We bought a new house fully expecting to sell our current one. (Selling
was not a condition for buying, that would not have worked, and we have
enough money to hold both houses for a while if needed).

We put our house on the market (in a Chicago suburb with rather high
real-estate prices in recent years) at somewhat less than the top price
paid for similar houses in past months. Before listing it we got a new
tear-off roof, new CAC, patching and painting indoors, exterior paint
(previous year)...everything is in good shape, clean and neat, newish
appliances and mechanicals, neutral decor blah blah. We took anything we
didn't need to storage so the house would look spacious. (Admittedly it
is a small house, but so are the comparables.)

We have had a good number of showings (maybe 40 in seven weeks, not
including open house visitors). Several have come back a second time.
Some have asked about utility bills or other specific information. Our
agent reports 'beautiful house' comments at the open houses, which
attracted typically 10-15 groups of potential buyers each time.

We dropped the price $25K (6%) after 4 weeks. It has now been 7 weeks. We
have received NO offers at all, none. Our agent has solicited feedback
and received nothing useful from buyers' agents.

We can see, from MLS-derived listings in real-estate web pages, that
while some comparable houses in our area do remain unsold, most of those
that came on the market at the same time or later have sold. We went to
see some of these during their open houses, and they are (in our
prejudiced opinion) flawed in one way or another. But they have sold. So
the market, while not red-hot like last year, is not dead either.

We have a neighbor whose dogs bark loudly and frequently. Maybe that's
it. Maybe we have bad taste in our decor. Maybe the house smells and we
don't know it (like halitosis). Maybe we could fix up the garage some
more. We are going crazy wondering what else we could do to make the
house attractive; it reminds me of when I was young and couldn't get a
date.

But it can't be really bad, because people have shown interest, they just
never pull the trigger. One woman has come to the last three open houses,
looking and pondering. She brought her husband last Sunday. But no offer.

Our area has seen quite high prices in the last three years, so certainly
buyers can get a better deal in other localities. We are ready to lower
the price further, but our agent (believe it or not) is not convinced
that this is necessary or useful, she suggests we wait.

How does one end up in the Twilight Zone? How common is this? have others
experienced this? And how can we get out of this warp?

All advice (or soothing words) appreciated.

In article , RPC wrote:

[snip!]

Our area has seen quite high prices in the last three years, so certainly
buyers can get a better deal in other localities. We are ready to lower
the price further, but our agent (believe it or not) is not convinced
that this is necessary or useful, she suggests we wait.


Do you trust your agent? I would say to lower the price, but you have
already lowered it 6%. I am sure that's what your agent is thinking. Maybe
that was too much to lower all at once and now potential buyers are trying
to wait you out, especially if they somehow found out that you already
bought another home. You haven't had a single offer, not even a low-ball
offer? 7 weeks is not all that long yet. The real estate market was so hot
that houses were selling in days, but that is not usual. If you need to
sell it fast, then lower the price again. If you want to try to maximize
your profit then wait it out a little longer. There's probably a flaw in
the house that doesn't bother you, but bothers a lot of other people.
You'll have to wait for someone who has a mindset similar to yours.


Dimitri

RPC,

Sounds like the house is getting viewings which I would equate to your agent
doing their job (I don't know how slow 40 in 7 weeks is considered in your
area...but it sounds good to me). I'd be tempted to just hold on. If you
realize that a financial squeeze is not that far off I would put together a
spreadsheet and try to figure out;
1) what is this house costing me to keep each week?
2) is it depreciating because I am not around to keep it clean/from smelling
'unlived' in.
3) are my chances of selling getting better or worse.
If it all looks doom and gloom then I would consider dropping the price
further, I'm not sure that dropping the price ever 'hurts' the possibility
of a sale.

You are still asking a lot of money for you house (at least most people I
think would consider that a lot). 7 weeks IMHO is still not all that long.
If it were 6 months I would start to worry.

Don't worry too much about the lack of dates when you were younger, the
sense of humor makes up for the halitosis. ;-)

Regards Mark

"RPC" wrote in message
...
We bought a new house fully expecting to sell our current one. (Selling
was not a condition for buying, that would not have worked, and we have
enough money to hold both houses for a while if needed).

We put our house on the market (in a Chicago suburb with rather high
real-estate prices in recent years) at somewhat less than the top price
paid for similar houses in past months. Before listing it we got a new
tear-off roof, new CAC, patching and painting indoors, exterior paint
(previous year)...everything is in good shape, clean and neat, newish
appliances and mechanicals, neutral decor blah blah. We took anything we
didn't need to storage so the house would look spacious. (Admittedly it
is a small house, but so are the comparables.)

We have had a good number of showings (maybe 40 in seven weeks, not
including open house visitors). Several have come back a second time.
Some have asked about utility bills or other specific information. Our
agent reports 'beautiful house' comments at the open houses, which
attracted typically 10-15 groups of potential buyers each time.

We dropped the price $25K (6%) after 4 weeks. It has now been 7 weeks. We
have received NO offers at all, none. Our agent has solicited feedback
and received nothing useful from buyers' agents.

