Selling A Home

[Lynn]

 I have a 3 bedroom/2 bath home for sale in the Renton,Wash. area. Last year( 2010) , it was appraised at 235,000. I am currently selling it at 204,500. I have held an open house, advertised on the internet , listed with an agent and we have gotten very little repsonse. Is this a bad time to sell? We need to get a bigger house as we have new family members and we need to sell this one first. Does anyone have any ideas? The house was completely redone and is a turn-key house. We added a master bath and another bedroom in 2010. Help as I am pulling my hair out with what to do..

[CMcConnell]

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for visiting the ZipCommunity with your question.  This post is a good resource for home selling advice: http://community.ziprealty.com/t5/Selling-A-Home/Selling-my-house/td-p/172/page/3

Additionally, I'm sure some other users will be able to chime in about your specific case.

Thanks,

Colin

[Phil McCarty]

Hi Lynn,

You mentioned that your house is listed with a Realtor - have your discussed your frustations with him/her? I urge you to do so as soon as possible. Together you should be able to develop a strategy to get your home sold as quickly as the market will permit.

Good luck!

[rtarvin]

Hi Lynn, 

when you say it was appraised at $235,000, was that done on your request to a professional appraiser for refi purposes or was that what the county has established the property tax value to be on the home.  In my experience, the property tax value has very little to do with actual sale value of a home and more to do with generation of revenue.  If they appraised high, it might have needed to be protested.

If this was an actual appraisal done by an appraiser to determine value, then you seem to be listed way below value and I would recommend looking at what sells a home.

I posted a blog post today that covers the four things that dictates whether a home will sell or not.  You can find that post by clicking HERE.   See which of those items can be fixed.  If those items are ok (and that would be assuming price is where you say it is priced vs value), then I would say the last item is MARKETING/EXPOSURE.  Perhaps, as someone else suggested, it might be time to examine where your current agent is marketing the home and getting the exposure for your home.  I'm not saying that your agent is doing a poor job, but rather, it might be in your best interest to examine what is being done to market the property and decide from there. 

GOOD LUCK  to you!

[Lynn]

 The house appraisal was done for refi purposes. The listing price is  now 199,000 and has been on the market now for 75 days. The house is a turn-key house.  We have already purchased another house and have started going through the finance stuff. We need this one to sell fast but it seems to be dragging. One of my neighbors was selling ( short sale) but it just went pending yesterday. I was afraid that might have been one of the problems as it was really cheap and a smaller house. I am in a signed contract until March to sell this house but it needs to be done soon as I said.

  My house just had a master bath and another bedroom added on last year. The house was totally redone from top to bottom so I don't think it's the condition. We back up to a city park and we are in a cul-de-sac ( at the end). I have no idea what else to do to help sell this house.

[rtarvin]

Hi Lynn,

I would look at marketing at this point to be sure. 

When I speak of marketing, I'm not talking of putting it in a property magazine or such...I'm talking about WHERE is it located online (because over 85% of all buyers are ONLINE looking at houses, not picking up the local property magazine etc).

If you go and do a google search of a property such as 3030 Rainmont (a listing of mine), you'll see 5+ pages of google results that have that property shown on it.  Some are large sites, some are smaller sites, but I'm getting in front of as many eyes as I can with my property listing. 

You didn't mention the address here but do a google search and find out two things:  How many places are you showing up and How does the house LOOK on the places it's showing up.  Poor photographs can kill interest in a property, in my opinion.  Also, while there is a push to put more and more photos online, I tend to think that 10-15 photos of an average sized house is plenty because we want to get their attention, not show them everything...ultimate goal is to get them to come see (and hopefully fall in love with) the house!

[treasurehunterd]

When I look at houses online I want to see photos! 15 is a great number. If I see 15 great photos of a house and it peaks my interest I will call my agent to go see it. But if a listing has no photos or only 1 or 2 that is not enough to waste my time to go see it in person.

[Rosemary Taylor]

There are only 2 reasons why a home may not sell.  It is either condition of the home or the price.  In this market the pricing of your home is critical.  It is a beauty contest and a price war.  If your home is in great condition you may want to enlist the help of a professional stager to help give you an edge over the competion.  After that you will want to price the home slightly below the current offerings in your market and not with the rest of the properties that are on the market.  Interested buyers who are looking in your area will then choose your home as it will be the best value.  I use this to market all of the homes that I sell and they generally sell within a short reasonable time.  Good Luck!

[rtarvin]

I totally agree Treasure...

none or 1-2 photos= no interest by most buyers because they wonder "what are they trying to hide"

10-18 (dependent on the size of the home) = enough shown to get their interest to come see the property.  If you can't get someone in a home to see it, they will never buy it!

In my opinion, it's not always about price...it's about price overcoming the things you are not willing to fix.  If it were about price and only price, everyone would just buy a low end builder spec home and be done with it.  A stager can be a significant help...if you're willing to put into practice what the stager says! 

[Coca]

If your house is in Los Angeles, CA, i'll be very happy to see it; call Coca @ 818/676-0162