Vent - When will my house sell???
- Thread starter Jennifit
- Start date
pippa
Cathlete
I hear you! We were relocating so we put our house up for sale in 3/07. We dropped the price three times(to the point of asking $50,000 less than what we paid) still nothing. In 11/07 we finally sold it to the relocation company for $110,000 less than what we paid. Yes, that's right...one hundred and ten THOUSAND less.
They, of course, turned around and sold it within 30 days for $55,000 less than what they gave us.
So, essentially, someone bought our house for $175,000 less than what we paid. Our home was only a year old when we sold it. It makes me mad just typing this. And we carried two housing payments for 8 months and that is no fun.
On the other hand, it's a great time to be buying.
Good Luck to all who are selling. I know it is super frustrating right now.
They, of course, turned around and sold it within 30 days for $55,000 less than what they gave us.
So, essentially, someone bought our house for $175,000 less than what we paid. Our home was only a year old when we sold it. It makes me mad just typing this. And we carried two housing payments for 8 months and that is no fun.
On the other hand, it's a great time to be buying.
Good Luck to all who are selling. I know it is super frustrating right now.
I here you guys, We've had our house up since Oct.'07...it feels like an eternity and I just want to get it done!!!! Houses seem to be selling in my area and getting close to their asking price and I know we are not overpriced and keep getting comments on how nice our house is...so what's the problem.
I sooooo can't wait for that "it just takes one person"...so where is this person?!?!
Good luck,
Aggie
I sooooo can't wait for that "it just takes one person"...so where is this person?!?!
Good luck,
Aggie
hokypoky
Cathlete
This could turn into a check in! We've had ours for sale since July '07 and have now dropped the price $200,000!!! We, too, already bought the new house and have been paying $3K/month on it, interest only. We told our realtor we wanted to sell fast, and she talked us into listing at a price that was too high. I feel for ya!
hiitdogs
Cathlete
Boy, I feel really bad for you guys! I know it is no consolation that a lot of people experience the same problem.
I don't want to give unsolicited advice, just maybe food for thought. Since it sounds like you are priced right, have you talked to your real estate agents about hiring a professional home stager?
I have worked with a home stager over the past 6 years, way before it became popular, and found that it makes a HUGE difference. Before any of my listings goes on the market, I hire a home stager, I find it so important that I actually require my clients to meet with the home stager, the initial consultation fee comes out of my marketing budget, this is much more effective than running additional advertising.
I pay between $ 200 to 400 for the initial consultation, for that my home stager goes through the house, writes up a punch list of things that need to be addressed, re-arranges furniture, etc. If she recommends painting or other home repairs, that would be an additional cost.
People live differently in a house than you sell it. Meaning, the house needs to be "de-personalized", i.e. take out most of the family pictures, etc. I know it sounds silly, but most people don't have much imagination. Whereas they may say it is a nice house they cannot emotionally connect to the house, they still view it as the Seller's home and cannot see themselves or their "stuff" in the house. Buying a house is a very emotional endeavour, most buyers just try to justify their emotional attachment to a house with logical reasons. I hope this makes sense.
To give you an example, even in this challenging market, my listings sell in a time frame of 30 to 60 days IF the Seller does what my home stager told them to address. I had a listing where the Seller flat out refused to do what my home stager recommended. The house was on the market for 18 months. Good grief! My clients paid two mortgages and instead of addressing the issues, kept lowering the price. Eventually, I decided that I would come out of my own pocket to address the issues, within 2 weeks of the project being completed, the house was under contract.
There are books about home staging, there are a lot of shows on HGTV and other channels about that but if you are anything like me, I don't have an eye for that, I rather pay for a professional to do it right. Your agent may be the best source to find a reputable home stager, home stagers are popping up like mushrooms everywhere now but there is a huge difference between good ones and the ones that just jump on the bandwagon in hopes of a quick buck. Otherwise, there are associations for professional home stagers, i.e. ASHSR where you can do research and find a professional in your area.
Good luck!
