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for all those moving . . . how''s selling going?

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phoenixgirl

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So many people have mentioned buying new places . . . how''s it been on the opposite side of the coin?

We put our place on the market a couple of weeks ago expecting to have our open house last weekend. But then we couldn''t schedule our bathroom reglazing right away, so we postponed it until tomorrow. We''ve had maybe six showings so far, which is great, but we are still living here, so it gets kind of annoying.

We had one scheduled for 12:30, so I left at 12 and came back at 1:30. Then I''m talking to my husband on the phone at 2:30, who has irritated me by telling me that a bunch of his friends are going out to lunch but he won''t go without me, and then the second I said I had already eaten he said OK he was going with them. I was like, don''t say you won''t go without me if you will! Then there''s a knock on the door, and I open the door to a couple with a cheery realtor who announces, "We''re here for the showing!" Look, I know I want to sell my place, but I was already irritated, so my reaction was, "But that was at 12:30." Then I made them wait outside for a minute while I hung up with my husband and told him how irritated I was with all these showings, which they could probably hear. I let them in and announced I was heading out. The realtor assured me I could stay (yeah, like that wouldn''t be awkward in 700 square feet) and then made some lame excuse about how they had to drive up here from three hours away. Shouldn''t they have called to make sure it was ok to be 2 hours late?

So who knows, maybe my negative energy prejudiced them against my place. I do feel bad that I was so short with them; I''m just tired of having to leave all the time. And I could have easily been in the shower (with the bathroom doors open because otherwise it gets too misty in there) and they could have let themselves in with the lockbox key . . . I would NOT have been happy then! I do need to shower, but now I am paranoid and think I''ll wait until my husband gets home.

I just hope we sell soon. We move in two weeks, so we have no reason to wait. I think our place shows well, and although there has been a glut of condo conversions in our area, ours is a unique building at a great price-point compared to the houses and other condos around here.

I''ll be disappointed if we don''t get any offers after the open house. I know the market has changed -- when I bought my place you HAD to make an offer immediately after the open house if you wanted to have a chance. The only other similarly priced condo in our neighborhood just reduced its price by $5k, so maybe that is a sign that I''m being too optimistic. But since we''ve had so many showings already, I don''t feel like the problem is that nobody is looking. And those were mostly before the bathroom was done, so now there isn''t anything subpar about our place.

So we''ll see. I''ll keep you all updated.

So how''s it going for everyone else trying to sell?
 

KimberlyH

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We had DH's house that he lived in before we were married on the market starting in June. It's finally in escrow. It's a larger house in a semi-rural neighborhood that attracts a specific group of people, in large part, so finding the right buyer was key. Selling is slow across the board right now and it is predicted that it will continue to stay this way up until summer. Prices haven't dropped in our city (we've actually gone up) but they have gone down in the city of San Diego (we live in a suburb of SD).
 

Finding_Neverland

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We had our house market ready. Spic and span inside and out. Our market had been HOT, HOT, HOT. We had Location, Location, Location. Realtors were as busy as one legged men in butt kickin'' contests. Then it was like the bubble burst all at once and nothing moved. It took a year to get our house sold and closed.

Spring is coming on. That''s the prime season in Real Estate from our experience. Hopefully you''ll get an offer and get yours sold by Summer.
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Officers girl

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Good Luck ladies!! :) We are praying and fanagaling to come up on orders soon so hopefully Germany bound we will be
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butterfly 17

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We had our house for sale Sept. 21st and had a few showings, but no offers. After one month, I lowered the price by $12K b/c we had a house we wanted to buy and wanted to sell our house first prior to closing on the new house.
There were 4 other homes for sale on my block, including the house we were attached to and none of them were selling, so we figured if we dropped our price, that would spark interest.

We got two offers the second week of November and agreed on a price with the second couple on Nov. 20th, almost two months after we first put our house for sale.

I just found out that the house I am attached to has accept an offer/is in contract. Her house was on the market since May and this is the second agency she is using.

I am currently waiting to close on both houses, we just can''t settle on a date.
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mrssalvo

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We''re getting ready to put our house up for sale. We''re highering a stager b/c I think it will help it show better, our how is 80 years old and has been renovated but has a quirkly floor plan downstairs, I love it and it works well for us but I know many folks are used to the floorplan designs popular in new subdivisions so i think a pro will help. we are also located in a great area so I''m hoping it will sell quickly, with kids and a dog, keepin the house show ready is no picnic..
 

february2003bride

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I think it''s just the current market; homes are staying on longer than they use too.

