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What should I expect from selling right now?
I listed my house on 8/12 and have it at a very average price for my neighborhood. The average on the market in my hood is around 6 weeks (or was when I listed) but since we listed we have only had one showing. When I sold my condo years ago, I had multiple showings every day but that was at the top of the market. If you have sold recently, please tell me about your experience. I really was expecting to have more showings than this. Am I expecting too much? Also, how often do you talk to your realtor after the listing goes up. I haven't really heard a peep out of our realtor unless I ask him a question. Is that normal? Is it just a list and wait kind of game? I might just have had too high of expectations right off the bat. Please tell me what your experience has been so that I can make sure that my expectations are reasonable. Thanks!
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Re: What should I expect from selling right now?
I haven't sold, but my ex-boss did, and she was on her realtor(s) like white on rice to make sure that they were actively selling her house. Not just letting it sit there, waiting on someone to come to it. I would tell him that you want an open house set up to drum up traffic (or at the very least, ask him what ideas he has to that end).
GL!
We just re-listed with a different agent. According to a ton of realtors we interviewed and an economics class my husband took downtown a month ago the homes in the 100-200K are not selling. The higher end homes (350K and up) are selling faster because the incomes are higher but the market in Austin is apparently suppose to go down until the end of next year! Grrrr.
With that said this summer we averaged 1-2 showings every 2-3 weeks. It has really really really sucked and we now have listed our house about 20K below from what started and still have had a slow time. Our realtor thinks our house will be sold by Nov so we will see. Also you (and us) are kind of in a bad position because most people buy houses in June/July so the kids will start school in the new district.
We call and email our realtor all the time asking about what is being done to generate walk throughs. I dunno the market just really sucks right now.
Also according to our realtor 1 out of every 8 showings you should have an offer according to national averages. He also said that if we don't get a lot of showings then we need to look at price again.
I haven't sold recently, so I can't tell you about how many showing you should "expect" but as far as your realtor goes...it really depends on how badly you want/need to sell your house.
If you want/need to get out of your house quickly and are willing to make serious price adjustments, then I would get on your realtor and tell him/her that. I would expect open houses at least once a month. Have you had a professional stager come through the house? What kind of marketing is your realtor doing (other than MLS)? Are there any other improvements you could make to your house to make it more appealing?
If you're really not really willing to budge too much on the price and/or you're not in a hurry to move, then I don't know what all else your realtor can do, KWIM?
IMO, your realtor should only be putting in as much effort as you are.
Some friends of mine sold their house recently. Like you, they were in a good neighborhood and listed at a good price. Their showings were pretty much a trickle at first, but after their second open house (a month after the house was listed and they had an open house) they received two offers. Their house was on the market for almost 8 weeks (if I recall correctly).
So I think an open house is a great idea, but I also agree that it's important for your realtor to really market your house. When the last house I lived in sold (about 3 years ago), our realtor got our house on a realtor house tour. Realtors toured houses in the area, spent about 10 - 15 min in each place and gave feedback. I don't know how common this is, but showings definitely increased after that.
I didn't hear from the realtor unless we had a showing--because she followed up with the agent to get feedback--or if she was planning something to market the house.
Good luck with your house sale! I know the wait can be really frustrating.
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ditto to the pp about sending us the listing. maybe it's not looking too great on paper and that's not driving traffic.
also, you've only been on for 1 full weekend, and that was the weekend right before school started, so if you're trying to sell to a young family, i imagine they were especially not looking this week with all the hectic school-supply-buying, last-ditch-effort-for-summer-fun, etc.
I haven't sold since 2008, so my experience won't be relevant really, but we had maybe 8 showings in the first 5 days and someone bought it on the 6th day. however, i was an extreme house-selling machine and did EVERYTHING that the books told me to for months getting our house ready to sell (right down to the freshly baked cookies for each showing).
What do you think about renting your house out? Could that be an option for you?
We are so underwater that I don't see us being able to sell anytime soon. Realtor have told us that we're just SOL if we want out and that our best option is renting and that the rental market is HOT!
When we sold last yeah I absolutely hated it when people said, "I sold in 3 weeks" "I sold in 6 days" yeah yeah whatever.
We did what we were supposed to do too, but people with nicer homes lowered their prices to make it a better deal than ours. We drew the line at buying new appliances and putting in new counters b/c we put in a discount for that.
