Problems selling my house- get a new realtor, if I can?

So, here's the deal.

A little over three months ago, my house went up on the market. As most of my friends and some of those here where's it's come up know, this is primarily because I've long (badly) needed a bigger garage and there really isn't a good way to enlarge/replace the garage I have without it being more financially sound to just buy a place with a much better setup (my house is already one of the larger, more expensive ones in my neighborhood and I'd never get anywhere near what I would have to put into a garage back out of it when it came time to sell the place...). Since being listed those three months ago, there has been VERY little interest or movement on it- less than a dozen viewing requests (most coming immediately after the first price drop), and no offers or even feedback that people viewing it might be interested in it.

We've of course been keeping an eye out for suitable houses that would suit our needs to buy as well, and we've watched the vast majority of those that we really liked get sold- many of them under a month after they were listed. Some in less than a week, including one down the street from mine (we weren't interested in it, but of course were watching to see what happened with it.

Needless to say, the GF and I are rather frustrated about the situation- and she at least is VERY unhappy with our (or, more accurately, MY) realtor. Things got off on a very bad foot (no pun intended...) when on the day we signed the paperwork to list the house, she absentmindedly tracked driveway sealant through the house onto the carpet (thank you, Chem Dry- and yes, SHE paid for the clean-up). It also feels like she's done VERY little to actually try and actively sell the house. Every change or adjustment we've made to the listing itself or to drop the price (it's been dropped twice for a total drop of 5% of the original price) has come through our suggestion, and the one open house (held about a month and a half after it was listed shortly after dropping the price the first time) was something that WE requested she do. And apparently only one couple showed up to it.

The only feedback we've really gotten that's been of use from previous showings was that the potential buyers didn't like that it was across the street from several apartment complexes- otherwise they've all said the house showed well and most have said that the price seemed reasonable, but they just didn't have any interest in the house.

While I'm not as mad at the realtor as my GF is, owing in equal parts to my having a bit more sedate nature and having worked well with my realtor both when I bought this house and when I flirted with selling it about 4 years ago, I am getting pretty annoyed at the lack of any movement and can't deny the GF's observations that the realtor really doesn't SEEM to be doing much of anything try and sell the house. She brought it home rather pointedly when I was venting about the house a few days ago and in exasperation said, "I don't know, I just can't think of any other things to try and make it more appealing..." and the GF responded, "YOU shouldn't be the one trying to come up with those ideas- it's her JOB to do that and to sell the house..."

It's rather perplexing, because at the same time the realtor can't get PAID until the house sells, so you'd THINK she'd be pushing as much as possible to get it sold and us on to being able to buy a new place (which she'd also get a commission for). But she's not... every single correspondence on the place so far ourside of her early on sending the occasional house she thought we might be interested in has originated with me.

I dug up (or, more accurately- and hopefully as something of a prod- requested that the realtor send me another copy of) the paperwork for selling the house with the sale contract on it. The contract appears to say that the realtor has the exclusive right to selling the property for 6 months (half of which is up...), but in signing it I remember her saying that they were pretty flexible on things- though I don't know exactly how easy it would be to break the contract claiming that I felt the realtor wasn't doing a good enough job.

So- after all that explanation (which I suppose some of you won't be TOO shocked at... ), I'm curious to know if any of you have had similar issues with realtors and selling houses and how you handed them- if breaking the 'right to sell' contract and finding another realtor is feasible; if we're being unreasonable in assessing the realtor's performance so far; and thoughts/experiences with trying to drum up more interest in selling a property.

Thanks!

I sold a "hard to sell" property a few years back, and had similar issues to you. The biggest thing we did was first, make sure the home is perfect. You have a lot of competition. With that, you need to make sure yours is the home they sell. We did that by changing the commission rates. Our realtor changed his commission to 2.5% instead of 3, and the buyer's agent to 3.5%. The traffic through the house was at least 10x greater and it sold within a month. If you are truly being hurt by the surroundings, making it as attractive as possible to the buying agents goes a long way.

Who is it, meaning the realtor or realty?