DH had bought a home when we had been dating 6 months. It was a unique contemporary and while it was nice, it wasn''t going to be a great family home because of the layout, open staircases, etc. So after we got married, we bought a new construction home. We decided to sell his house right after we put down our deposit on our lot because we didn''t want to get stuck with 2 mortgages (it would be a full year before our new home would be complete). I totally understand about the constant showings and I my poor daughter (who was 6 at the time) hated having to keep her play area and room in "show" condition. Anyway, DH''s house sold in 10 days which at the time, was like, 3 days longer than the norm for that neighborhood.

Fast forward 3 years and come to find out that the people who bought the contemporary home from us have it on the market. I look online and they had posted pictures with the listing- it''s gorgeous! They really fixed it up nicely with paint and some small remodeling. It''s now been on the market for 6 months! And homes in our current neighborhood are selling way slower and less than they were just a year and a half ago.

And I also felt the same way about the lock box; it creeped me out that any real estate agent could waltz right in!
 

firebirdgold

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Well, don''t shoot, but fi''s sold in just over a week.
He found a really great realtor who was a lot of help. The realtor I found was useless, but this one was great! She did her research, told him what he could ignore and what he needed to fix, found a cheap contractor and then scheculed and arranged all the contractor work. We never even saw them.
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She also priced the house well which really helped.

She told us that a fresh coat of paint does wonders. You might want to consider that. We had the house empty but she suggested having it staged if it hadn''t sold in a couple of months. I know you''re still living there but you might want to box up 80% of all your stuff and store it somewhere else. Having your personal stuff gone like papers and photos will make it look bigger and allow the buyer to invision themselves living there.

What is your realtor doing? She should be able to stop people from just randomly showing up. There are plenty of houses that need appointments to be shown. No one wants people just walking in their house!


Sigh, I only hope things will go half as well when we need to sell my place this summer.

GOOD LUCK!
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dani13

Ideal_Rock
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Date: 1/21/2007 8:47:02 AM
Author: mrssalvo
We're getting ready to put our house up for sale. We're highering a stager b/c I think it will help it show better, our how is 80 years old and has been renovated but has a quirkly floor plan downstairs, I love it and it works well for us but I know many folks are used to the floorplan designs popular in new subdivisions so i think a pro will help. we are also located in a great area so I'm hoping it will sell quickly, with kids and a dog, keepin the house show ready is no picnic..
Where are you guys moving to, MrsS??
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whatmeworry

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Market is slow. I live in Honolulu and just sold my house
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The market was starting to slow last year and prices have been flat to slightly lower from a year ago. I listed it in Sept. at a good price and got one offer in December. It closed in 30 days. Now I have to buy a replacement home and that process is going slow
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. One reason is we haven''t seen a home we liked in our price range. (Avg home in Honolulul is 613K). Another reason is most homes are listing their prices about 80-100K too high based on the historical run up in prices which just ended. So the market is at a standstill, buyers (like me now) who think the prices are too high and sellers who are holding out based on a price that may no longer be valid. The zillow.com "What''s My Home Worth" tool at Yahoo Real Estate was pretty useful and seemed fairly accurate. During the selling process, my FI (Buddhist) burned incense and left a cup of water outside the house. My mom (Catholic) told me to pray to St. Joseph. Good luck to everyone who is selling and buying their homes.
 

phoenixgirl

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Well, apparently a lot of people came to the open house but nobody seemed like they were running home to write up an offer.
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Apparently some people said they needed to get approved for a mortgage and others said they might ask for a second viewing. I do know people stayed late because we went over a neighbor's place 20 minutes after our open house was supposed to end, and I started sneaking up the back stairs to see if our place was empty. I saw a woman about my age peering out the back door at me, so I turned around and went back in my neighbor's place.

It's snowing/sleeting here as opposed to last weekend which was just gorgeous. We ate lunch outside wearing light jackets last Saturday while our place was viewed. So that didn't help either.

Sigh. I just know I was looking forward to the open house as the one thing that might spark an offer. So now who knows when it might happen.
 

