So I have posted in the housebuyers thread. But I thought that we should have a thread for sellers too. I am currently trying to sell my condo and it has been quite the ordeal. So, here's a place to share the trials, heartaches, and hopefully successes of selling your houses. :aok:

We listed our condo for sale on October 22nd. Yesterday was day 90. And we got our first offer. It wasn't great, so we counter offered. They have until 2 pm today to respond.

The reason we're selling is that although it's a good size (1272 sqft), it's only a one bedroom condo. We are desparate for our own bedroom. 16 months of sharing with Ian is weighing on us. Plus, we have no yard, no garage and did I mention only one bedroom? :lol: We're TTC#2 in May, so we need to get out!

Do you know how hard it is to keep a place clean at all times when you have a 16 month old tearing up the place? And a DH who doesn't understand that he can't even leave his shoes out? I can't wait until we move and I can leave a sink full of dirty dishes out all day, hell, all weekend. And not have to scoop the cat litter all the time. Oh man, 90 days feels like forever! :crazy:

On a better note, since the new year, it has seriously turned into Grand Central Station at our place. TONS of showings, it's a sellers market now. The inventory is really low. So that's why we counter-offered. We're not desparate. There's lots of interest now. :crossfing

Yay for your first offer! :woo: I cannot imagine how you have been keeping everything so clean for the past 3 months.....I couldn't do it with a busy 15 month old! I hope it sells soon so you can finally have you own bedroom and get busy TTC #2. :blush1:

Yay Leslie!!!! :woo:

I seriously know nothing about seeling a house or condo but I hope that they take the offer and you can get into your own home soon!!!!

Yikes about the cleaining!!!!!! I don't know how you do that!!

We are getting ready to sell a townhouse that we own but rent out. I'm not positive if our renter is going to be living there while we try to sell it or if they are leaving on 2/1 when their lease is up. I should know more by this weekend but I'm a little nervous about selling the townhouse while they are living there because they own a dog. I actually hope they move out because I think it sell faster if it's empty.

I'm getting nervous and I don't even live there and have to keep it clean 24/7. I can't imagine keeping out house spotless with an almost 19 month old running around. :owow:

OH LESLIE!!!! I'M SO EXCITED for your first offer!!! YEA!!!

:clap: :jump: :rahrah: :woo: :clap: :jump: :rahrah: :woo:

Can you imagine how many smilies you get when you actually get a contract?

Keep us updated!!!

Jenn - I am not sure what kind of renter laws there are where you live, but I wonder how much notice you will have to give the renters when you need to do a showing? We have agents showing our condo all the time. Luckily we live there, so it's not a huge deal to leave. Twice we've had to wake Ian up from his nap - which is a serious bugger. But we do it so we can get it sold.

On that note, the buyer did not accept our counter offer. Turns out she went to our property management company and was told something that freaked her out. Our HOA is in litigation with the builder over some defects in some balconies (not in our building). So I guess she got freaked out. Turns out if we had accepted her original offer, she probably would have backed out anyway. Flake. :rolleyes: Do your basic research before making an offer please.

Anyway, we have had a lot of interest and we are thinking someone else will offer soon. We have two potential buyers in the running. :) :crossfing

Leslie~ Well, we don't have to worry about our renter being there when there are going to be showings, now. I got a call last night saying they weren't going to renew their lease and would be out by Jan. 31 and the house goes on the market on Feb. 1. It sucks that we'll be paying 2 mortgages by ourselves for a couple of months but at least we don't have to worry about our renter living there while the house is on the market.

Ok, well this is turning into a PITA. I just realized that now I have to have the water, electricity and gas all turned on in my name until the house sells. I can't have the pipes freezing on me or have the house shown to a potential buyer in the dark.

I just sold my town house...what a PITA! The buyer wants so much stuff done. Our town house is in great condition, but he is nit picking everything from the house inspection. I can't wait to get out of here!

Ok, well this is turning into a PITA. I just realized that now I have to have the water, electricity and gas all turned on in my name until the house sells. I can't have the pipes freezing on me or have the house shown to a potential buyer in the dark.
Oh man Jenn! What a pain!