When I was trying to sell our home before the foreclosure, the realtor we used was lazy and only wanted us to keep cutting the price to make it more attractive to buyers. I don't ever recall EVER seeing a listing in the normal Sunday paper, even if it was a no pic, few line ad. Sadly, she missed out on a great oppurtunity.

I had a similar problem. After 3 months, I told the guy I wasn't happy with his service, and I wanted out of the contract. He let me out without any issues, and I sold the house myself. My last two transactions were private sales, but I thought I might get more money/have better luck with a real estate agent. I didn't, and I'll never use another one again.

Some people are more concerned with being able to tell people that they work in real estate, than actually doing the work or getting paid.

This will sound sexist, but i bet your realtor has a husband/SO that makes good money doing something else.

The funny thing about real estate agents. Given a 3% commission rate, for every $1000 in the sale price of a house, they make $30. There isn't much motivation for them to hold out for every penny in the sale of a house, their motivation is to sell as many houses as they can at or about market value.

It sounds like your agent hasn't gotten that memo or is using some kind of new-fangled economic model.

Swank Force One wrote: Some people are more concerned with being able to tell people that they work in real estate, than actually doing the work or getting paid. This will sound sexist, but i bet your realtor has a husband/SO that makes good money doing something else.

We wouldn't be wholly surprised if this were the case... according to searching on Zillow, she only has one other listing at the moment.

Brett_Murphy wrote: The funny thing about real estate agents. Given a 3% commission rate, for every $1000 in the sale price of a house, they make $30. There isn't much motivation for them to hold out for every penny in the sale of a house, their motivation is to sell as many houses as they can at or about market value. It sounds like your agent hasn't gotten that memo or is using some kind of new-fangled economic model.

Yeah, that's part of what has me scratching my head- I know that the price dropping doesn't really affect her bottom line that much, so we almost EXPECTED that she'd be pushing for dropping the price, but both time we've dropped the price it has been because of my hoping it would push things along.

The nice thing is that I'm not in a MASSIVE hurry to move. I'm out of the house and living in the house my GF rents (and have been here since before the house listing went active) and it's not all that onerous financially- but I did work out that each month I have to carry both upkeep & mortgage on the house as well as what I contribute to the GF's place that the house is costing me about $1000 a month over if it was sold.

Zomby Woof wrote: I had a similar problem. After 3 months, I told the guy I wasn't happy with his service, and I wanted out of the contract. He let me out without any issues, and I sold the house myself. My last two transactions were private sales, but I thought I might get more money/have better luck with a real estate agent. I didn't, and I'll never use another one again.

I'm more and more leaning toward dropping the realtor I have, but I'd likely be looking at getting a new one vs. selling it myself. How hard was the legal end of things in selling the house on your own? I'd figure that the lawyers necessary would pretty much offset any savings on the commission on the house.

Did you buy a house on your own too, and if so how was that? How hard was it buying a place without a realtor if it was a house that was listed through an agency?

I have to admit, I'm not the best with things like telling the realtor I'm not happy with her performance and that I want out of the contract given we've worked together well in the past. There's also the fact that I don't know what all more CAN be done to try and sell the house besides price drops at this point- it's cleaned up and staged and I'm keeping it and the yard up... the only things more than can be done (paint the garage & outside of the house) would cost more than they'd likely be worth in sale price, so while I don't see her as doing a whole lot I don't know just what more anyone ELSE could be doing...

Hi Ashyukun,

In my experience, houses that have sat on the market or have had price reductions wind up selling for an excessive discount. A plausible theory is that prospective buyers fear they’re missing some negative attribute that is driving away other buyers. Or, that the price was set too high suggesting an unrealistic or incompetent seller / selling realtor combo.

I’ve gone through eight real estate transactions in my life and in most cases, my offer was the first to be received by the seller and I’ve sold to the first offer I’ve received from a buyer. I’m just one data point but for what it’s worth, I operate on the assumption that there’s a fifty percent chance that if a deal is going to happen, it’ll be set into motion on the first day of listing.

So, if I were you, I’d advise the realtor that you are no longer highly motivated to sell. In other words, if someone shows up with zero contingencies, excellent credit (or paying cash), and accepts the listing price, fine, you’ll happily accept the offer, otherwise, you’d like to just let the six month listing period die out.

