Anyone still trying to sell a house?

[MindyD]

We've had our house on the market since mid-September. We've had lots of showings, but no offer. Then today I get feedback from someone who say the house yesterday and the feedback is BAD. The only thing he liked was the location. He said the house was overpriced, not well-maintained, blah blah blah. This is the first time we've ever gotten feedback like this. The house has always shown well. I know it's just one guy, but it's so discouraging. My dh started a new job in a city about 3 hours away which is why we need to sell in the first place. The kids and I can't move until the house sells because we can't afford to. Right now dh is a roommate with a friend, but he'll need to find his own place in a few months. He comes home on the weekends except for his Reserves weekend (we try to go visit him on that weekend). It's just getting old. I need someone to buy my house!!! Anyone else in the same boat?

 

Mindy

[QueenCat]

Has the realtor done a Realtor Open House? We got excellent feedback through the open house in which about 30 realtors walked through the house and filled out a survey on price, features, pros and cons.

[kalanamak]

Oh, yes. We keep lowering the price and everything thinks it is a neat place. The fliers are just, well, flying out of the post. But not one offer. I think my neighbor with a 10,000 square foot house is just waiting for a deal. He did that to the neighbors the other direction.

[rwjx2khsmj]

We've had three offers and all of them have turned out to be bad. No financing or contingent upon sale of their house. We found a house we love and waiting is hard.

[gaillardia]

In late October we had a lowball offer and we let our contract expire. A day or two later another interested party came by and they gave a low offer.

Three weeks went by and the realtor of the first party called dh at work (?!) to see if we still wanted to sell, her buyer was still interested and not finding what they want. Our home was listed at about $76 sq.ft. which is cheap compared to other homes in the area. There was a lot of interest, flyers disappearing out of the tube here also.

Dh told her our bottom price, let's see if they can meet it! We're still waiting to hear back from her.

We got very good feedback on one, no feedback on two, and because of the listing saying it was a 6/2 and a couple thinking it should be a 6/3, we changed it to 4/2, with 2 bonus rooms. In four months, five showings.

 

MindyD, my dh was 1500+ miles away from us for 9 months, two years ago. We saw him every 4-6 weeks. We were very fortunate that a new contact let him stay in their "bunkhouse" from Feb. to Oct. for really cheap.

Then everything fell into place in 2 weeks. He had a new place to stay, still had a job, we got a contract, found this house, and moved.

[ks-sunflower]

We've been through this twice- but in better real estate market times. It's hard in a good market but probably really challenging now. No house is perfect- there are always trade-offs so I wouldn't be too worried about some negative feedback. You fix up and clean up but there are some things you can't change. One house had foundation problems that we fixed but some people wouldn't look at the house for that reason. The second house was located near big overhead power lines that turned buyers off also. Both times, the right buyer eventually came along who was looking for what we were selling.

[....]

Hi, we were in this situation. We just threw in the towel and rented it out. Actually, it will have been rented out for a year in December. The market right now is B A D. If you try to sell right now, it's going to be for a huge loss. Better to wait this out... We're actually looking to buy a house here this spring and people are just desperate. The houses are like half-price. What a horrible situation.

 

I feel bad for everybody in this real estate climate. :ack2: What a mess.

 

Anyway, we worked our finances to where we can just continue to rent out our old house until the market gets better (I'm guessing 3-5 years). What a disaster. Oh, yeah, and OUR tenant (the one who rents our old house), he still has HIS old house!!! :lol: Isn't that funny.

 

I say, we just all count to 3 and everybody....SWITCH HOUSES!! :tongue_smilie:

[MindyD]

We haven't seriously talked about renting yet. We're still hoping to sell, but if we get into late spring and still haven't sold, we'll reconsider. I guess I'm just having a small pity party. We've done separation because dh is in the Reserves. He was activated for 2 years and volunteered for 8 months because his unit was hurting for men so badly. I just don't like it anymore. Oh well.

[....]

I know, MindyD, I know. I give this situation a big :thumbdown:. My husband and I were separated for 8 months because of the stupid house thing and our relationship STILL hasn't returned to normal. Our parents (both sides) kept telling us...hurry up and just leave the darn house...go move. It's hard...