We just sold our townhouse by owner last year. It was a little bit stressful, but we saved a TON by not having to give part of our equity to a realtor. I would definitely do it on our own again the next time we sell. :)

We sold our house last year (first home) and it was a lot of negotiating and an excruciating process for us. We decided to put it on the market when things were hot, but we were about a month too late. We only ever got one offer, after 45 days and that's when the showings had dwindled. There was lots of interest, but our home was 1750 finish square feet and no more to develop, as we had a crawl space instead of a basement. So that hurt us. We also had to pour a new concrete walkway and driveway apron for $1700, put in a new bathroom floor for $700, put in a new shower door (which leaked and caused the floor replacement which was old carpet in a bathroom anyway) for $500, sand and stain a 33x15 deck with built-ins galore, take our two 90 pound dogs to a friends house every morning and pick them up every night (for 45 days), or leave with them whenever there was a showing and we were home, paint the trim around our skylights, repaint the laundry area with KILZ to refresh the concrete bricks which looked dingy, replace the furnace for $1000 which crapped out after we accepted their offer but before we closed), fix rotting window trim outside and repaint ALL the outdoor trim ($200) and then of course clean all the freakin time! Plus, I was home on maternity leave for the first month with a newborn so I had to get him adn the dogs out every time there was a showing. We requested 2 hours notice, but many times got only 15-30 minutes so I had to keep the house spotless at all times while I was living there!

We also had a class action suit against Masonite for rotting hardboard siding, and needed a new roof, so we had to negotiate all that. They got all the Masonite settlement money which we just mailed in October since we finally got it (closed at the end of July), and they had to deal with the roof. They almost backed out because of the roof, but luckily they didn't. THEN, we had the f$#($#( FHA appraisal since they were first-time FHA buyers. The first appraiser decided to be a total jerk, and under-appraised the house. He was all hung up on the possibility of lead-based paint (which wasn't an option since our home was built in the 80's and we had proof there was no lead based paint - a detail no other appraiser said they would have cited), and he also decided that the identical homes on our street for sale that had newer windows and roofs (but were priced higher) were of much more value than ours and so he wouldn't appraise it as the price we agreed upon with the buyers. So that't where we had to drop another $4500 off the price, AND pay their closing costs, bringing us to $16,000 less than asking. We did get their appraiser not to file his report (because once it's on file with FHA they won't accept another appraisal for more), and we got another appraiser who basically told us we got screwed, as did our realtor, but they were the only offer and we had an offer to fulfill so we needed to accept it.

So, to recap we spent $4100 just to SELL the house, and then we took a hit with $16,000 less than asking, plus we had to pay their closing costs. So that actually left us about $20,000 less than planned, and then on top of that the commission we paid our realtor and their realtor which left us with much less of a profit we had anticipated. Although our realtor felt so bad she dropped her commission 2% for us but we were all stressed at the end. And, we had an offer on a house that we wanted to buy contingent on ours selling and they weren't going to let us out of it since their house (brand new so this was the builder, although we did not build it since it was a spec home) had been on the market for close to 6 months already and they needed to sell it. They had to drop $30,000 off their asking before we even looked at it, and then we negotiated a 16x16 cedar deck and a $6000 allowance for fence and sprinklers so we actually got a really good deal and they didn't make much at all. But, we had to put less down than we had wanted just to have some cash for sod, landscaping, hot tub (a small indulgence), etc.

It all worked out very well in the end, but we really got screwed and everybody knows it, including our buyers. They called and inquired about the flood lights in the back of the house one day (they had never worked when we moved in since the previous homeowner had CUT all the electrical outside when she moved her hot tub, AND she switched out the light fixtures on us before closing which we later found out we could have gone after her for... so screwed again...). Anyway, I told them they had never worked, and that the wiring was there but they'd have to hire an electrician to come rewire them if they wanted them. It's like, HOW MUCH MORE do you want from me??? Good lord, the house itself had $40,000 worth of improvements in it that we did (and had a home equity loan to prove it) and they were nitpicking about every little thing. It drove me (and still does) insane.

Ugh, Kelli--what an ordeal!!

We sold our condo in October as part of a corporate relocation (so my husband's company paid our closing costs...as well as the closing costs on our new house.)

We were fortunate enough to get an offer as soon as the place went on the market--full price, in cash, and they didn't want to bother with an inspection (which I thought was stupid of them.)

I'm still annoyed though...yes, we made a hefty profit on our condo--but considering they offered full price in cash basically on the first day the place went on the market...that makes me think we got faulty advice from our realtor on pricing our condo.

Still, it was the highest selling price ever for a unit in our development--but I'm willing to bet we did more improvements and had it in better condition than anyone else.