A few months later, relist the property with a new agent to get that fresh pop of interest.

Is the property listed in MLS? What is the listing number, and let us look at the listing. My wife is in the business. If it isn't in MLS, that is your first big problem. Big issues that usually cause issues. Crappy pictures online won't get you any visits. Did they do a competitive market analysis on the property? Is the price inline with that? What comps do you feel are around town? Are they selling? Curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal. If it look blah on the outside, you won't get folks to even stop by. Many people just do a quick drive by without the realtor, to see if its even worth the time. It takes two seconds to make a craigslist ad with the info and so forth. Use those resources of free marketing, craigslist, facebook etc.

Was the house presentable for showings? Is it presentable between showings? Wierd showing instructions?

In reply to RX Reven':

We've actually seen a number of places that seem to pop on and off of the market listings, since we check the new listings daily and keep a 'favorites' list in one of the iPad apps of places we like. We've figured this is to get the benefit of more people searching for brand new listings.

We set the price slightly optimistically, but not where it seemed out of line with other sales in the area. It's particularly frustrating since a house at the other end of my (rather short) block was under contract in less than a week after being listed- though I know for a fact that was a realtor-owned flip that sold for almost exactly what mine is now listed for.

I'm somewhat disinclined to just let it sit for another three months... in addition to the $1k/month extra I'm having to pay for the mortgage I also have a very limited ability to work on anything automotive-wise (I'm renting a shop-like storage space where all my tools are, but it's a 20 minute drive away) and I don't particularly relish the idea of having to move into a new house in the winter (even in our relatively mild Kentucky winters).

What is your MLS number?

What Datsun 1500 said. If you've done all the work to make it presentable, you have to get the realtors to show your house. It's a numbers game. If there are 20 others in your immediate area that are all similarly priced, yours needs to have a way to entice them to show yours. I can't stress this enough.

Having said that, I did sell my rental property without a realtor, but I did have a friend that deals in commercial property help me out. We did two things. We posted on Craigslist, and we went to social functions and handed out flyers. Guess what, we sold it off the flyer to the first person that looked at it. I probably could have sold 5 more using that approach.

You have to find a way to get people to look at it.

I also bought my current house without a realtor. A good lawyer will do everything the realtor does for you short of finding or selling your house, and you save many, many dollars. Not difficult at all to do. For selling though, you will need a fair amount of time.

In reply to Ashyukun:

Maybe your system is different, but real estate agents here provide little in the way of legal work. A lawyer is usually used (although you can do this yourself also) for the title search, registration, etc., so the only purpose of the agent is the actual selling, showing, etc.

The last house I sold, the buyers had their lawyer draw up the offer. I read it, and took it to my lawyer to look over. He agreed with me, and we wrote it back with my changes. He did that, and all the other legal stuff required, and charged me $400 for the whole thing. Sure beat giving $7500 to a couple of real estate agents.

sachilles wrote: Is the property listed in MLS? What is the listing number, and let us look at the listing. My wife is in the business. If it isn't in MLS, that is your first big problem. Big issues that usually cause issues. Crappy pictures online won't get you any visits. Did they do a competitive market analysis on the property? Is the price inline with that? What comps do you feel are around town? Are they selling? Curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal. If it look blah on the outside, you won't get folks to even stop by. Many people just do a quick drive by without the realtor, to see if its even worth the time. It takes two seconds to make a craigslist ad with the info and so forth. Use those resources of free marketing, craigslist, facebook etc. Was the house presentable for showings? Is it presentable between showings? Wierd showing instructions?

House is listed in MLS- MLS is 1307374.

I wasn't happy with some of the pictures the realtor took and re-took them so they weren't washed out or too dark. I've been kind of envious of the people who have one particular local realty company- they have a VERY artistic, good photographer who takes very stunning pictures.

The realtor did do a market anaysis of the property, and the price we set it at was in line with those. It was listed for about 4% higher than a very equivalent property just down the street (2184 Cypress Dr, it no longer has an MLS #) that sold shortly after mine went active. A house down the other street I'm on the corner of (2137 Larkspur) sold for a good bit less- but also has a much smaller yard and is about 2/3 the size of my house. The realtor's market analysis was pretty much in line with what I'd hoped to list it for.

