B

I have a different take on your question. Instead of asking what extraordinary thing your realtor can do to sell your house, ask yourself what you can do to make your house more appealing to buyers.

As a buyer who could be looking at your house, please don't leave me a mess to fix up. I want to move into a home without having to gut the place. No leaking facets, no smell or sign of mold and mildew, no broken or cracked windows or front doors that don't work. If your garage doors are broken and won't work, replace them. If your frig sounds like its on its last leg, repair it, get rid of it or replace it.

If you set your alarm for your house, please tell us where it is located in the house. We want to shut it off before it starts to howl. Better yet, leave the directions in the agents remarks. There is nothing more disheartening than both of us racing through a house tyring to find the alarm and having it go off anyway.

If you smoke in the house, find some other place to do it. There is nothing worse than walking to the front door and smelling the cigarette smoke in the driveway. Please make sure that nothing in your frig smells bad and that your oven your is clean. If you have cats, empty the litter box. Don't leave your dog in the backyard unless he is a loveable, friendly canine that just melts when you pet him. A snarling, vicious dog that won't let us into the backyard, makes me lose interest in your house. There are so many other houses to look at that I won't be back.

Please leave the house when it is shown. If you stay, you make it uncomfortable for me to talk candidly to my realtor. Also, do not get involved when I see the house with my realtor. I can see a house in 15 minutes and I don't need to see the inside of every closet, etc.

Have your house ready for company/buyers at all times. Hire a maid service if that will help keep it in tip top shape. We have walked into houses where you couldn't see the sink or counters in the kitchen because of all the dirty dishes and clutter. Pick up the house. Sometimes, we can't walk into the bedrooms because of the dirty clothes thrown on the floor. Make your beds everyday.

If your house is vacant, please have some one take care of yard. It is depressing to drive up to the house and see weeds everywhere. Don't try to save a few bucks by not watering your landscaping. I will take at least $20,000 or more off of my offer to replace all of the dead plants and grass.

My realtor and I have seen only three turn key houses in the last six months in the price range of $400,000 to $700,000. Almost everything we see needs a lot of expensive work. One house has an active termite nest in the beams above the front door. Quite a few of the vacant ones have cobwebs, bugs, and spiders webs throughout the house. It's really creepy to walk through a vacant house and end up with spider webs in your face. (I do not consider real spider webs to be appropriate Halloween decorations.)

You need to be a good partner with your realtor. Listen to their advice. They want to sell your house as much as you do. Don't thwart their good efforts by presenting a cluttered, dirty house with dead plants in the front yard. If your realtor suggests you should lower your price, swallow your pride and do it. Price your house 5% below the lowest sold comp in your neighborhood. (Won't a pricing war be nice for your house?) Your goal is to sell your house so that you can start your new life.

Good luck Gilles. I hope this helps.

BJL - Sun Oct 25 2009, 22:44

The IRS can seize your house and everthing in it. Then, the IRS can sell it at a auction for back taxes any time they want. They can garnish your wages, They can put you both in jai. Think of Al Capone--he was finally put behind bars when he didn't pay his income taxes.

As far as I know, the IRS does not negoiate what they are owed. Your only bargaining chip is to appear with your lawyer (a tax and IRS expert) in front of an IRS agent, and work out a payment plan. Otherwise, you could end up in jail for a very long time.

Please take care of this immediately. Get motivated and get this done. Good luck.

Bev. - Sun Oct 4 2009, 20:48

I am someone who could buy your house in High Desert . Now, I will tell why I won't spend that kind of money as the financial markets all around the globe are crashing.

I would rather buy a cheap house and save/invest would would have been the rest of my mortgage payment. A house less than $300,000 would be from 8 to 10% of our income. We have a flawless credit rating and no debt. But, we are on the fence about buying a house any time in the near future. Last May when we moved to Albuquerque, we tried to buy a house. Sadly, we ran into several sellers who would only entertain full price offers. We bought nothing and rented in High Desert instead. After going to open houses in High Desert for the past several months, these are my observations.

There is no traffic. Nobody seems to be looking. I have never seen realtors work harder. They now have open houses on Fridays, Saturdays and two on Sundays. Some of these houses have dropped $100,000 or more in the past 12 months. They have missed the market. Those that bought in 2006 are in deep trouble because they are upside down in their house. (They owe more than what it is worth.) Some realtors tell you that this is a short sale and the house must be sold.

A gorgeous million dollar plus house on Zina is an REO--bank owned. Nobody bid at the auction and this is the last step in the foreclosure process. The house is beyond description--perfect. It has views that will take your breath away. Compare your $800,000 house to this one. Someone could make a cash offer for $800,000 and probably walk away with that house.

Another house that started at $850,000 last October is down to $699,000 and still hasn't sold. When is that last time that a house sold in High Desert? Banks want compariables that are no older than 60 days. Nation wide, banks are building in a 10% drop in the value of the house in their loans. They are looking for a 10% or more downpayment to cover them in case the houses continue to lose value.

Your pool of buyers have shrunk dramatically. How many people are willing to part with $800,000 cash to buy your house? How many sellers can afford to go over the magic number of $416,000 and into dangerous jumbo territory? Will any bank loan a jumbo mortgage these days? Someone whould have to come in with a down payment of $384,000 to avoid a jumbo mortgage. With that, they could buy a less prestigious house for cash and have no house payment.

In this crazy market, who are your buyers? They are executives that have been transferred to Albuquerque. They will either buy a house or rent like us. First time home buyers can't afford your house. At this time, few buyers and banks are willing to venture into jumbo territory. For most buyers, it's a mess out there to try and get a mortgage. Like our new neighbors from CA, we are going to sit on our cash down payment and watch the housing market. When our lease expires this summer, we may or may not buy depending on the financial crisis.

If I were in your shoes, I would set back, pay off my cars, credit cards and pay down my Albuquerque mortgage as fast as possible. Why? Because when you go to sell the house, the market may be a lot worse. You do not want to negiotate a short sale with the bank. The government considers the loss on sale amount of money to be a gift-- if the bank forgives that part of the loan. Then, you will be taxed on it. Although a lot of banks these days are no longer forgiving the short sale amount. They want the sellers to pay them back. No one has a crystal ball to predict what will happen in High Desert next Spring or in the next couple of years. Your best course of action is to plan for the worst case scenario and prepare. If the market picks up, you will have paid more on the house and will take more cash back with you to Wisconsin. Being debt free and a cash couple is the best defense in these uncertain times.

BJL - Thu Oct 9 2008, 08:53