Sarah - it was quite an ordeal for us. But I'm not bitter. Can you tell?? :)

Sounds like your deal went really well though!

Sarah & Kelli - It sounds like you had such different experiences! Doesn't it stink how it's so hard to predict? I can't believe we've had our condo on the market for over 90 days. What a hard time it has been. We did have a lot of people come through this weekend. I think we are getting closer every day to a good offer. There is just so little on the market that I know it must be coming soon.

Leslie--I think it'll really help you that there is little on the market right now. When our condo went on the market, it was the only 2 bedroom unit in our development--and our development was the best development in town. I think that definitely helped us.

I think you're right Sarah. I checked and there is only one unit on the market right now that is anything close to our competition. Everything else is way more expensive than our unit. :)

We got some terrific news today. Kind of weird, but great! Our realtor wants to buy our condo. He's been thinking about it for a while now. His offer will be good and a bonus is that we will be paying 5% in commissions instead of 6% - so that's great! He is prequalified, but is working on finalizing his financing. So he's going to get an offer to us this week. It is going to be so convenient. We'll close 3/1 and then rent back until we close the new house. (Which we have yet to find!) Aaaah! I can't believe we're finally going to get a good offer! It's been almost 100 days on the market.

Wow, that is great! Remember though--you can counter his offer...like maybe cutting his commission in half or something. Be careful with having him be the buyer and your realtor...that sounds like a tough situation.

Leslie, that's great news! I hope everything goes smoothly!

Well, we signed the papers this past Sunday to put our rental townhouse on the market. It goes on February 5th and are asking price is 205,990. I still can't believe we're asking that much. Luckily we have almost no competition because every other townhouse in that area goes for about 300,000 to well over 500,000. Our townhouse is about 17 years old with no updates so I'll be pleased if we get close to the asking price for it.

Good luck, Jenn!

Good luck Jenn! That's great about the lack of competition. It's such a seller's market right now! :)

Our condo is officially in escrow. It is supposed to close March 3rd. So now we get to go out and start putting in offers on a new house. I can't wait! :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Leslie! I bet it feels so good to have that weight off your shoulders. :)

Yay, Leslie! :biggrin: Great news!

We're now actively seeking to sell our house. We're going to start with a company that comes out and makes an offer on the spot. We'll see what they say, and if we like it, we'll do that. Otherwise, we'll list with an agent and go from there. Ugh. I hope we can get out of this place soon!

I'm so annoyed! Our renter moved out this past Saturday so Jeff and I went on Sunday to look at the place and clean up a little bit. We didn't think we'd have to clean too much because the renter said he was cleaning when he left a message for me on Saturday. OMGosh! :tearhair: The house was a nightmare! He said he vacuumed but there was crap all over the carpet stains on the vinyl and some sticky mess left on the countertop and vinyl in the kitchen. His new girlfriend had a cat and it must have been pissing in one of the upstairs bedrooms because the room reeked of urine. There were a couple of holes in the walls and Jeff probably pulled out over 100 nails and screws from the walls. Who knows what the hell he was hanging up! We had our 19 month old daughter with us so we just did what we could and got the hell out of there. I called Maid Brigade and they are going there today to clean it, which is going to cost $180. I just don't understand why people have to trash other people's property. Would it have been so hard for him to mop the kitchen floor every once in awhile or clean the toilets? This is why I never want to own rental property again.

The house goes on the market tomorrow but I had to stop by this morning to drop the key off under the mat for the cleaning company and there was a note taped to the door. When we were at the house on Sunday we ran into the neighbor and he was asking us if we were selling and for how much. Well, apparently his landlord is a realtor and told her about the house. She wanted to let us know that she might have someone that is interested and to have us or our realtor give her a call. I gave my realtor the information so I'm hoping that something good could come out of this.

We got a contract! The townhouse went on the market yesterday and we had 3 contracts on it by today! We met with our realtor tonight and signed one of the contracts. We got full asking price!! I'm so excited and I just hope that everything goes smoothly from here on out. The buyer is already approved for their loan and wants to settle by 2/20. :banana:

Wow Jenn - you lucked out! That was super-fast! Nice job! :)

No kidding, Leslie! I totally wasn't expecting that, especially since it needs so much work but the market is just insane around here! I think I'm still in shock about how much we're selling it for.