We're mostly looking for about the same size if not slightly smaller of a house, much larger garage, and a yard the GF's dog can play in- prices vary heavily depending on the neighborhood. My place doesn't feel unreasonably priced from what we've seen in our own searching.

We put a LOT of work (and a fair bit of money...) into fixing the place up before listing it. Whole interior was repainted, carpets completely cleaned, lots of fixtures replaced, everything cleaned up considerably. Only a minimum of furniture remains in the house for staging, otherwise it's empty and I've not lived there since a month before listing it. I have the lawn taken care of weekly and stop by a few times a week to make sure everything is in good shape (which led to my finding a toilet needed to be replaced that had started leaking, thankfully just a bit). I pressure washed the sidewalks & other concrete, and had the driveway sealcoated. No weird showing instructions, and as I said I keep a decent eye on the place to make sure it's looking as good as possible and have expressly checked up on it if there's time before what few showings there have been.

Issues we've had mentioned in viewing feedback: Primary problem is that on the other side of the streets I'm on the corner of are apartment complexes, neither of which are particularly high-rent. They're not slums by any stretch either- but they've been mentioned in several feedbacks as a concern. I've lived there for 8 years and not had a single issue with the apartments being there- the only real contact I've ever had with anyone who lives in them has been several people who saw me constantly working on cars in my driveway and who very humbly asked for my advice (and when I offered it, help) with their own car problems.

Other that has come up is that the house doesn't have 2 full baths, just one and a half.

Neither of these are anything I can do anything about though.

The Craigslist idea isn't something I'd thought of... might have to see about doing that.

Definitely would love feedback on the pictures & listing. I actually rewrote the initial listing that the realtor came up with because it didn't seem to 'pop' to me, but she had to pare mine back because of a character limit as well. Thanks!

I don't have any words of advice but I started the sale process on the house I've lived in for 12 years, and followed my Realtor's advice on what to fix/work on.

After all that the Realtor came back with a crazy low opening price point. No paperwork yet, and being tired of four months of working on the house, I rented it out, which was my original plan anyway. I had 16 appointments for the first day to see the house, and number four gave me a sizable deposit to take off the market and cancel the rest of the days appointments.

I don't know what your area is like, might be something to think about. In my case, it should get me 12 months before reassessing the pros and cons of selling again.

Just a quickie observation, cause that's all I have time for.

If you face apts, you just cut your value by 5-10%. No one wants to live by apts. So if you are priced in line with the houses that aren't near apts, then you are over priced.

Same goes for shopping centers, railroad tracks, high tension power lines and usually for schools to.

Ok. Constructive feedback. Just so I make sure it's the right one, it's on Larkspur Dr, correct? Pictures looks like they are from early this spring. No leaves on the trees, in general the dead spring time look. Pictures should match the season you are in. Sounds silly, but it's an easy change. Update some with everything summered up, including some sunshine. Nothing looks terrible, but constructively one of the bathrooms looks a little dated. I'd almost go so far as to pull those pictures. It appears pink and blue. It's not a strong selling point, so best let them come fall in love with the rest of the house before seeing that. I know, it's only one room, but the bath is a pricier one to renovate. I'll have a look as a shopper in the morning in that price range and see what pops.

Looking at google street view, which any savy home buyer might do before visiting, doesn't paint a flattering picture of the apartments across the street. Not much you can do about that, but that will mess with your value. They may be awesome folks in there, but it does give a certain image.

mattmacklind wrote: I don't have any words of advice but I started the sale process on the house I've lived in for 12 years, and followed my Realtor's advice on what to fix/work on. After all that the Realtor came back with a crazy low opening price point. No paperwork yet, and being tired of four months of working on the house, I rented it out, which was my original plan anyway. I had 16 appointments for the first day to see the house, and number four gave me a sizable deposit to take off the market and cancel the rest of the days appointments. I don't know what your area is like, might be something to think about. In my case, it should get me 12 months before reassessing the pros and cons of selling again.