I don't want to give unsolicited advice, just maybe food for thought. Since it sounds like you are priced right, have you talked to your real estate agents about hiring a professional home stager?
I have worked with a home stager over the past 6 years, way before it became popular, and found that it makes a HUGE difference. Before any of my listings goes on the market, I hire a home stager, I find it so important that I actually require my clients to meet with the home stager, the initial consultation fee comes out of my marketing budget, this is much more effective than running additional advertising.
I pay between $ 200 to 400 for the initial consultation, for that my home stager goes through the house, writes up a punch list of things that need to be addressed, re-arranges furniture, etc. If she recommends painting or other home repairs, that would be an additional cost.
People live differently in a house than you sell it. Meaning, the house needs to be "de-personalized", i.e. take out most of the family pictures, etc. I know it sounds silly, but most people don't have much imagination. Whereas they may say it is a nice house they cannot emotionally connect to the house, they still view it as the Seller's home and cannot see themselves or their "stuff" in the house. Buying a house is a very emotional endeavour, most buyers just try to justify their emotional attachment to a house with logical reasons. I hope this makes sense.
To give you an example, even in this challenging market, my listings sell in a time frame of 30 to 60 days IF the Seller does what my home stager told them to address. I had a listing where the Seller flat out refused to do what my home stager recommended. The house was on the market for 18 months. Good grief! My clients paid two mortgages and instead of addressing the issues, kept lowering the price. Eventually, I decided that I would come out of my own pocket to address the issues, within 2 weeks of the project being completed, the house was under contract.
There are books about home staging, there are a lot of shows on HGTV and other channels about that but if you are anything like me, I don't have an eye for that, I rather pay for a professional to do it right. Your agent may be the best source to find a reputable home stager, home stagers are popping up like mushrooms everywhere now but there is a huge difference between good ones and the ones that just jump on the bandwagon in hopes of a quick buck. Otherwise, there are associations for professional home stagers, i.e. ASHSR where you can do research and find a professional in your area.
Good luck!
dogonyx
Cathlete
Thanks, Carola. That's great advice. If you have any more, I would appreciate you passing it on. I am going to look into home stagers but our main problem is that no one is even looking at the house!
It surprised me when our real estate agent didn't tell us how to improve the appearance of our home. We kept asking for suggestions and finally she suggested taking the recliner out of the living room and putting a center piece on the kitchen table but that was it.
I was amazed at how cluttered my house looked when I saw the pictures posted on the internet. It doesn't look cluttered to me "in real life". I'm trying to find the balance between taking the "clutter" away and not making it look too stark.
It is so frustrating to think how much money I'm going to lose on this house especially when I love it so much. If only my husband had asked me to marry him a few years sooner. (It was worth the wait though!)
Good luck to my fellow house sellers!!!!
Shelley
It surprised me when our real estate agent didn't tell us how to improve the appearance of our home. We kept asking for suggestions and finally she suggested taking the recliner out of the living room and putting a center piece on the kitchen table but that was it.
I was amazed at how cluttered my house looked when I saw the pictures posted on the internet. It doesn't look cluttered to me "in real life". I'm trying to find the balance between taking the "clutter" away and not making it look too stark.
It is so frustrating to think how much money I'm going to lose on this house especially when I love it so much. If only my husband had asked me to marry him a few years sooner. (It was worth the wait though!)
Good luck to my fellow house sellers!!!!
Shelley
L Sass
Cathlete
RE: Vent - Can I add another twist?
To this RIDICULOUS housing fiasco! UGH!!! I have moaned on these boards before about the cursed house next to me! Over 4,000 sq ft, appraised at $400,000 -- brick, could be beautiful. It's not. (Just ask Gayle (Banslug) -- I took her and her sons thru it last week.)
For each of the last 3 winters the pipes have burst and the then-owner tried to "patch" them each time. So all the hard wood and ceramic tile floors are warped and broken, I mean DISINTERGRATING, sub-floors and joists rotted out, mold seeping thru the drywall, stinks to high Heaven, bugs and bats everywhere, knee high, rodent infested grass (and no, my local govt has no authority over any of this.)