 

I hope you are able to sell yours quickly!! And you can go move with your husband! :cheers2:

[mommaduck]

I'm on the buying end. Honestly, there are two reasons I will not buy a house. 1) I will not buy a house that is overpriced...or in my mind, is overpriced. Ironically, smaller houses in this area are selling for more than large houses. I want a ranch, but I don't want to pay twice as much for one as I would a three story rowhouse. 2) There are certain things I look for...it cannot have foundational or structural issues, it must have natural gas and not oil, the kitchen needs to be something I can live with and move around in, and the laundry room needs to be on the first floor, not the basement. And I don't want to have to put money into a house on electrical, plumbing, or heating updates. A house will be all I can afford, not renovations. Those are huge things to me. Those that have made the effort to make the kitchen/bath/laundry accessible and nice will get views from me...but again, I won't pay double for them.

Edited November 30, 2010 by mommaduck

[angela in ohio]

Our old house has been for sale for over two years. We moved out of the city as the police force was being cut and crime was rising. No one wants to buy a house there, and there are too many for sale.

 

We have rented it out off and on. It's a pain (the first renters left it a mess after we gave them a great deal, and the new lady pays well but is very demanding,) but it keeps things better financially.

[forty-two]

We've been trying to sell for over a year - we moved out of state for a *much* better job for dh. The only serious offer fell through b/c the buyer couldn't get a loan. Probably should see about renting it - right now we are just paying on two houses :glare: (but we *can*, so that's a plus :)). Very discouraging, esp since we are totally underwater, looking for a short sale, and watching the appraised value drop like a rock (taxes aren't too bad, though - always a silver lining ;)). It's worth less now, all nice and fixed up, than it was when the owner prior to us bought it as a serious fixer-upper :glare:. Mostly I just don't think about it, actually - it's just too depressing.

[Zuzu822]

We are selling and buying right now and the market isn't too bad in our general area, though we are in a slightly awkward location: in the country outside a small town. We are selling for very close to our asking price and making a decent profit on the sale. We're buying a house for much less than we're selling for but is lovely and in a great neighborhood. We hadn't intended to sell at this time of year with a brand new baby (our house wasn't even listed) but when the offer came in, we knew we'd better take it and run!

 

Hoping that all who are selling are successful soon! Definitely familiar with the uncertainty and feeling of limbo! :grouphug:

[6packofun]

We're trying to rent a house!! We have a little over 30 days to find a place and everything is so overpriced. :o( We just can't buy right now, which is a shame because housing prices are great.

[MindyD]

On the bright side, the other people that viewed our house on Sunday really like it and are considering making an offer! Things aren't as bad here as in other places, and we're far from upside down on the loan so we're thankful for that. The separation is definitely hard on a marriage. Having gone through forced separation before, we're trying to avoid falling into the trap of living totally separate lives as best we can. It can be so hard to learn how to live together again. We're just praying.

[gaillardia]

We won't be losing money and not making any either.

Now if we can just find the next "right" house.:001_smile:

[Margo out of lurking]

We've had our house on the market since mid-September. We've had lots of showings, but no offer. Then today I get feedback from someone who say the house yesterday and the feedback is BAD. The only thing he liked was the location. He said the house was overpriced, not well-maintained, blah blah blah. This is the first time we've ever gotten feedback like this. The house has always shown well. I know it's just one guy, but it's so discouraging.

 

You wrote again in a second post that other comments have been positive about your house. Please let this one bad comment go! You know it's not the price, as you've already adjusted. You've heard nothing negative about the condition of your home previously. This person could have easily mixed your house up with another, or he could have seen something in your house he totally disagreed with (indicating homeschooling, religion, political books, etc.), and been nasty because of that.

 

Selling is taking awhile, and it just sucks. On the plus side, you have had several showings, which is fantastic in this market! Yes, it only takes one buyer, but you increase your chances with more showings. Buyers have that luxury of time right now, they can look for a few months and be confident that they can probably go back to something they liked early on.

 

(Fwiw, we bought a house over the summer that had been up for sale for a year. It was the ONLY house we looked at, in a medium sized metropolitan area where several hundred houses for for sale in our price range.)

 

Don't let this one comment discourage you.

[LazyDazy]

Yes, we are there too. We are renting out the house we couldn't sell after being separated from hubby for a year. It just wasn't worth me raising our boys alone. So we are renting our house out at a loss and renting a teeny, tiny apartment to live in but, at least we are back together. It has been totally worth it to be back together as a family.

 

Good luck to you. I hope you can reunite your family very soon!

[newbie]

No houses anymore, but still trying to sell large parcel for 8 mos now.

 

Whats sad is everything in CAli is selling for way less than what you bought it for.