Becky P

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Sep 7, 2006
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Not so hot here. BF is moving to Raleigh and we''re trying to sell his townhouse. We spent hours, days, weeks, cleaning everything spotless, getting rid of stuff, getting it "show" ready. It went on the market Jan. 11, so exactly 2 weeks ago. Now, I know that''s not a super long time. But, in his neighborhood places either sell within one week or they last for 5-6 months. There was an open house on Sun., Jan. 14 and 14 people came by - but 12 were just nosy neighbors wanting to check out the place and not really looking to buy. So, really 2 people came. And, it''s been shown 3 or 4 times by appointment. The real estate agent is having another open house this Sunday, so we''ll see what comes of that...
 

phoenixgirl

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Talk about nosy neighbors . . . DH kept saying he was worried our neighbor across the hall would pop in and blab away. Our realtor told us that she came over, asked how much we were listing it for, and then announced that the price was outrageous (she rents her place). Hello, that's why you are twice my age and don't own your own home! And why couldn't she ask us how much we were listing it for before the open house? She came to a going away party for us, for goodness' sake, although not before protesting that "they're only moving two blocks."

Then another neighbor with our same unit, a member of the association board, came and kept announcing how small these places are and how there is nowhere to put anything! She told our realtor that she wanted to check our place out because she'd never seen it, and he thought to himself, "Yeah, there's probably a reason for that." He finally shooed her away. What were these people thinking?
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Our neighbors who are actually friends all joked about coming to the open house and gushing about how great it was, and now I wish they had just to counteract the meddlers.

We had two more showings yesterday, one of them a repeat. I'm losing track of how many private showings there have been, but I'm thinking at least eight, and supposedly a lot of people came to the open house. So where are the bids? I don't think our place has any defects now that we reglazed the bathroom, so if people are interested in this building I don't know what kind of better unit they're hoping for.

My realtor convinced me to list it for a little higher than I originally suggested, which sounded great when I thought all the interest would lead to an early bid . . . Now I am wondering if my gut was right.
 

Moosejaw

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A good agent knows how to deal with those neighbors...it happens to all of us unfortunately.

We decided to purchase a home closer to our work...we were tired of the 9 minute drive. :) Very close to downtown Seattle. Seattle is still a relatively hot market, with not much decent for sale.

So we made a non-contingent offer, it got accepted, and I had 30 days to get our house sold. If it didn''t we were going to be in a heap of financial strain due to the price disperity.

This was in September just after labor day, and we painted the front of the house, cleaned, staged it ourselves(although it wasn''t too far off how we normally had it), I painted the deck, got rid of the nasty hottub out back...

We ALMOST had 3 offers, but only one came through. Full price, and it took 3 days. :)

So we lucked out a bit, but its a fairly easy market to sell in if the house is decent and priced/staged/prepped properly.

Best of luck selling your place.

-G
 

Moosejaw

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I should also include this story about selling my condo back in 2004.

It was still a hot market in Seattle...I prepped the place, had bought our house already and the similar time crunch, about 30 days to sell.

We had over 100 people come and look at my place, since it has such a nice few, and in an older building in Seattle. No offers. 3 weeks go by, and I decide I am going to have to rent it out, and eat about 800/month in the difference between the rental price and cost of the mortgage.

So I go away for the weekend, we have one more open house. I get back on the next Tuesday, and am ready to sign the rental papers with a tenant. I ended up getting a full price cash offer, and closed immediately. Which meant no overlap of mortgages.

Man I was stressed. I believe going away for that weekend and not putting any thought into it was very helpful.

Also...my late mother used to always say, pray to St. Anthony, and get a statue of him and bury it in bushes or in front of your house.

I did that the weekend before it sold as well...so you may want to try it. I used to laugh at her about it, but it obviously didn''t hurt.

:)

-G
 

golden

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Hey!
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How is everyone?

Anyone buying or selling in NEW JERSEY? I am a realtor in NJ!!! HAHAHAHA Good time to throw it out there right.....
 

Tacori E-ring

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Well, we got lucky since we rented out our old house and DH already had previous renters he liked who moved in (which is VERY rare!) Currently it is a buyers market in Charlotte. I think the higher end homes take longer to sell. DH had a higher end flip and it took 5 months.
 