We can see, from MLS-derived listings in real-estate web pages, that
while some comparable houses in our area do remain unsold, most of those
that came on the market at the same time or later have sold. We went to
see some of these during their open houses, and they are (in our
prejudiced opinion) flawed in one way or another. But they have sold. So
the market, while not red-hot like last year, is not dead either.

We have a neighbor whose dogs bark loudly and frequently. Maybe that's
it. Maybe we have bad taste in our decor. Maybe the house smells and we
don't know it (like halitosis). Maybe we could fix up the garage some
more. We are going crazy wondering what else we could do to make the
house attractive; it reminds me of when I was young and couldn't get a
date.

But it can't be really bad, because people have shown interest, they just
never pull the trigger. One woman has come to the last three open houses,
looking and pondering. She brought her husband last Sunday. But no offer.

Our area has seen quite high prices in the last three years, so certainly
buyers can get a better deal in other localities. We are ready to lower
the price further, but our agent (believe it or not) is not convinced
that this is necessary or useful, she suggests we wait.

How does one end up in the Twilight Zone? How common is this? have others
experienced this? And how can we get out of this warp?

All advice (or soothing words) appreciated.

"RPC" wrote in message
...
How does one end up in the Twilight Zone? How common is this? have others
experienced this? And how can we get out of this warp?

All advice (or soothing words) appreciated.

I'm new to reading this group but thought I'd add my 2 cents. You are going
to think this is crazy....but it's the truth. We live in NW Ohio in a
smallish town. We had built a house and waited to sell our old house until
the new one was finished and we could move in comfortably. We put the house
up for sale on a Sat. morning....Tues. evening our realtor presented us with
3 offers. One at full price, the next $1,000 less than asking price and the
third 10% off asking. We buried a St. Joseph statue the day the house went
up for sale. The house looks nice, things are neat tidy but we did nothing
out of the ordinary to fix it up. I know people will think it is
superstition or nonsense and I have not told anyone about it until now, but
it would definitely be worth a try for you. Chalk it up to positive
thinking, excellent realtor, or just plain luck.....we are happy. It took
us over a year to sell our last house which was way out in the country...so
I guess we were due for some luck on this one. Don't give up, think
positive and check into the St. Joseph statue.

Good Luck!
Diane

Thanks for the suggestion. My wife put one in, but she wasn't sure if it
should be head-up or head-down and which way it should face. It went in
upside down. So it's probably having a negative effect.

Anyway, these things, like homeopathy and magnet therapy and so forth,
only work if you believe them, because believers will cherry-pick the
evidence to support their case. Sort of like the current administration.

But thank for the suggestion!

"D.K." wrote in
:


"RPC" wrote in message
...
How does one end up in the Twilight Zone? How common is this? have
others experienced this? And how can we get out of this warp?

All advice (or soothing words) appreciated.

I'm new to reading this group but thought I'd add my 2 cents. You are
going to think this is crazy....but it's the truth. We live in NW
Ohio in a smallish town. We had built a house and waited to sell our
old house until the new one was finished and we could move in
comfortably. We put the house up for sale on a Sat. morning....Tues.
evening our realtor presented us with 3 offers. One at full price, the
next $1,000 less than asking price and the third 10% off asking. We
buried a St. Joseph statue the day the house went up for sale. The
house looks nice, things are neat tidy but we did nothing out of the
ordinary to fix it up. I know people will think it is superstition or
nonsense and I have not told anyone about it until now, but it would
definitely be worth a try for you. Chalk it up to positive thinking,
excellent realtor, or just plain luck.....we are happy. It took us
over a year to sell our last house which was way out in the
country...so I guess we were due for some luck on this one. Don't
give up, think positive and check into the St. Joseph statue.

Good Luck!
Diane

"Mark Sladden" wrote in
:
Don't worry too much about the lack of dates when you were younger,
the sense of humor makes up for the halitosis. ;-)

Yeah, that's what all the older people told me. And actually it got much,
much better when I got to college a few years later, but I can't wait that
long to sell this house.

(D. Gerasimatos) wrote in
:

Do you trust your agent?

She's the most straight-arrow agent you could find, although not the most
experienced.

You haven't had a single offer, not even a low-ball offer?

Touche'. On week 5 we did get one low-ball offer for 10% under the
already-lowered price (they ultimately came up to 6% under). They then
withdrew saying they were going to continue renting. They probably
weren't very serious about it so I didn't count it. But if I had to do
this over again I would have taken their last offer.

There's probably a flaw in the house that doesn't bother you,
but bothers a lot of other people. You'll have to wait for someone who
has a mindset similar to yours.

Yes, that's probably what it is. Thanks for the advice. I wish they'd
tell me what that flaw is, though, via their agents. I guess it's like
restaurants, if the food is bad I just never come back, I never tell
management what I didn't like or why. Selling to customers day after day
must be a tough job; I could never handle the rejection. This one sales
experience will last me a lifetime.