What a great feeling! Now you don't have to worry anymore. This market is wild right now. We are trying to buy, and it feels like everyone else is too!! What's going on?! Weird!

Hi Guys - just a little excited here about my house and thought I would share. I need some STDH (sell this damn house) vibes!

In July 2003, we decided to put our house on the market. We live in Garland, a suburb of Dallas. The house is approx. 1800 sq.ft., 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and two backyards. Our listing price was originally $134,900. Time slipped by and we got an offer about a month later. The lady was going to put a contract down, but her loan fell through so she wasn't able to. At least that's what we were told (no telling what the truth actually was).

Since then, I've been busting my butt trying to make sure the house is presentable 24/7. That is sooo freakin' hard with a 2 year old and a husband that works 12 hour days. Not to mention, I work full time as well. Such a hassle!

Anyhow, in November we decided to go with a different realtor for two reasons. He knows the area (has his office close to our house) and he's Asian, so he has that connection with that market. Our neighborhood is turning more towards an Asian community, so we felt that he had that pull. We signed a 90-day contract with him and lowered the price to $129,900.

He came in and told us what we could do to help sell the house. We finally got an offer yesterday and not sure what to do quite yet. They offered $123,000 and after doing much calculation, found that if we accepted, we'd be paying to get out of the house. Not good. We're going to counteroffer today to see if we can get them to go up a little. We are sooo anxious to move, but hate to give the house away to the 2nd offer.

Please wish us luck! We've already found our dream house, have the loan set and are ready to go, but hoping that this potential buyer is dead set on our house. :crossfing:

Oh - something funny to share!

There's an old superstition with home selling. (our realtor even knew about it!) Supposedly, you're supposed to bury a St. Joseph's statue in your yard to bring good luck. My Catholic friends just about died when I did this because they felt it was sacreligious, even though I bought the whole kit at a Catholic store.

Anyhow, I did this back in July when we put our house on the market. No such luck since I buried it. Well, I thought about it the other day and after much harrassment from my friends, I decided to dig the thing up. I took a spoon out to the "burial site" and couldn't find it. I gave up and the next morning we heard someone was interested in the house. I went out that afternoon, immediately after work in my skirt, heels and a shovel and dug the thing up. Never could find it, so I gave up when it started raining. This past weekend, I was out checking my mail and thought I saw the ziploc bag sticking out of the dirt pile. I double checked and to my surprise, the statue (still in the ziploc bag) was laying on top. I carried it in and cleaned it pu and placed it on my mantle. That was Saturday.

Sunday, we got a full offer on the house, albeit too low, but an offer is an offer!

Thought I'd share. :)

My current house (http://www.ebby.com/details/10011481.html)

House we want! (http://www.ebby.com/details/L390031226161948.html)

Congratulations to those of you who just go toffers on your homes, that's awesome! We listed our house back on January 8th & still haven't had a single showing! I'm getting so discouraged. What have you or your realtor done to get our house out there? I'm beginning to think we signed with a dud of a realtor. And yes, I can completely sympathize with those of you trying to keep your house clean 24/7 with a little one & a DH. MY DD is 20 months old.

you have to bury the statue upside down! at least that's what my :crazy: aunt used to do :lol:

i like the house you want...i can't believe how cheap it is!

Hi Kris!
I'd love to offer some advice. Here's what we did to show our house better:

*Removed clutter! We boxed up personal stuff such as pictures and nick-nacks off tables and nightstands. I put all appliances up (coffee pot, can opener, etc..) to make more room. We also took the middle leaf out of our kitchen table to make the kitchen look a bit bigger. I have a TON of stuff in boxes now, just waiting to be moved to our new house!

*Landscaped! We dug up our old hedges and spent $300 in new plants. We did it all ourselves and had fun doing it! It looked sooo much better and has more curb appeal.

*Paint. I painted the kitchen with a glossy white color to give it more of a bright feel.

*Signs. Most importantly, I hung signs around the house. For instance, I put one on the dishwasher that said "I'm New - Replaced in 2002." I put these EVERYWHERE to point out various things that most people would overlook.

*Blinds. Open the blinds everyday before you leave for work. This brings in a little more lighting and makes the place seem more inviting and not so dark.

*Bathroom. We were told to take the rugs out if they overpowered the floor. For instance, we had navy rugs in our master bath, which is tiny. When we took the rugs out, it lightened the room and made it look a bit bigger.