I've discussed the possibility of renting it with the GF, but we're far from certain we'd be able to rent it for what I'd need to be renting it for to make it worthwhile, and it would eliminate being able to put down much of a down payment on a new place as well. I'm also not the most enamored with the idea of being a landlord... my parents owned a condo they rented out for a while and had nothing but trouble with it.

sachilles wrote: Ok. Constructive feedback. Just so I make sure it's the right one, it's on Larkspur Dr, correct? Pictures looks like they are from early this spring. No leaves on the trees, in general the dead spring time look. Pictures should match the season you are in. Sounds silly, but it's an easy change. Update some with everything summered up, including some sunshine. Nothing looks terrible, but constructively one of the bathrooms looks a little dated. I'd almost go so far as to pull those pictures. It appears pink and blue. It's not a strong selling point, so best let them come fall in love with the rest of the house before seeing that. I know, it's only one room, but the bath is a pricier one to renovate. I'll have a look as a shopper in the morning in that price range and see what pops. Looking at google street view, which any savy home buyer might do before visiting, doesn't paint a flattering picture of the apartments across the street. Not much you can do about that, but that will mess with your value. They may be awesome folks in there, but it does give a certain image.

Yup, that's the one. Pictures were from March when it was listed. Good point on matching the season... and also a strike against my realtor for not keeping the pictures updated. When we get some sunshine I'll take my camera out there and take newer pictures of the exterior. I've never quite understood why the picture of the front wasn't from to the left more so you can see the front door.

Yeah... the upstairs bathroom is pink and blue. Surprisingly, a number of them around here are pink. I've never liked it, but haven't hated it enough to do anything about it. Redoing it definitely isn't in the plans- but removing the pictures isn't a wholly bad idea, I'll have to discuss it with the GF and see about getting those pictures pulled. If I'm going to be messing with the pictures anyway, I may as well see if I can find any other good shots to take, especially if I can find a really good, artistic shot to replace the 'cover' photo with. It's silly, but we've on more than a few occasions while browsing through listings from the day stopped and looked through the listing of a house we might have otherwise overlooked because of a neat, eye-catching first photo...

Yeah, the apartments are likely going to be a challenge. I myself was a bit apprehensive (though less so since I was a single guy), but met the previous owner at the second showing (was his parents' house, he got it when they passed) who reassured me about the apartments, and my own experience has been in line with what I was told. The larger complex (across Larkspur) has a much younger average age, but I only see them when they leave the parking lot exit across from the house; the one across Cypress is primarily populated by retirees, and while they like to sit out on their balconies that face the house and talk, listen to music, etc. they've always been quite friendly. The area in general is populated more by retirees than younger families- I'm something of an outlier to an extent...

I tend to hit Google or Bing (like their birds eye capability to rotate...) when I find a place I like, largely because it's the best way to get an idea of how big the garage is.

Thanks, I definitely appreciate the feedback/suggestions! Back to writing the Craigslist listing.

A little more feedback. I just spent a few more minutes going through the listings in your area. You have a LOT of listings in your price range.

I think you might do well to reconsider your price. In your price range, there are quite a few I'd pick to look at before I'd look at yours. Some of that based on the title picture, some after drilling down, there are some that seem like a much better value. Just as an outsider looking in at the area, I do not know the individual neighborhoods. I think your lack of visits has much to do with your competition at that price and cheaper. Not saying any of that to be mean, just as an outsider looking at as close to impartiality as I can.

I would agree with Sachilles. It looks like there are a lot of houses offering similar in your area without having the disadvantages your house has (Corner Lot, Busy corner, ALL THE APPARTMENTS next door on 2 sides). Coupled with it appears a few of those are 5-10K+ cheaper than yours. It looks to me as casual shopper that the price just isn't in line with the market. I would pay to be further away from the mall/appartments.

Just a suggestion, not trying to be antagonistic or anything like that...Do a web search on your MLS number. See what some of the websites are estimating the value at. I know the real estate sites are wrong as often as not, but people use them to help screen properties. The first one I saw had the value estimated at $8k below your current asking price. I have no idea if that is fair or not,but if I was looking in that area and didn't know better it would impact my decision.