It went through foreclosure and local Sheriff's sale where it was bought by the bank -- Citigroup. We WANT to buy this property and demolish this putrid house. But absoultely NOBODY will even talk to us. Why? Citibank says we, or the real estate agent have to have the former owner's SS# or account number so they can verify they own it. The court orders and public sales records are not sufficient.
I feel for ALL of you who are stuck in this unbelievable mess of a market. I lay blame squarely at the feet of the banking industry which has its head so far up its financial butt that nobody knows which way is up.
Lorrie
www.picturetrail.com/lsass
To this RIDICULOUS housing fiasco! UGH!!! I have moaned on these boards before about the cursed house next to me! Over 4,000 sq ft, appraised at $400,000 -- brick, could be beautiful. It's not. (Just ask Gayle (Banslug) -- I took her and her sons thru it last week.)
For each of the last 3 winters the pipes have burst and the then-owner tried to "patch" them each time. So all the hard wood and ceramic tile floors are warped and broken, I mean DISINTERGRATING, sub-floors and joists rotted out, mold seeping thru the drywall, stinks to high Heaven, bugs and bats everywhere, knee high, rodent infested grass (and no, my local govt has no authority over any of this.)
It went through foreclosure and local Sheriff's sale where it was bought by the bank -- Citigroup. We WANT to buy this property and demolish this putrid house. But absoultely NOBODY will even talk to us. Why? Citibank says we, or the real estate agent have to have the former owner's SS# or account number so they can verify they own it. The court orders and public sales records are not sufficient.
I feel for ALL of you who are stuck in this unbelievable mess of a market. I lay blame squarely at the feet of the banking industry which has its head so far up its financial butt that nobody knows which way is up.
Lorrie
www.picturetrail.com/lsass
ShyWolf
Cathlete
Well I just checked to see if my area had any members from ASHSR and like I'd figured - nothing :/
I would not mind paying someone to help me stage my home once we put it on the market if it helps the house to be more sellable.
I for one to not have that 'eye' for decorating so I guess I'll be watching tons of HGTV for ideas as I purge and get this house ready for the market.
BTW, Carola I think I may have found our realtor to help us sell this house.
Although little did I or my husband realize that when we went to visit the model home in the new community we want without a buyer's agent to represent us we may not be able to use one due to the 'precuring cause of sale' or something to that fact ;( . We had no idea about that at all and the sales rep at the model house never said anything about that.
Oy! Thats what we get for just looking
I would not mind paying someone to help me stage my home once we put it on the market if it helps the house to be more sellable.
I for one to not have that 'eye' for decorating so I guess I'll be watching tons of HGTV for ideas as I purge and get this house ready for the market.
BTW, Carola I think I may have found our realtor to help us sell this house.
Although little did I or my husband realize that when we went to visit the model home in the new community we want without a buyer's agent to represent us we may not be able to use one due to the 'precuring cause of sale' or something to that fact ;( . We had no idea about that at all and the sales rep at the model house never said anything about that.
Oy! Thats what we get for just looking
hiitdogs
Cathlete
Shelley, I am sorry you are having such a hard time with the sale of your home. But it sounds like you have a good reason for selling it. Getting married to the right guy is well worth the headache of selling your house and start a "new" life.
I don't know where you are located, keep in mind, I can really only talk about my local market because that is what I am familiar with, however, many general real estate rules apply to a majority of markets.
There is a simple rule to real estate sales, what sells a house is location, price and condition. As a seller or an agent, you can't do anything about location, but you control 2/3 of the equation, price and condition. Condition also includes home staging and taking care of minor or major repairs. And in most cases, it really is minor things that throw off buyers in a tight market.
Normally, when you said that no one even looks at your house, my first thought was PRICE!!??? However, something struck me in your post when you said that you were surprised at how cluttered your house looked on the pictures. I know nothing about pricing in your area or your particular house but I just want to share from a professional point of view when I look for a home for a buyer.