Kim - yes, I've found that the prices here are considerably lower than any other area. I just hope that we get it!

We had a stager come through and offer up suggestions. Basically an interior designer who can help tell you what to change, get rid of, etc. Our realtor paid for an hour with her and then we paid for her for a few more hours. She also shopped for us and bought lots of new decor that would add "pop" and brighten things up.

Oh, and A&E has a show called "Sell this House" on Sundays that offers some great advice! I've recorded a few shows and it's amazing at what a can of paint, or just a little cleaning can produce. Some people can be sooo nasty!

Tam, I've been watching that show, too. :lol: My first project is to get rid of the clutter. And I think we need to do something about curb appeal, since our grass has that winter-ugly look to it. :lol: I've also been reading the articles on MSN about homeselling, for tips. And I think the interior decorator is a GREAT idea. :up:

Thanks for the tips.

The yard is in great shape - we've actually won a blue ribbon award from the city - course it's the dead of winter & everythings covered under snow right now - so that's not helping!

When we bought the home 7 years ago we bought it knowing it would be our "fixer-upper/starter" home. We went through & stipped all the wallpaper, painted everything a very neutral color. We' pulled all the old nasty carpeting out (there were actually worms under the old carpeting when we ripped it out). We refinished the hardwood floors that were under all the carpeting. Some of the rooms we have recarpeted with neutral berbers, but did not tack down the carpet so as not to put holes in the hardwood floors.

I think our real problem is that it's winter here in MI & of course it hasn't stopped snowing since we signed with the realtor. And we know the local market is moving slow, has been for at least the past year. But I really expected we'd have at least 1 showing in 4 weeks. The problem is that we fell in love with a home that's currently on the market, but we have to sell ours in order to afford this other home.

Kris - it sounds like your house has great potential!

I know how you feel about falling in love with another house. Unfortunately we did the same thing and I drove myself nuts everyday by looking it up to make sure it hadn't been sold. I did that for over 2 months and one day the price went waaay down and it sold. I was sooo upset, but things happen for a reason. IF we sell our home to this potential buyer, we've already found the house we want. In comparison, this new house is better than the home I pined over, so I'm almost happy things didn't work out last time.

So sorry that the market is slow for you. It was very slow for us in Nov./Dec. Good luck!

We' pulled all the old nasty carpeting out (there were actually worms under the old carpeting when we ripped it out).
Yikes!

I know it can be hard to be so patient. Our house got 2 showings in October (went on the market 10/22), 8 showings in December, 5 showings in January, and then bam! 21 + showings in January. My point is, once the holidays ended and the weather improved (no more rain), we saw a HUGE increase in traffic. All of a sudden the market is nuts out here. Maybe your time is delayed because of the weather. Hang in there! :hug99:

Thanks for the words of encouragement. They're really needed (and appreciated) right now.

This is our home for sale, let me know what you think we can improve!

http://house.niemiec.us/

This is what we did before we decided to list with a realtor. I'm beginning to wonder if we shouldn't be trying to sell it on our own instead.

Oh, the coffee pot is gone from the kitchen counter & the trim around the windows has been stained & blinds and curtains put up. We had just installed new windows when these pictures were taken.

I think it's darlin! The baby's room is too cute! I think you've done a good job on decluttering. Not much else you could really do. I'll have to look again, but another option is to rearrange furniture to give the maximum effect of a bigger room. I did a few things with ours. However, I looked at your house as if I were going to buy it and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary or off the wall. I think your house will show beautifully!

Thanks Tam. I can't re-arrange furniture too much, most of it is set up a certain way because of our 20 month old.

I think we'll show pretty well, it's just getting people to come look that's our problem! And as I sit here typing, it's once again snowing. I love snow, but it's just not helping us get any showings!

Looks great in the pictues. It must be the weather. I can't find anything that really needs changing. :)

Ugh. I just met with the real estate agent, and apparantly, there are 49 houses in our area (our small town!) in the $200-230K price range (where ours would be) that are for sale right now. :blue: That does NOT bode well for our market time. We might price it slightly low ($199? $198?) just to try to move it faster. However, we're meeting with this 800 Money Today guy later tonight, and if he makes a decent offer ($188 or so?), we'll probably take it. We could move all of our stuff into storage and bunk with the ILs for a few months to save our mortgage payment for the next few months, which basically adds another $3300 to his offer, if that makes sense. (And Phil said I could use that money for upgrades for our new house, so it would be worth it to do that!) Anyway, we'll see what he says. He might give us some total low-ball offer, and we aren't going to be interested in that, of course. But :crossfing: that he gives us a good offer!

