but it is very common today for homeowners to have to do this.
One thing I noticed missing from your listing: What is the square footage of the house? It does not say this in the listing. People will want to know how big the house is before they decide to see it.
Agree w/pp about photos. If you have removed the clutter you need to update photos. Clutter is a turn off to people and also makes your house seem small and lacking in storage.
I agree with pps...if you have decluttered and staged, then ask your realtor to come back and take some updated photos. First impression is everything and your "foyer" shot, nursery, and master bedroom photos would give me the impression that you didn't have any storage. While storage may or may not be an issue IRL, you want the buyer to think the place is spacious.
PS--My husband would be jealous of all the huge tvs
That said, the one in your master, along with the oversized furniture, makes that room read really, really small. Any chance you could remove the tv or replace it with a smaller one for a while?
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I know this has nothing to do w/ your house not selling. But since you're getting new pics taken anyway, I'd recommend you peruse the photo shoot w/ your realor/ look over all photos after "shoot". I'm anal (and kinda crazy- I know), but certainly in addition to all of the other photo advice, the rumpled pillows on your sofa in living room photos are kind of killing me. Fluff those guys up before next photo!
I know I kind of already sound petty and anal, but just a head's up that it would really bother me if my realtor was using shots w/ minor details that were out of place/ not as perfect as possible. It would concern me in regard to his/her attention to detail in the rest of the selling process. Good luck OP!
Talk with your Realtor and previous Realtor about the feedback that has been received. Were there any negatives? Are there any repairs or improvements that can be done with the money to make you look more attractive on the market? Offering money towards closing or necessary repairs may act as an incentive but talk with your Realtor about the best strategy.
Good luck!
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.
Have either of your realtors gone over the area comps with you? They should do this to help advise you on what the right price for your house is, and help you understand why.
If not, you can do some quick comp research on your own.
Go to your MLS website and search for "sold" homes within the last 3 months.
Narrow the results down to homes in the same area, as close to your house as you can get.
You want homes that have similar square footage and pay close attention to ones with similar bed/bath ratios.
Look at the sold prices of these homes. What are the prices?
If the prices are higher than your home, why? Larger? More updated? Better location? Better amenities?
If the prices are lower than your home, why? Ask yourself the same question. If homes have recently sold for lower prices than yours, but the homes are larger, more updated or have better upgrades it is a sign that your place is overpriced.
For low-priced homes, are there any factors with the location that will drive the price down? Is there anything with the location that will drive the value of your home down? (Close to railroad tracks, too close to a busy street, etc).
Use this information to check your home and its list price against other recently sold houses in the area. How does it measure up?
If homes of similar size, features, location and upgrades are selling for about your price or higher, you are right. Price is probably not the problem. But if this is not the case, you may want to revisit your price point again.
Ask your REA to go over the comps with you and explain. Is your agent just going along with your price because you are stuck on staying around the $250K mark? (They can advise you, but in the end have to list it at what you say). Or does your agent really believe this is the right price? If so, why?
Based on the values of the properties in your neighborhood that pop up on the map right in your listing, it looks like $250K is on the high side for your neighborhood. Is your house one of the biggest/best in the neighborhood? If not, you're priced too high.
I know you don't want to go to closing with cash, but you might have to. Just because you don't want to take a loss on the sale does not mean your house is worth more. Your house is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay, and it seems apparent that buyers are not willing to pay $250K-$254K. Also, I don't think a $4K drop in price is significant enough to get new potential buyers interested.
Also, looking at the map in your listing, it looks like your house backs up to an interstate highway. That in itself could be an issue and a big reason people are hesitant to buy. This definitely lowers the value, if you do in fact back up to a major highway.
I agree with the other comments about photos. They're not taken from the best angles and there seems to be a lot of "stuff" in your rooms. If you've taken some things out and cleaned up a bit, get new photos!
Mr. Sammy Dog
I will also agree with those talking about the photo issues. Another issue I may have spotted is that I see your home is almost 100 years old. Many people, myself included, would much prefer a newer house to an older one due to upkeep expenses if they are comparable in other respects.
Also, I would point out that as a potential buyer it can be hard to give feedback. We have been through some houses which I can't say I really have anything concretely negative to say about it, but the house just wasn't really what we wanted. Other times it was some issue that the buyer can't do anything about, like a really small backyard, or a bad layout and flow. In that case, I don't know that the realtor would pass that along.
I also don't know your market, but where we are looking in the Midwest, the prices are dropping every day. I think you really need to keep searching every once in awhile to make sure you are still priced competitively compared to other houses on the market. Ideally your realtor would do that as well, but it seems as if they aren't. I know you dropped it $4k, but that is really not that much to attract new buyers.
While I can agree that sometimes the house just doesn't "feel" like THE ONE, if specific feedback is given even if it is something that cannot be changed, the realtor should give that info to their clients.
We toyed with the idea of selling our rental home a year or so ago. It has done well for us, but we were between renters and the idea of selling was appealing. We put it on the market for three months. GREAT feedback--oh the house is adorable, so well maintained, nice features.
Thankfully, our realtor also gave us the other feedback--too small, not enough back yard, houses too close together (it is in a cluster subdivision). Could we change those things? No, but it helped us know why it wasn't moving. We could have significantly dropped the price and someone would have purchased it--probably to be a rental. So, we kept it and found our dream tenants so it was all for the best really.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)