Do not get discourage, honestly if you are on a busy street it takes longer to sell, many people have kids or for other reasons they do not want to live to a busy street. Are you giving some incentives to the buyers like some closing costs?. Maybe the house looks OK in your eyes, but maybe you need to stage your house, sometimes even the color of the towels in the bathrooms make a bathroom look more apealing, Did you remove all your family pictures?? Not just pricing but the condition of the property makes a difference. Even if the house look great to your eyes to have an interior decorator makes a big difference selling a house, I always bring an interior decorator to my listings for free to my clients.

Nationwide research shows that there are five main reasons real estate doesn't sell:
1 -Price
2 -Condition
3 -Location
4 -Listing Agent
5 -Marketing Plan

Good Luck, if you need some help in the future, just let me know..

Victoria Pando
TX and FL Real Estate Broker.
WIZ Realty.
Cell 512-696-3015
vickypando@gmail.com

Eighty percent of all results are system dependant. Sellers can get the maximum price for their home with the right systems in place. Certainly, you will need every advantage possible to compete in this market and that is why our business management team is constantly testing and improving our systems to ensure the successful sale of our homes. Hang in there and good luck!

Dear Sad Seller,

Just wanted to check in with you to see how things have been going this past month after posting on Trulia. I'm hopeful that your house is under contract now and that you are free from stress in keeping your home show ready all the time.

I mentioned in my post that I hired a Professional Stager for my listing that seemed to match your situation. I'm happy to report that my listing is under contract and we will close Nov 5th. If your home is still on the market, I hope that you continue to keep it on MLS which feeds into AustinHomeSearch.com and Realtor.com. That is a service that only a Realtor can provide, but it will get results.

I'm sure that everyone who posted would love an update!

Thanks,

Stacey Rider, Realtor
Bartlett Real Estate Group
Keller Williams Realty
http://www.fourpointsfoodie.com http://www.TopKWGroup.com
Stacey@TopKWGroup.com

I talked with a realtor the other day who said with 95% certainty, if he has a buyer who likes a re-sale home. And is willing to live in cedar park, leander, round rock, pflugerville, etc. anywhere where new construction is being sold. He can almost always take them to new construction and sell them on the benefits. He'll let them see the re-sale home first, then go to the builder where the builder pays tons of closing costs, throws in the washer, dryer, flat screen TV and even a new laptop computer. Plus the agent gets a bonus to sell it. Everyone in the transaction wins but those homeowners with re-sale homes on the market.

If you're willing to rent, talk to me I can definitely offer a much better and safer solution than renting.
I'm a professional house buyer and we can discuss some options, and you can also visit my blog as I list several options that include, selling with or without a realtor, renting, short sales, loan modificiations, wrap around mortgages, etc. I've been professionally buying and selling houses for almost 8 years (and I'm not a realtor) so my default won't be "list house/rent house". If I can help bring some other solutions to the table, please let me know.

Jessica

PS. I've helped more than 30 families in the last year alone, get out of homes that weren't selling.

Dear Sad Seller,

You are not alone out their even though it may feel like it. The sreet is a harder objection to overcome than most people are willing to admit. You will likely need to be about $10,000 below market value to compensate for this objection. In addition, I would recommend adding a water feature to the side of the yard with the street. The attention will be drawn to the sound of the water and not the road and the eyes will be drawn to the fountain/pond/etc. instead of what lies beyond. You will never be able to sell the road, but your yard is something you can control.

Here is wishing you multiple offers!

Happy selling,

Greg

Hi Sad Seller,

Do you have to sell now? My advice depends on your price range. If your home is priced under about $225K you may still get a Buyer looking for the 1st Time Home Buyer Tax Credit until about October 1st (it's taking 45-60 days to get loans closed). If it doesn't sell by then, you might as well take it off the market until next year. There are many potential 1st time homebuyers who couldn't buy because they had trashed their credit. The smart ones are working on cleaning up their credit so they can buy if the tax credit is renewed or extended. At this point, the pool of qualified buyers in this price range has been largely depleted. Time is the only cure for this situation given the tougher lending requirements.

If your home is priced above $225K, your pool of potential buyers is different. Some of them are transferees from other states who have been renting while waiting for their home to sell. Others will be move-up buyers who are selling their current home to a 1st time buyer. Your decision here is less clear and will depend on how badly you need to sell now.

Whenever I am listing a house where it is urgent that the owner sell quickly, I recommend listing the house at the rock bottom possible price and I put comments in the MLS that "if the buyer needs closing cost paid, please add to price". Right now price is everything - everyone wants a bargain - and searches are done by price. The lower the price compared to similar homes, the greater your odds of selling. The comment about closing costs sends a message to the other agent that a below list offer is not likely to get accepted. If you get a low offer, just say NO. If your price is really low, you may actually get multiple offers.

Another strategy is to not put "perks" on the MLS sheet that the buyer is likely to want. Then if you receive a below list offer that also asks for the refrigerator or the children's play set, etc. you can give them the "perk" and counter on the price which makes the buyer feel like a "winner". I hope this helps. Good luck.

Your friend in the real estate business,

Nancy Filgate, REALTOR®
ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI
Avalar Austin Real Estate
nancy@filgate.com
Mobile: 512.351.1497

there is a 4th condition to the standard 3, Price - Location - Condition,

available financing!

more difficult to fha financing...3.5 % down and an additional 4% settlement all adds up to alot of money

very nice homes can take a year of more to sell

The 3 main factors for selling are Price - Location - Condition. If one is undesirable to buyers then the other 2 factors must be adjusted. Since you cannot change the Location and the Condition sounds right, then
Price is all that remains. Since you are getting showings the marketing appears to be working.
In today's market you must price BELOW what comparable homes are SELLING FOR - not he ASKING
price of comps.

Price and Condition. Sounds like your condition is good to excellent. If your home is priced right you will get an offer every 10 to 15 showings. Keep in mind that in 78613, you have 4 major seller groups all competing for the same buyers: 1) regular sellers (like yourself) 2) builders 3) foreclosures 4) short-sales. So to get the attention and interest you need to get a contract you really have to be a "price leader" (for comparable homes of similar size, age, location, features, and condition).

Dear Sad Seller,

You are not the only seller facing this situation. It's a quirky market. The Williamson County numbers have looked like this so far: in June over 650 homes sold, July saw just under 600 homes sold and August saw 451 homes sold. You can see the decreasing trend within the county... Without knowing your subdivision, listing price, sq foot or the main street you are next to, it's difficult to give you a clearer picture. However, based on what you wrote above, it's obvious you are a well informed and conscientious seller. I'm sure your home is lovely and that you make it show ready every day.

I have a similar situation with a listing I have over in Round Rock. Same time on the market, but yet it's an incredibly lovely home, with stunning landscaping. Why hasn't it sold? We've dropped the price just like you. I brought in a Home Stager yesterday afternoon because I felt strongly that it needed "fresh eyes" or rather, a new opinion. She was amazing... make the bedrooms look much bigger, showed us tricks to bring in more light (recommended taking off the screens and cleaning the windows) and her little touches made such a large impact. Now I'm going to have an Open House and put it back on the Property Tour so it's freshly on the minds of other Realtor's with potential buyers.

I love Cedar Park, have lived there since 2000 and know that it is a sought after location. Please stay positive and know that your buyer is out there.

Good luck and I hope my answer helped in some way.

Stacey Hurley-Rider
The Bartlett Real Estate Group
Keller Williams
Stacey@TopKWGroup.com http://www.TopKWGroup.com
512-423-8122