Good luck Anne! Hope he gives you a great offer & then you don't have to deal with listing your house.

Thanks Tam & Leslie on the kind words regarding our place. We feel like it will show well, we just have to get people to come through. Any advice there!?!?!

Good luck Anne!

Good luck Anne! Hope he gives you a great offer & then you don't have to deal with listing your house.

Thanks Tam & Leslie on the kind words regarding our place. We feel like it will show well, we just have to get people to come through. Any advice there!?!?!
Kris, what about having a yard sale? That might bring people by the house, at least. Or is the weather still too cold for that?

Thank you so much for the good luck wishes. I really hope he gives us a good offer, too. Please be thinking $188K or better for us, okay? :lol:

Good luck Anne! It sounds like this guy might be your best bet in such a slow market.

Anne - How about if I think $198K instead!?!?! When you say yard sale are you thinking garage sale or an open house? If you're thinking a garage sale, there's about 2 feet of snow on the ground with temps in the low 20's, a little cold for a garage sale. As for an open house, we're gona see if our agent will hold an open house the last weekend of this month since we'll be out of town. If she says no, then I think that will be our answer as to whether we need to hire a new realtor.

Here's the yard during the spring & summer, much more inviting than what we have right now!

http://www.niemieccentral.com/slideshows/Niemiec/Yard/ (http://www.niemieccentral.com/slideshows/Niemiec/Yard/)



step 1: left click click here on the slideshow

step 2: left click the green play button in the upper right hand corner



To exit, left click the red X

Can you somehow do a virtual tour online? I know you have pics, but sometimes the virtual tour shows more of the house. That's the only other thing I could think of that would help to market your house.

We've been told to do a garage sale before to bring people to the house, but with your weather, I don't see how it would work.

As for my house, we counteroffered at $129,000 and nothing below. We're giving them extras and trust me, they're not being lenient on the contract. They want us out the day of closing! What happens if they decide that they don't want the house at closing. Then we're out on our butts! Makes no sense! Oh well - if they want it, they'll buy it at our price.

As for the house we really want...
We looked at it last night and it's amazing. The only downfall is the snow white carpet. Not sure how I'll like that with 2 children. :scratch: It's also got a contract, but they're continuing to show, so it's probably a contingency contract or there's something wrong with the existing contract. Guess we'll wait and see! If things don't work out, then I guess it wasn't meant to be. :dunno:

Kris, I was thinking of a garage sale, but that definitely does sound a little too cold!

Thanks for the good thoughts, but unfortunately, we figured out his scam. He won't talk to you if you have a contract with a real estate agent for representation, and here's why. He made us a pretty low offer ($165K), and knew we wouldn't take it. Then, he said he could *still help us*, and offered to be our real estate agent. Well, it makes perfect sense to us, now. The *money today* thing is just a way to get in the door. His real gig is being a real estate agent. He said he sold over 100 homes last year, and only listed 4 that didn't sell, which is a great record. However, we have no way of verifying that.. and if he sold over 100 homes, CLEARLY his business is selling homes, not buying them. He was a very hard sell about wanting to represent us. He really didn't want to take no for an answer. He says he's the same way with buyers, which might be really effective, so he might be a good choice in an agency. However, he made Phil REALLY uncomfortable, and if a buyer is anything like we were when we were looking, they're going to hate him. We don't buy anything on the spot. If we like it, we go home and think/pray about it and give ourselves some space. We don't go for high pressure sales at all. So, while he says he has a really great record, we're a little iffy about him.

We're meeting tomorrow night with the agent I saw earlier today, and I might call a couple of others to get their impressions and ideas as well. Ugh. Deep down, I knew it would be too easy to just be able to call this guy and have him write us a check. But, wow... was it ever appealing. That's a really great racket he has going! :lol:

Sorry the guy was a scam Anne. I'd stay away from him as an agent. If he's willing to say that he buys houses just to get in the door & then try and talk in to using him as your agent, he just doesn't sound the most honest.

Course that's why we went with the gal we did, she's been very honest & great about showing us houses for the last 3 years. And look at us, not a single showing in 5 weeks. Maybe you should go with the liar!?!?!? Sorry I'm no help.