In this market, in my area, say a buyer gives me a general parameter of a particular price range, 3 BR, 2 BA, I will pull up between 50 and 200 homes at any given time that fit this parameter. Whereas I may have seen or previewed about 1/3 of the homes currently on the market, I am going to have to narrow it down to a manageable amount of homes that I can show my clients in a day or two. I NEVER show more than 15 houses in a day because I don't want to overwhelm them, normally after 10 or 12 house, they don't remember what the first one looked like. So I narrow it down.
I will go through the whole list, look at the pictures (IF there are any) and the description in MLS. If there are no pix or the pictures don't look good and the house on pix doesn't look clean and uncluttered, I eliminate them for now. Odds are with showing 30 homes, my clients have found a home that they will purchase and they never get to see the home that looks unfavorable on pictures.
Again, not knowing your particular market, I would recommend to have a heart-to-heart with your agent. Ask tough questions, why am I not getting any showings, how do I compare to the other homes on the market, what do I need to do to compare more favorably to other homes on the market, what do you recommend I do to sell quickly .........? If you trust your agent, listen to his/her input. I would strongly recommend to hire a home stager and get your pictures/virtual tour retaken. I am kind of hesitant to say that, BUT if your agent is not up to the challenge, hire an agent who is!!! To quote Donald Trump, it is not personal, it is business.
In my market, I know that I have to hit the ground running. I know that every listing I take costs me between $ 1,000 to 1,500 in the first two weeks (home stager, professional pix and virtual tour, direct mail, flyers, advertising ....) I have a window of 90 days to be able to sell somewhere close to asking price, I go more than that, I KNOW it will be difficult, over 120 days I know my client will be scrambled eggs and toast, it won't be anywhere close to asking price. So I start reevaluating everything after 3 weeks and then weekly from there. Of course I want to get as much money as possible for my client but I also know, the longer I go the less money my clients will get!!! I get feedback asap from agents who have shown the house, I ask lots of questions and I read between the lines. I get the house on as many realtor tours as I can as soon as possible, get feed back. You have to be VERY fast in this market, there is no room for errors, in a declining market, every additional week will cost my client. I don't want to get to the point where we have to take every lousy offer!!
As I said, I am NOT a home stager, even after being present for 60+ consultations, this is what I have taken out of it
1. DECLUTTER everything, look at your closets and put everything in boxes that you don't need immediately (rent a storage unit or put it on one side of your garage) fold your towels and other items so they stack neatly, think Potterybarn sales room.
2. Take out everything that you don't need
3. Clean off everything off your countertops, you can leave your coffeemaker and other selected items but try and get as much off as possible.
4. Clear off everything in your bathroom, leave a couple of bottles of shampoo, bodywash but keep it to a minimum, put out some nice color coordinated towels, put everything that you use on a daily basis in a little basket, store it in one of your cabinets, take it out for usage and store it out of sight after you are done. Take your toidy brush, etc. out of sight, they are NOT decorator items , no matter how fancy they are.
5. Put fresh flowers on you kitchen island or kitchen table, get a bowl with fresh green apples or lemons and put them on your island or kitchen table, put some fresh flowers in your bathrooms as well, doesn't have to be a huge bouquet, just a flower or two to brighten it up.
6. Declutter, declutter, declutter, people don't want to see how much you can cram into a small space, people want to see how much room you have, THINK MODEL HOME
ShyWolf, I am glad you found YOUR realtor. I would love for you to interview another agent or two, just to get another perspective but if you are happy go with him.
What you said about visiting the model home community, I strongly recommend that you be represented by you own agent, if it is for nothing else than to actually have it spelled out what the contract means to you as a Buyer!!! The onsite sales person, no matter what they say, WILL represent the builder and the builder's contract protects the builder, no one else!!! If you have a good agent, not the questionable one that you had when you bought your first home, run it by it the new home sales person or have your agent talk to them. If you have a good agent, it will save you a LOT of money and a lot of aggrevation. In this market, at least in my market, whereas a few years ago, the builder would have kicked my sorry butt out together with my client, things have changed dramatically. I am not going into this on a public forum but if you pm me, I can tell you what happened to some of my client that will make you cringe. It made ME cringe!!!