It took a long time to sell, but it finally happened. Let your realtor know you don't mind people "practicing" open houses in your home. I think our realtor said open houses don't usually get much traffic besides you nosy neighbors
You have to totally be patient and keep it super clean b/c once you start getting showings, you'll likely have a bunch.
Make sure if someone comes through, your realtor follows up and gets the lowdown from the showing agent as to what they thought and what might have helped. Sometimes people are idiots and say, "I need more rooms" then why the heck did you look at my 4 bedroom when you need 5. *grumble*
Anyway, it'll happen, it just may take a few months or more. Just be sure you are talking with your realtor a lot. If you feel like they are annoyed by you, then change realtors, they are working for you!
I have to post and run so I can't post a full response, but you may check this out... https://blog.kw.com/2010/08/24/why-some-houses-sit-while-other-houses-sell/
Photo by Melissa Glynn
Do you want to share the listing? Maybe we can offer some help or advice on the pictures and/or listing?
Seriously.
Our house was on the market for almost three years, and it took a major renovation to sell it so I'm probably not the best person to talk to, but....
Just to give you another perspective on open houses: Our first realtor was very pro-open house. I thought that was great at first, but the more we did them, the more it seemed like we were having an open house for the neighborhood and not for any prospective buyers. Our second realtor didn't have a single open house (even for the newly renovated house) and it sold just fine. You'll find realtors that love them and realtors that loathe them, but don't feel like you have to do multiple open houses, especially if it disrupts your life.
As for showings, after the initial rush of interest, we'd get 2-3 a week. We also didn't have a lot of communication with our realtors while the house was on the market. Since I WFH, other realtors would schedule with me and we'd get weekly feedback reports for showings, website hits, etc. I usually emailed or called to let them know we were out of flyers. But that level of communication is what I wanted. I didn't want daily updates or constant contact, especially the longer we were on the market. I knew the realtors were working hard and didn't want to micromanage their efforts.
FWIW, it's been a hard market for some years now and for as many "we had a friend that sold their house in one day" stories I had to endure, those are certainly more the exception than the rule right now. Good luck!
It's been just under 2 years, and we were a different market than your house, so I don't have recs there.
Do you feel comfortable that the pictures show your house in the best light? We staged and then had a pro come take pics (part of my realtor's package.) Also, I googled my address pretty frequently those first few weeks. I wanted to be sure my realtor was getting us on all the big sites, and we communicated about when I could get on tours, or in print.
I requested that she follow-up after all showings, and for the most part she did.
I wasn't a big fan of open houses. I think a few are fine- my realtor said it's mostly "looky-lou's", but you never know when they'll spread the word. We did a few just to open the doors and let people know what we were offering.
Finally, I'd talk to your realtor and get a better ideas of expectations in your 'hood. How often are others showing? What is the average list time for your price range right now? That might help your perspective.
ETA: my realtor rec'd price evaluations every 6-8 weeks. Once you drop, you can't go back.
Ok, so GAPeach is right - it's all about price and how it shows in your market -- there's nothing else that matters. If you don't have showings, and it is staged and listed (photographed) well, you're not at the right price to generate activity. Few houses are really staged well, so that may be something to work on if price isn't flexible.
Sitting on the market too long is dangerous - when people see a house that's been listed XXX days, they automatically think "what's wrong with it!" Many of the most aggressive realtors are pricing slightly below market to generate as much activity as possible and this often results in multiple offers. In my own personal buying experience we saw a house that was priced below market on a Thursday (it was listed Monday), put an offer on Saturday and were too late (although we would have bid it up above the asking price the sellers decided not to accept mutliple offers (weird)). The house we bought was put on the market on a Tuesday, we put an offer on it the next day and we paid full price (there was tons of activity on it, and we knew it was priced aggressively).
Open houses VERY rarely sell houses. Many, maybe most, of the top agents don't bother doing them, unless they offer them to newer agents to sit in. Although few agents use them as such, open houses are really an agent's opportunity to capture buyer clients, not to sell the actual house they're sitting in. Sure, it's possible, but it's not probable.
As for communication - you have a right to have as much communication as YOU want. Your agent works for you and will be paid well for the work. If you want to hear from them every week, you should.
Photo by Melissa Glynn