Tam - I agent won't do virtual tours, she says she's had too many people tell her they won't look at a house because they've gotten a certain perception of it from looking at the virtual tour. That being said, she does have still pictures up. Hold firm to what you feel is a good offer on your place. If they're still showing the house you like, then they definitely don't have a good offer. As for the snow white carpeting, I'd buy a product called Nature's Miracle, so far it's taken every stain out of our carpets that both Ashlin & the dogs have put there.

:lol: Kris, that's exactly what we were thinking. Maybe a liar and scammer is a good thing sometimes? But, in the end, we really don't want to sell our house that way, so we're going to try to find someone who will aggresively market our house, but who is also honest. In the meantime, I'm writing down everything I possibly can think of about how to make this house more appealing to a buyer. But I really think it comes down to pricing it right. So, we're going to talk to another agency, today if possible. They only charge 4% - 1% to them and 3% to the buyer's agent. We could price our house a little lower and still get what we need to out of it if we went with them. And they're a full service agency, not a do-it-yourself place. So, we'll see if we like them. This is all such a crap shoot, and I hate it!

We just sold our first home in Nov., what a nightmare! I never want to sell a house again! We listed our house Sept. 4th & had an full price offer a week later. We have the inspection, etc. 15 or so days later our realtor contacts them to make set up an appraisal etc, when she hears they are not buying the house. Supposedly he was getting kicked out of the Navy & we lost the escrow money because they couldn't financially qualify! We had made the repairs already & we had been off the market for over 15 days. The repairs came to $18 but still DH had to spend the time doing it. Then we went back on the market the first week in October. We had some old lady who way underbid us then proceeded to call our house tacky (all nuetral earth tones ~ she liked only antique white) and our furniture cheapy! We had spent our money in upgrades to the house ($20,000 or so) with DH doing alot of the work himself. We finally negoiated a deal with her after much back & forth. Luckily she was paying cash, so our costs were minimal. She also liked a house that was done all in pottery barn but was much smaller than ours (ours is more traditional) & was trying to use that as a bargaining chip with us. I told the old bag to take a hike, I could care less wether we sold the house or not at that pt. Since she was such a b$tch to us, we stripped the house & even dug up some plants & took them with us. What p$ssed us off worse is that our realtor was older to & seemed to be trying to get her a good deal while scr$wing us in the process since we were selling our first house. Ryan told off our realtor numerous times while we in dealings with the old bag. Things I wouldn't have normally taken but especially were not there when we moved in, we took. Like the shower rods :lol: they were not there when we moved in (the people before us were mad we got a deal on thehouse since they didn't bother to take care of it) so I took them since I had "cheapy" furniture!

Anyway we got a deal at the end of October & closed in the middle of Nov. to coincide with our new house closing (we built). What a freaking nightmare!

Tina

Well, we had our first showing this afternoon. We totally weren't ready, and I had to scramble to make the place presentable. Ugh. And in the process, I completely ticked off my ILs and a friend of ours. The full story behind that is in my journal, but suffice it to say I am NOT a happy camper right now. I hope something good comes from it, because otherwise, I made a lot of people mad at me for nothing. :(

We had another showing tonight! It's been on the market for less than 48 hours, and already 2 showings. I hope that's a good sign!

That's a great sign Anne! We've been on the market for 5 weeks & not a single call. So I'd say you're doing very well!

Kris, that HAS to be the weather. It's gorgeous here again today (thank goodness... it was supposed to rain!) and I think people are just more willing to be out in the nice weather. We had one couple in a car stop in front of our house and make a cell call. I'm guessing they were calling our agent, because they were staring at our house. :lol: So, hopefully that will turn into another showing here soon. Meanwhile, we're doing things like re-caulking the tubs, filling in the holes from our baby gates, repairing settling cracks, that sort of thing. It's endless! :lol:

Well, the house is almost totally ready, but we've already had four showings. :lol: I still need to get the scuff marks off of the wall down to our basement, and I'd like to clear out a little more clutter, if possible. But it looks pretty good, I think. And in just over 3 days, we've had four showings. Hopefully, things will keep going like this after we get it all fixed up! :crossfing I wonder, though... those of you who have recently sold your homes, how many showings did it take? I'm sure there's no real way to predict what it would be for us, but I'm still curious. :lol: I'd really prefer NOT to be showing the house 50 times before we get an offer!