If you cannot find a Home Stager in your area, PM me, I can pass it on to my home stager, she does a lot of training, I am sure we'll find you someone good.
I don't know where you are located, keep in mind, I can really only talk about my local market because that is what I am familiar with, however, many general real estate rules apply to a majority of markets.
There is a simple rule to real estate sales, what sells a house is location, price and condition. As a seller or an agent, you can't do anything about location, but you control 2/3 of the equation, price and condition. Condition also includes home staging and taking care of minor or major repairs. And in most cases, it really is minor things that throw off buyers in a tight market.
Normally, when you said that no one even looks at your house, my first thought was PRICE!!??? However, something struck me in your post when you said that you were surprised at how cluttered your house looked on the pictures. I know nothing about pricing in your area or your particular house but I just want to share from a professional point of view when I look for a home for a buyer.
In this market, in my area, say a buyer gives me a general parameter of a particular price range, 3 BR, 2 BA, I will pull up between 50 and 200 homes at any given time that fit this parameter. Whereas I may have seen or previewed about 1/3 of the homes currently on the market, I am going to have to narrow it down to a manageable amount of homes that I can show my clients in a day or two. I NEVER show more than 15 houses in a day because I don't want to overwhelm them, normally after 10 or 12 house, they don't remember what the first one looked like. So I narrow it down.
I will go through the whole list, look at the pictures (IF there are any) and the description in MLS. If there are no pix or the pictures don't look good and the house on pix doesn't look clean and uncluttered, I eliminate them for now. Odds are with showing 30 homes, my clients have found a home that they will purchase and they never get to see the home that looks unfavorable on pictures.
Again, not knowing your particular market, I would recommend to have a heart-to-heart with your agent. Ask tough questions, why am I not getting any showings, how do I compare to the other homes on the market, what do I need to do to compare more favorably to other homes on the market, what do you recommend I do to sell quickly .........? If you trust your agent, listen to his/her input. I would strongly recommend to hire a home stager and get your pictures/virtual tour retaken. I am kind of hesitant to say that, BUT if your agent is not up to the challenge, hire an agent who is!!! To quote Donald Trump, it is not personal, it is business.
In my market, I know that I have to hit the ground running. I know that every listing I take costs me between $ 1,000 to 1,500 in the first two weeks (home stager, professional pix and virtual tour, direct mail, flyers, advertising ....) I have a window of 90 days to be able to sell somewhere close to asking price, I go more than that, I KNOW it will be difficult, over 120 days I know my client will be scrambled eggs and toast, it won't be anywhere close to asking price. So I start reevaluating everything after 3 weeks and then weekly from there. Of course I want to get as much money as possible for my client but I also know, the longer I go the less money my clients will get!!! I get feedback asap from agents who have shown the house, I ask lots of questions and I read between the lines. I get the house on as many realtor tours as I can as soon as possible, get feed back. You have to be VERY fast in this market, there is no room for errors, in a declining market, every additional week will cost my client. I don't want to get to the point where we have to take every lousy offer!!
As I said, I am NOT a home stager, even after being present for 60+ consultations, this is what I have taken out of it
1. DECLUTTER everything, look at your closets and put everything in boxes that you don't need immediately (rent a storage unit or put it on one side of your garage) fold your towels and other items so they stack neatly, think Potterybarn sales room.
2. Take out everything that you don't need
3. Clean off everything off your countertops, you can leave your coffeemaker and other selected items but try and get as much off as possible.
4. Clear off everything in your bathroom, leave a couple of bottles of shampoo, bodywash but keep it to a minimum, put out some nice color coordinated towels, put everything that you use on a daily basis in a little basket, store it in one of your cabinets, take it out for usage and store it out of sight after you are done. Take your toidy brush, etc. out of sight, they are NOT decorator items , no matter how fancy they are.