"RPC" wrote in message
...
We dropped the price $25K (6%) after 4 weeks. It has now been 7 weeks. We
have received NO offers at all, none. Our agent has solicited feedback
and received nothing useful from buyers' agents.

One thing you might consider doing is having the home inspected - the
same kind of inspection you would do as a buyer. We did that when
we sold our last house, and made copies of the inspection available
to people looking at the house.

If the inspection reveals problems, you'll need to fix them and pay for
the follow-up verification visit of course. But giving it to viewers up
front can help put someone who's on the fence over the edge.

I'm also assuming that you're leaving the house whenever people
come by to look? Having the seller in the house is a big turnoff
for many buyers.

--Neil

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:40:38 -0700, "Neil Williams"
wrote:


If the inspection reveals problems, you'll need to fix them and pay for
the follow-up verification visit of course. But giving it to viewers up
front can help put someone who's on the fence over the edge.

When we were looking for a house we came across one where they did
that - comparing the inspection report to the house made us wonder if
we were looking at the same house that was inspected! The first thing
we noticed when the Realtor opened the door to the crawl space was a
swarm of termites and the second was the unconnected lines of the
central Vacuum system! Other faults not noted in the report were easy
to see when we walked through the house!

In this case the inspection report that was available for the taking
by anyone looking at the house might have been a 'minus' with respect
to making it an attractive house to consider.

The loud barking dog would do it for me.
Good luck,
Eileen

RPC wrote:

We bought a new house fully expecting to sell our current one. (Selling
was not a condition for buying, that would not have worked, and we have
enough money to hold both houses for a while if needed).

We put our house on the market (in a Chicago suburb with rather high
real-estate prices in recent years) at somewhat less than the top price
paid for similar houses in past months. Before listing it we got a new
tear-off roof, new CAC, patching and painting indoors, exterior paint
(previous year)...everything is in good shape, clean and neat, newish
appliances and mechanicals, neutral decor blah blah. We took anything we
didn't need to storage so the house would look spacious. (Admittedly it
is a small house, but so are the comparables.)

We have had a good number of showings (maybe 40 in seven weeks, not
including open house visitors). Several have come back a second time.
Some have asked about utility bills or other specific information. Our
agent reports 'beautiful house' comments at the open houses, which
attracted typically 10-15 groups of potential buyers each time.

We dropped the price $25K (6%) after 4 weeks. It has now been 7 weeks. We
have received NO offers at all, none. Our agent has solicited feedback
and received nothing useful from buyers' agents.

We can see, from MLS-derived listings in real-estate web pages, that
while some comparable houses in our area do remain unsold, most of those
that came on the market at the same time or later have sold. We went to
see some of these during their open houses, and they are (in our
prejudiced opinion) flawed in one way or another. But they have sold. So
the market, while not red-hot like last year, is not dead either.

We have a neighbor whose dogs bark loudly and frequently. Maybe that's
it. Maybe we have bad taste in our decor. Maybe the house smells and we
don't know it (like halitosis). Maybe we could fix up the garage some
more. We are going crazy wondering what else we could do to make the
house attractive; it reminds me of when I was young and couldn't get a
date.

But it can't be really bad, because people have shown interest, they just
never pull the trigger. One woman has come to the last three open houses,
looking and pondering. She brought her husband last Sunday. But no offer.

Our area has seen quite high prices in the last three years, so certainly
buyers can get a better deal in other localities. We are ready to lower
the price further, but our agent (believe it or not) is not convinced
that this is necessary or useful, she suggests we wait.

How does one end up in the Twilight Zone? How common is this? have others
experienced this? And how can we get out of this warp?

All advice (or soothing words) appreciated.

Then after you sell, you have to dig it up and put it in a place of honor in
your new home. (So it's not a bad idea to bury it in a clear plastic bag to
keep it clean.)

Sounds like you actually BELIEVE that superstitious crap.

-v.

Now just where does it say in my post that I happen to believe the idea?
Because I'm knowledgeable about cultural and/or religious practices of
different peoples? Maybe you need to get out a bit more? Like to a
sensitivity class or three?

Cindy

RPC wrote:
(D. Gerasimatos) wrote in
:
There's probably a flaw in the house that doesn't bother you,
but bothers a lot of other people. You'll have to wait for someone who
has a mindset similar to yours.


Yes, that's probably what it is. Thanks for the advice. I wish they'd
tell me what that flaw is, though, via their agents.

Do you have some co-workers or friends who you can trust to give a
straight opinion? Ask them to go through your house with a clipboard
and give you a list of everything that bothers them. Tell them to be
brutal and swallow your ego. Throw everyone a pizza party at your new
place afterward.

RPC wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. My wife put one in, but she wasn't sure if it
should be head-up or head-down and which way it should face. It went in
upside down. So it's probably having a negative effect.

That's the funny part about this one. Those who believe believe in
different ways (head up/down, facing towards/away the house, etc.) and
will get in almost violent arguments about the heretics who are doing it
wrong.

Eileen Gregory wrote in message ...
The loud barking dog would do it for me.

For SURE!