Gary,
If you'd like me to come through your home with you and go through the formula's I discussed earlier, just let me know. I can't do it until Dec 5th or later, but I would be happy to do that for you. If that doesn't meet your time line, I would be happy to refer you to an outstanding Realtor I know personally who handles a lot of business in that area.

Hi Gary, Dale is absolutely dead on! She gave a wonderful answer. I am so glad that I don't know your address. That way I won't be tempted to look up your agent online. That agent gave you such bad advice. Don't take it. Selling by owner will only decrease the exposure you are currently getting. Get a new realtor. Someone who will help you price your home appropriately. A realtor who will take you to look at your competition so you can make an educated decision on your pricing. Get a realtor who is creative and aggressive. Add incentives to your listing! This is a very difficult and frustrating time, in many areas, try to be realistic and patient. I wish you all the best! Cynthia

Gary
Dale said it all...and then some!
The truth is that ANY home will sell at the right price.
You should know that Realtors can look at the HISTORY of a home's market experience, so we KNOW the price that your home did not sell.

Appraisal, schmaisal. You need a real Realtor. Selling on your own is not going to cut it. I don't know your market, however in most markets the trend is downward, so TIME is MONEY.

Dale said it in a more complicated manner, but the bottom line is this. If other homes, like yours, have sold in the time that yours was on the market, then the problem is VALUE. Buyers purchase the best homes FIRST, and leave the rest to languish. So your Realtor's two jobs are to help YOU figure out what the value is currently and how to expose that value to the buyers.

90% of the time, the buyer that sees the home they purchase does so with a Realtor. Realtors (in most cases) know VALUE. When i see a good deal (just saw one fifteen minutes ago on the MLS), I say to myself ,"This property is a good deal, who do I know that might want to buy it?". You need a few sharp Realtors looking at your listing on the MLS asking themselves the same question.

There are things that your Realtor can recommend to increase the value (such as fresh paint staging, offering a buy downprogram to make the financing more afforable). You need a Realtor that can help you get the property sold NOW. Odds are your property is worth less now than it was a year ago, so get moving. If you need help, contact a Trulia voice in the neighborhood, I can refer you to someone, or better yet, sit down with your curren Realtor and challenge them to give you ideas and strategies to get your home sold. Your Realtor works for a broker, call them up and demand some service!

As a realtor in the metro St Louis area who deal with St Louis, St Charles, and Jefferson Counties, I can tell you that over the past year, some homes have sold quickly, but others have sat due to the market and not being agressive enough against their competition. If your home is getting hits on line, but no one is coming to see it, then the agents and buyers don't see the value in the home at that price. If they are coming to see it but not writing a contract, they aren't seeing the value once they are in the home, based on price, condition, location and amenities.

Your Realtor should be discussing with you:
a) absorption rate - take the number of homes that have actually sold over the past year in your area and price range and divide by 12 - that's how many homes typically sell in a month in your area with the current market conditions. Now look at how many homes are currently on the market and divide by 12. That's the number of months worth of homes that are on the market that you have to beat out for the buyer

b) Next you need to seriously look at all the homes that are in your area, that are similar to your home that have SOLD over the past year - look at the full reports and pictures on the homes and check out the price range that you were at, through where you are now (you may even want to look slightly lower than where you are priced now) - they were your competition. Sit down with someone you trust to give you an honest opinion and go through the reports. Compare each home to yours and see if you can determine why they sold and you didn't. Did they have a better location? yard? What was the floorplan of their home like? Were they more updated than your home? Did they have a finished (or better finished) basement? Did they have an extra bathroom or garage space or bonus area that you don't have? Were they properly prepared to go on the market (wallpaper taken down, neutral color schemes, etc)? Looking at the pictures did you have a "WOW" response when you looked at them?

How were they priced compared to your home (look at where they were initially listed, where they were listed at the point that they went under contract and then what price they sold for)

c) next you need to visit the homes that you are currently in competition against and realistically make sure that your home looks better and is priced better than those homes.

As part of that, go through your home and make sure that all the little maintenance stuff is done. If a buyer comes through and sees things that need to be done, their impression of the house will not be as favorable. (plus it's a lot cheaper to fix it up front then to have it written up on a building inspection where they want a licensed contractor to repair everything). Paint, make sure that any wallpaper or "loud" paint colors are gone, make sure that floors are in good repair (replace carpeting if you need to), then stage your home - you can do this with your own belongings or hire a company to come in and do it for you with their items. Remember that interior decorating is getting the home to your taste, while staging is neutralizing the home so that the buyer can see their furniture and items in the home. Pack away all the knick knacks and extra "stuff" that we all have (you'll have to pack it to move it anyway, so pack it now and get it out of the way - if need be rent a storage locker for it.

Next, ignore your appraisal unless it was done this month. The current market is a declining market and an appraisal done a year ago isn't valid now. You also need to keep in mind that the bank wil appraise it based on what they are loaning you, the insurance company will appraise it based on replacement value, but the Realtor will provide comps based on what is actually selling in the area if they are a good Realtor. There are Realtors however, who will start out by telling you a higher price, figuring that you will then list with them instead of their competition, then they will plan on the home coming down in price before it sells.

At this point, you should have a good idea of why you haven't sold compared to the ones that have sold, and what you need to do to make your home stand out above the rest. These are all things that a good realtor should guide you through when they talk to you about listing your home and then while they have it on the market.

As a realtor, I go through each home with my seller before we put it on the market to determine what they need to do to be better than the next home and where they should be priced and to help them stage the home. I then watch our competition's prices and condition to make sure that we stay competitive

Gary,
It sounds like you’re priced too high. If your current agent doesn't want the listing talk to two or three agents and have them give you their honest opinion of why your home hasn't sold. It's either price, condition or lack of marketing. If the appraisal was used to refinance the home or get a second mortgage disregard it, it was just the number they needed to justify the loan. hang in there, a lot of people are going through what you are.

I feel badly that you are having such a problem.
Try offering some incentives to buyers rather than lowering your price. One of the things that is happening right now is that buyers are having a difficult time getting the financing they need to buy. They are having to come up with more up front money. If you can give them some relief by paying closing costs ( or part of them) that is very attractive. Where are you advertising your property? Think outside of the box. The norm is in the local paper. If the buyers aren't in your area, try advertising in other area papers.
These are just a few ideas. I hope they help. Good luck.