5. Put fresh flowers on you kitchen island or kitchen table, get a bowl with fresh green apples or lemons and put them on your island or kitchen table, put some fresh flowers in your bathrooms as well, doesn't have to be a huge bouquet, just a flower or two to brighten it up.
6. Declutter, declutter, declutter, people don't want to see how much you can cram into a small space, people want to see how much room you have, THINK MODEL HOME
ShyWolf, I am glad you found YOUR realtor. I would love for you to interview another agent or two, just to get another perspective but if you are happy go with him.
What you said about visiting the model home community, I strongly recommend that you be represented by you own agent, if it is for nothing else than to actually have it spelled out what the contract means to you as a Buyer!!! The onsite sales person, no matter what they say, WILL represent the builder and the builder's contract protects the builder, no one else!!! If you have a good agent, not the questionable one that you had when you bought your first home, run it by it the new home sales person or have your agent talk to them. If you have a good agent, it will save you a LOT of money and a lot of aggrevation. In this market, at least in my market, whereas a few years ago, the builder would have kicked my sorry butt out together with my client, things have changed dramatically. I am not going into this on a public forum but if you pm me, I can tell you what happened to some of my client that will make you cringe. It made ME cringe!!!
If you cannot find a Home Stager in your area, PM me, I can pass it on to my home stager, she does a lot of training, I am sure we'll find you someone good.
hiitdogs
Cathlete
RE: Vent - Can I add another twist?
Lorie, I totally agree with you on this RIDICULOUS market. I cannot talk about other markets than my own, our prices went through the roof in 2004/05/ It was to the point, give me a price and I will add another 10 to 20 grand and that's where you will sell. No fun going through 25 offers in 48 hours and recommend who to go with.
I think a lot of blame should be placed on lenders. They have qualified everyone who could fog a mirror and loaned money where they shouldn't have!!! There is no doubt in my mind about that.
However, I do also have to blame part of it on people who thought the equity in their home was an instant ATM machine. Now we are reaping the results.
The housing crash, excessive amount of gas prices, increasing health care cost etc. are screwing our economy. Not to mention the increasing cost of a war that cannot be won will kill this economy. And there is noooooo end in sight. As far as I am concerned, this will get worse!
Lorie, I totally agree with you on this RIDICULOUS market. I cannot talk about other markets than my own, our prices went through the roof in 2004/05/ It was to the point, give me a price and I will add another 10 to 20 grand and that's where you will sell. No fun going through 25 offers in 48 hours and recommend who to go with.
I think a lot of blame should be placed on lenders. They have qualified everyone who could fog a mirror and loaned money where they shouldn't have!!! There is no doubt in my mind about that.
However, I do also have to blame part of it on people who thought the equity in their home was an instant ATM machine. Now we are reaping the results.
The housing crash, excessive amount of gas prices, increasing health care cost etc. are screwing our economy. Not to mention the increasing cost of a war that cannot be won will kill this economy. And there is noooooo end in sight. As far as I am concerned, this will get worse!
I had to jump in here - and I agree with Carola, you certainly sound like an "on top of things" agent. That's very rare in my opinion. I've worked in corporate sales, selling into the real estate industry - worked for visual marketing/virtual tour companies and real estate software, so I've been around agents that are good and bad. Unfortunately, many are horrible, so it is nice to hear a real professional that "gets it".
Carola recommending a home stager is so important, and I say this coming from experience personally and professionally. Professionally, I've been part of a company that markets homes and the homes that are staged well show better in pictures, videos and virtual tours; they get more traffic and sell quickly. Those that are cluttered sloppy and out of date or God forbid have no photos SIT ON THE MARKET FOREVER.
As a recent buyer I also experienced first hand what its like when a home is NOT ready and improperly marketed for sale. People love how their home is and don't realize how utterly distracting it is to walk through a home with situations like this:
1) tons of childrens toys all over the place; stored in the garage, swingsets in the backyard, closets filled to the brim with toys and games galore. Anytime your closets are filled to the brim, the buyer thinks, wow there is no room in here.....EMPTY THEM.