Oh, and another question... when we bought this house, we looked at it a few times (at least 2, but probably 3)... is that fairly common? Or do people sometimes look once and then buy? I'm basically wondering if it is a bad sign that the people who came on Friday haven't come back?

Okay, we had another showing this afternoon. That makes 5 in 3 days. Now my DH is starting to worry. Five showings and no offers... is there something wrong? Is that normal? I personally think it's going to take longer than one night for people to decide on something this important, but he's thinking that it's a bad sign that we've had 5 showings and no offers. What do you all think?

:lol: We were worrying for nothing. We have an offer, and it's for $50 more than our asking price! :biggrin: The real estate agent is coming over tonight, after she finishes eating. They wanted an answer by 9:00, and it's 7:30, so I hope she gets here in time. :lol: It's not all settled yet, but still... I'm SO excited! :biggrin:

Hooray!!! :supergrin:

:woo: that $50 probably makes all the difference :lol:

Congrats!!

Congratulations, Anne! You got an offer pretty quickly! That's awesome!

:woo: that $50 probably makes all the difference :lol:

Congrats!!:lol: I know. :lol: We'll go out for dinner on it, or something, though! :lol:

Thanks Sarah, Nocona and Jenn! :biggrin:

That's sooooo awesome Anne! Send some of your house selling vibe our way!!!! Keeping fingers crossed that all goes well with the inspection!

That's awesome Anne! Congrats! Woo!

Just to contribute, we had close to 40 showings, and it took 99 days to sell our condo. I think there are many factors involved. Overall, I'd say now is the time to sell. We just bought a house this weekend. It was on the market for 3 days. And Anne, we only saw it once and made the offer. I can't wait to get back in there and really check out everything. :)

That's a great sign Anne! We've been on the market for 5 weeks & not a single call. So I'd say you're doing very well!
Kris - what about an open house? Your realtor should do it. They advertize in the paper then have anyone who wants to come in and see the house. Most around here are on Sundays like from 12-3pm.

Thanks Brooke - are realtor is doing an open house this coming Saturday (we'll be out of town & the dogs will be at the kennel). Keep your fingers crossed that the weather breaks for us and that people come out from hibernating!

Well, I'm about to join you guys!
I just heard that we need to sell our house (that we bought 14 months ago). The fun part is I'm over 300 miles away until mid April and my husband thinks it should be on the market asap.
Luckily, our realtor lives across the street and is the one who has the key to our house anyway! I wish I could remember what it looks like inside. We left in a hurry in Sept when my husband was deployed to Afghanistan.
Oh well... I'll see what happens. It's pretty scary but I really really trust our realtor. She said she thinks we'll sell and it's a buyers market. However, I also heard there are still a few feet of snow on the ground.

Good luck with your open house this weekend Kris!

Thanks Leslie. The weather was beautiful, but not a sigle person stopped. I'm beginning to wonder....is it the house, the price or the realtor!?! I just don't know.

Holy Sh*t!

Since 4PM yesterday we've had our first showing, received an offer, countered, they countered, we excepted & we'll be going this evening to put an offer in on the house that we've wanted for the past 2 months as long as it's still available! It's been a whirlwind 12 hours, my mind is racing with all sorts of thoughts, I think I slept all of 2 hours. I'm scared & excited & nervous & anxious. God I hope we're doing the right thing!

And I'm just dying waiting to hear from our agent if this house we want is still available. Waiting is not my forte. Only 10 more minutes till the office opens. I can make it. I can make it. I can make it. Maybe if I write that enought times I'll actually believe it.

Congrats!! That's awesome!!!

That's great, Kris!! I hope the house you want still is available! :crossfing

:woo: That's great news Kris! Congrats!

Thanks guys. Keep your fingers crossed! Put an offer in on the house we want. Of course, they *just* happen to be expecting another offer on either that house or the other spec home in the neighborhood, but the sales lady wasn’t sure which house the other couple was going to put the offer on. So….we went in the middle between what we wanted to offer & what they are asking. They have till tomorrow at 6 to let us know. Guess we'll know then if this is meant to be.

WhooHooo! We're moving!!!!

They excepted. The other couple bought the other home, so the one we want is ours! All that's left to do is pass the home inspection on our old house & secure the mortgage on the new home. I'm exhausted, we went straight from signing the deal to my parent's to do our taxes and have just gotten home, 9 hours later! But....at least we know that we're getting enough back in taxes to cover all our appliances!