WTNLVR

Brilliant_Rock
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You gotta do the St. Anthony bit. We did after 4 months with glitches all over and in a week we had an offer that went thru and we sold our house. That was 10 years ago, but I swear it works! The people who bought our old house have had it on the market since October and they just gave up and pulled down the sign. Maybe I should send them the statue?? No... think I''ll keep it for when we sell our place in 20 years
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Market is dead in MA now, nothing is selling according to our former agent.
 

rfath

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Jul 27, 2004
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When my parents were selling their home a few years ago, my poor dad walked out of the shower from a long day working on the lawn to find a strange realtor and her clients standing in the bedroom. Apparently the agent assumed that the place was vacant and trotted her clients through without calling.

Sadly, my father''s apparently not impressive enough to sell the house by himself like that ;-)
 

portoar

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Speaking from a Realtor''s perspective . . . it''s great that you are having so many showings and you should try not to be negative about that! And try to give the Realtor''s a little slack when it comes to the time they say they are coming . . . I always try to give a window, like "I''ll be there between 12:00 and 2:00" and I explain that I''m showing several homes to my clients and I can''t guarantee a specific time. You woulnd''t believe the roadblocks sellings put up to prevent Realtors from showing their homes . .. .keys not in the lockbox, sellers claiming they want to sell but then making it difficult to show the property, hangups trying to get keys to work in old locks, hangups with clients who take too long looking at one home, making us late for the next home . . . traffic, etc. So if someone calls and says they are going to be there at a specific time, it would be helpful if in your own mind you create a window of time that''s at least 1 1/2 - 2 hours around the target time. Sometimes if I''m late and I try to call I don''t have cell phone service, or the seller doesn''t answer either.

It''s no one Realtor''s fault that it''s inconvenient having people tramping through your home, that''s just the way it is. Expect for it to be shown a lot before you get an offer. Especially in this market. You''re lucky you''re even getting as many showings as you say you are. And don''t be negative in front of prospective buyers. How they pereceive you will shed a negative light on the home too. If you are negative and irritated, they will have a negative opinion of the home.

The real work of a realtor isn''t the open house or listing it for sale, the reator''s job really kicks in when you get an offer and she puts her negotiating skills to work, getting you the best possible price on the home, making sure you have complied with your contractual and statutory disclosure obligations, making sure the buyer is qualified, and coordinating efforts between the buyer''s agent, the lender, the escrow company (if your state uses escrow) the title company, and you to make sure that the purchase agreement is complied with and closes on time.
 

butterfly 17

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Speaking about ST. Anthony''s, I always thought it was ST. Joseph. I did it with ST. Joseph. I bought him online and buried him in the side yard. I was going to face him out towards the street per the directions, but the house across the street is for sale as well, so I faced him head down, feet up, towards my house and said a little prayer.

Three weeks later, we had an offer and then one week later, we got the offer from the people buying our house.

When I was telling my neighbor that we got an offer, I suggested putting ST. Joseph in the ground and she said he has been there since May. I asked her which way is he facing and she said towards the street, so I told her to face him towards her house.

I don''t know if she repositioned him, but this month, she got her offer and is contract as well.
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akw94

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This is my 2nd time on the market. First was last summer and no offers. We made an offer which was accepted on a fantastic place but lost it b/c I got no offers on my place. That was so upsetting! We had lots of showings but just no offers. This time, new agent who paid for a stager and I''m trying again. We''ve had some showings and an open house today so we''ll see. I am trying to stay hopeful but not looking at anything until I have a contract. It is just too difficult to lose a place.
I''m in the Chicagoland area trying to sell a condo. The problem is, there are tons on the market. It doesn''t seem like the time when buyers make an offer right away. I think that has changed, for the most part.
Good luck to everyone else!
 

phoenixgirl

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We accepted a contract today!

Full price too!

I can''t complain. We just got really lucky. Right before we moved out, the toilet sprang a leak. It''s tankless, so they had to cut into the wall to fix it. And of course, the plumber somehow made the bathroom really grimy. So the person who is buying it saw it with a hole in the wall, grimy bathroom, and dust bunnies galore (I''ve done a few once-overs but haven''t had time to really clean yet). The buyer even had an escalation clause just in case we got another offer (and they were obviously afraid of that because they faxed it to our realtor at 10p.m. and it expired at noon. Hello people, I am a teacher, it''s not like I can just leave my job for half an hour. Luckily I was able to do it before work.)

This is also the most one of our units has ever sold for.
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Tacori E-ring

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Congratulations!!!
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Moosejaw

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When the right person comes along...it''s meant to be.

Congrats.
 

Stone Hunter

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Congratulations!!!

It must feel great to get that done!

Best wishes for your new house.
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