Janet

Thanks - I interviewed 5 realtors and recommended pricing range was between $175-204. (County appraisal is $174k). The realtor we chose recommended $195k... we went $190k.. During a realtor's tour, the house showed well but was suggested that we lower it $10k. We dropped to $185k... then $174k, now are listing at $165k.

Naima - I understand what you mean about assessed value. We lived in Lewisville, TX and our appraised value was way more than market value!!

If I switched realtors, and the house sold during the protection period, would I owe both the original realtor and the new realtor a 3% commission? That's my fear. I feel like I keep asking my realtor for information (comps, marketing strategy, average DOM) and not getting info, so I'm frustrated. I know we're still on the low end of time on the market, and 2 offers are good. Wonder if we should have priced higher to give ourselves more negotiating room! - Wed Dec 19 2007, 23:27

Sorry to piggyback onto this if it's rude to do so, but we have an offer on our house that is low. There's countering going on back and forth, but if we do accept a lower offer, I was thinking of doing it as-is just to not have to deal with anyone or anything. The house is only 3 years old, I know of absolutely nothing wrong with it, but don't want to be nickeled and dimed any further on it. If I say "as-is", does that leave a bad taste? - Mon Nov 26 2007, 22:14

Thanks - Appreciate the information! Hoping that someone falls in love with our house soon :) We've dropped the price $25k from where we started in September, so just need to attract the right someone's attention! - Sat Nov 17 2007, 23:03

This is an older question, but as a seller, I thought I'd answer :) My concerns - and something that I think an agent will score HUGE points with sellers if they can address - are:

1. How do we realistically price our home? For example, I interviewed 5-6 realtors and comps were all over the board. We chose to go slightly lower than our selected realtor suggested. Even with that, we've had to lower it $25k less...

2. When realtors pull comps, what are they comparing us to? That seems to also explain some of the variance in suggested price.

3. What are the market trends? Prices going up over the last 12 months? Prices going down over the last 12 months? By what percentage?

4. What is the realistic timing for selling a house?

5. What are the trends as far as size? Are larger homes selling? smaller? which areas?

I appreciate the answers that you give on trulia and have been learning alot! - Mon Nov 12 2007, 21:23

Lol - your answers are matching my thoughts! Realtors suggested getting everything off the walls and painting the colored walls white, and I think that it took all personality out of the house and we look bland and boring. We interviewed 5-6 realtors and chose ours based on personal referral and what we felt was the best match for our intent (which was best price in the quickest time). The friend who referred her is using her too... and having the same problems. Fortunately for her, she's got a dual listing so has other representation. Our realtor didn't promise the highest price and we went lower than her top recommendation (but still within range of all of the market analyses). What's funny is that we went with her because she was the only one who talked about marketing to other realtors. I'm kicking myself because we're paying full price and I'm the one trying to get us noticed. I would've been better going with the realtor who offered a cash back if we went with his builder's home -- which we ended up doing. I don't know how we rate with our competition because in the last 55 days I haven't gotten any updates - I've stepped up my push to get information. From what I can find online, we're in the lower price range based on what is listed. But I'm not an expert, so it's just my opinion. I don't want to create an acrimonious relationship, but I think we've been too forgiving so far. Signs are down in my neighborhood, but I don't know if that's expiring listings or what. My other concern is that I don't get quick callbacks from my realtor, so I question if a buyer/interested party would either.

Ute - No offense taken at all. That's the kind of feedback I want... something I can do something about!

Thanks for everyone's willingness to share your expertise and suggestions. - Sun Oct 28 2007, 08:47

Thanks, Cindi -- I posted the craigslist ad so that's my wordiness but I've been thinking about taking a bunch of pictures and creating my own web page of them to link to :) I'd love for my realtor to be doing this, but so far it hasn't happened (and we're contracted with her til March and are moving into a new home in December), so I'm trying to find as many internet sites to post to, just to get us seen. We've previously been on the featured page... although page 2, so I'll check on that. And no, there's no virtual tour. I'm pushing for that now. We got good reviews from the realtor tour, so I've been hopeful, but 2 price drops (including to lower than the realtor tour suggested) haven't gotten us anywhere so I really feel like we're invisible.

I appreciate your answer and suggestions!! - Sun Oct 28 2007, 01:13