2) You may love your aztec painting theme or the cutesy pink barbie doll room for your daughter. Most buyers think - great I have to paint this. Then you add bad carpeting and the $$$ add up to all they have to do just to move in!! NOT GOOD. Take down wallpaper and paint neutral paints everywhere. Replace carpet if it is in your budget.
3) De-Clutter ESPECIALLY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHS. Buyers will just walk through your house looking at photos instead of your HOUSE. Depersonalize. Buyers don't want to know how lives there!!!
4) For God's Sake take the crap off the fridge!!! You have no idea how many times we've seen this. It looks sloppy and unkempt and unprofessional and screams kids to buyers that may not be in that place.
5) If you have pets, consider the smell.
6) Don't leave toilet seats up.
7) Clean the showers/tubs/sinks.
And like Carola said, price is key. In this market, all the above might seem like a lot, but in this market you cannot afford to put anything less than EXCEPTIONAL on the market. You want to sell quickly? Don't give your buyers anything to negotiate on - i.e. carpet or painting or broken anything. Offer a home warranty, price your house based on what the agent tells you NOT what YOU THINK you want to get and you have 100% better chance of moving.
I've seen so many people make foolish stubborn mistakes and not realize how the BUYERS are going about their purchase. They are looking at more than one home, they are looking at HOMES in a range. If yours is priced the highest and has a ton of work to do on it and you won't negotiate the price, trust me, they will go with a lower priced one that they can move right into and use the extra money on furniture etc.
Good Luck and Happy Selling!!
Kelly Olexa
www.olexa.myarbonne.com
Carola recommending a home stager is so important, and I say this coming from experience personally and professionally. Professionally, I've been part of a company that markets homes and the homes that are staged well show better in pictures, videos and virtual tours; they get more traffic and sell quickly. Those that are cluttered sloppy and out of date or God forbid have no photos SIT ON THE MARKET FOREVER.
As a recent buyer I also experienced first hand what its like when a home is NOT ready and improperly marketed for sale. People love how their home is and don't realize how utterly distracting it is to walk through a home with situations like this:
1) tons of childrens toys all over the place; stored in the garage, swingsets in the backyard, closets filled to the brim with toys and games galore. Anytime your closets are filled to the brim, the buyer thinks, wow there is no room in here.....EMPTY THEM.
2) You may love your aztec painting theme or the cutesy pink barbie doll room for your daughter. Most buyers think - great I have to paint this. Then you add bad carpeting and the $$$ add up to all they have to do just to move in!! NOT GOOD. Take down wallpaper and paint neutral paints everywhere. Replace carpet if it is in your budget.
3) De-Clutter ESPECIALLY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHS. Buyers will just walk through your house looking at photos instead of your HOUSE. Depersonalize. Buyers don't want to know how lives there!!!
4) For God's Sake take the crap off the fridge!!! You have no idea how many times we've seen this. It looks sloppy and unkempt and unprofessional and screams kids to buyers that may not be in that place.
5) If you have pets, consider the smell.
6) Don't leave toilet seats up.
7) Clean the showers/tubs/sinks.
And like Carola said, price is key. In this market, all the above might seem like a lot, but in this market you cannot afford to put anything less than EXCEPTIONAL on the market. You want to sell quickly? Don't give your buyers anything to negotiate on - i.e. carpet or painting or broken anything. Offer a home warranty, price your house based on what the agent tells you NOT what YOU THINK you want to get and you have 100% better chance of moving.
I've seen so many people make foolish stubborn mistakes and not realize how the BUYERS are going about their purchase. They are looking at more than one home, they are looking at HOMES in a range. If yours is priced the highest and has a ton of work to do on it and you won't negotiate the price, trust me, they will go with a lower priced one that they can move right into and use the extra money on furniture etc.
Good Luck and Happy Selling!!
Kelly Olexa
www.olexa.myarbonne.com