Print adversting is a waste of money. Direct markeitng to apartments or lower pricedhomes may work.

Ask for a new Compartive analysis from your Realtor. If similar homes in your area are getting showings and are getting offers, you may need to take a look at your price and or condition. If NO ONE is getting offers or showings, you are in a flat maket and must slash your price to 5% BELOW that price of the last similar home that sold.

I am sorry that you are in this situation. In my opinion, it's very important that your home is marketed through MLS, various websites and printed materials. Reaching the majority buyer market includes printed marketing materials. This would include hand-outs to other real estate companies, neighborhoods, and postings at various businesses. Fortunately, I have sold my listings in under 60 days using this approach. Getting listings sold within a minimum time in today's market requires a lot of hard work by an agent.

Keith has pointed out some very important Q&A between you and your agent. Before I consider a listing and assist the seller with deciding should the home be put on the current market right now or not, we go over many real factors as it relates to the seller's home and the current market. Through consultation, unfortunately, there are sellers out there who are not prepared financially to put their homes on the market.

The reality is if the home to be listed is priced correctly, marketed both through MLS/website and printed materials, and prepared for showing both inside and out then it will sell quickly. With all these things in balance, I have never witnessed a house staying on the market for more than 60 days. Most savvy buyers are working with a Realtor who is educating them frequently. Most if not all Realtors will insure their buyer gets the best deal in a home and most are experts in the negotiation process. It may very advantagous to be professionally represented by a good Realtor whether you are buying or selling.

I wish you luck and would advise that you have a long chat with your Realtor. He is working for you not the other way around.

Peter,

The interview process is such an important part of selecting an agent to represent your property. This should not be suddenly coming to your attention after more than 2 months working with the agent. The agents complete marketing plan and philosophy should have been revealed in the very beginning, prior to signing the listing agreement.

The benefit of having an agent that is comitted to a comprehensive marketing plan is that you don't have to pay anything except the commission when your home sells. Going FSBO and throwing your money at advertising may dig you an even deeper hole.

Good luck

"I am curious. What did you and your Realtor agree to when you decided to work together? "

We agreed to have a brokers open ASAP to get feed back from realtors.

We agreed we disliked opens but he had one to try to 'get traffic'.

We agreed the buyers would be pre qualified before any offers are presented.

We agreed to view homes on the market with the realtor to arrive at a price. (as well as solds on paper)

We agreed it would be listed on over 200 websites. We agreed to using many pictures on line.

We agreed it would be on Craigs List.

We agreed to lower the price in 30 days if we did not have an offer. (but we have had no showings)

We agreed to reevaluate the marketing in 30 days if it has not sold.

We already purchased (closed - waiting for us to move into) another home - we are relocating out of state - job.

The road in front of our house is closed and the busy road 1 mile away is closed. Our realtor is surprised we have had no sign calls! When we interviewed realtors, all 3 of them said online advertising was the way to go - newspapers are dead. Apparently over 80% of homes sell via MLS.

Where are the realtors like you in Minneapolis?

Peter
I am curious. What did you and your Realtor agree to when you decided to work together?

The biggest problem that clients and Realtors have is unmet expectations. When I agree to list a home we have some baseline understandings:
1. the seller is serious about selling. I personally do not take listings "to test the market" or "to see if I can get my price". That leads down the path to frustration on all sides.
2. I outline what I will do and the expected results. I expect 10-12 showings in the first two weeks or one offer, or we adjust the price about 5%. We know that homes that sell in the first 30 days sell closest to asking price; the longer they sit, the less it is worth. In my market, at 120 Days on Market the list price to sale price ratio is 93.6%. Within 30 days it's 100%.
3, The buyer that sees the home the first time and buys it is brought by a Realtor. 90% of the time.

So if a property is property prepared for market (cleaning, painting, de-cluttering, re-personalizing, staging, professional photographs) and priced and we see no showing activity, we know that the reason is price.

The 80/20 rule applies to real estate. About 20% of homes for sale are in great shape and will sell within 30 days. The rest are over-priced and sit there, loosing value and accumulating market time. Is your home in the 20%?

Here are some questions to ask your Realtor:
Since your home hit the market:
how many homes have
- come on the market
- lowered their price
- gone into escrow
-sold
-expired.

In most situations like homes are selling, just not yours. So, assuming all things are equal, the main reason is VALUE. The easiest way to get showings it to lower the price.

Good luck!

Scott - Thanks for the reply. We toured 6 for sale houses in the area with the realtor before pricing ours - we also had an independent appraisal done before hiring a realtor. We have a unique hobby farm and found one similar (as can be) which sold in 45 days market time. Is it pricing? Could be because of the market.

Just curious - Why would realtors alienate us if we offered a higher commission than a listing agent offers?

First of all your realtor is dead wrong. you cant catch fish without bait so if you have no ads you will have no buyers. you need to insist he advertises or ask to be released and find a broker that is willing to do the job. You should be advertising weekly fri, sat and sundays and in any major papaers rea estate section. also the monthly color bookls such as the real estate book or homes and land work well, the other ones you can do without. you may also want to check your price. have your broker or a new broker do a current brokers price oppinion to see if your price is right. usually the reason for no buyers is no ads or a high price. make sure you are not facing both. to go it alone you will alienate all the brokers in your area who wont be bringing their customners by, find a broker that is willing to WORK for you, not just take a listing. good luck with your sale