my house has been on the market since march 2006 and wont sell and has had about 2 pathetic offers?

Question

i have dropped the price from 450 000 to 399 000 and changed real estate agent once alredy ,the agent im with now seems pretty good though they do what everi want them too and are advertising the house on the net ,property magz local papers . should i take it off the market for a while or at least take down the for sale sign. The house is located in mardi on the NSW central coast

Answer 1

If you are serious about selling you should have an appraisle made on your house. You may be overpriced (just what you wanted to hear) for the market that you are in. The appraisle will also give some insight as to the condition of your place.

Answer 2

There are 3 primary reasons why homes sell, location, price, and condition. All other items are secondary and add market time. You cannot change the location so in its current condition the market is telling you the price doesnt match the other 2 primary reasons. If you trust your agent keep her / him but cancel the listing. In a week start a new listing with that agent again. Often it is hard for a buyers agent that has not seen the property to become excited about a stale listing. They could assume that showing your home will waste their time. If nobody has made an offer in a year why would their buyer want it. I'm not suggesting your home isn't nice but the market time screams there is something wrong. Even in a slow market 1 year is excessive, also have your agent pull you a list of homes that have sold in the last year that are in your area and price range. Look at them and ask who has helped who sell. Buyers have no allegance to you or your home and make offers based upon their idea of a good value for a suitable residence. Your home means a lot to you and will to another buyer if you can do a marketing makeover and restart your time on market. Have someone do a real objective critique on what they see, how it shows, and how it smells. Buyers arent making offers because of something you are used to but they are picking up on. Maybe theres clutter or the walls are too busy with photos. Maybe the rooms seem small due to the colors or extra furniture. When you re-list have the agent do a brokers open house and collect feedback. No house should take a year to sell no matter what market it is in. I have sold in every type of market that has existed for the last 25 years. This current market is not as bad as previous markets and interest rates are 1/3 of the last really bad market. Hope this will help you without being viewed as a personal attack.

Answer 3

Take it off the market for a while. A long while. Try renting. A good realtor can have your house sold or have at least 3 offers within 30 days based off a fair market value. There may be alot of different factors that your's isn't selling. Find a solid established realtor. Someone who knows the market. Also, homes over 300,000 are alot harder to sell because they are not the typical homes an average person would buy. Be patient. Goodluck!

Answer 4

Well have you checked your neighbours, are they selling?

Best way to know your customer is to find out what they want, go to other houses that are open houses, take notes of similiarilities and differences. Pay attention to when they went up on market, what area they are in (in comparision to yours: school proximity, shopping proximity, work, etc). Then pay attention to when they are sold, figure a timeline then use that to base any remodeling that may be needed, or price changing.

Also try to find a real estate agent thats looking to make a quick buck and offers to contractually buy your house for a predetermined rate. We have them in Canada/USA all the time.

Renting is also not a bad idea, good way to make a few dollars, if you do that check your local rented houses to find a decent rate to rent at (good idea previous poster :D)

Answer 5

I was in a similar situation last year with my co-op. I put it on the market last April and didn't close until the end of January. I had interested parties, but they were being jerks due to the market. You must be tough in this kind of market to get a fair price.

I have had mixed results with some realtor tricks, but they are worth a try. You may want to plant some flowers and trim back your trees; apply a fresh coat of paint throughout the house; bright light bulbs in the bathrooms; new toilet seats; etc. If you have an older kitchen it maybe worth going to to Home Depot to replace the cabinets.

Spring is the prime time for selling a home. If it doesn't sell by the summer you may wish to consider taking it off the market until the Fall.

Best of Luck!

Answer 6

Does it really matter if you lowered the price? If the house is really worth $200K, no one is going to buy it at $399K.

Just simply, you are asking too much. Any house will sell if you price it correctly. You might not like the price, but would you buy a house at a higher price just because the person who is selling it wants more than it is worth?

Answer 7

First of all its a bad time to be a seller, but I'm sure you know that. You're either going to have to take a lose on it or be VERY patient right now. There is no easy answer for your situation.

Answer 8

The housing market all around is bad. Try renting it out in the meantime.

Answer 9

I think the first thing to do is get a market valuation. This will tell you if your expectations are realistic and help with setting a price.

Answer 10

If it is listed on the web with pics post a link and maybe we can give you some ideas.