Selling House How Many Showings (Lowell: for sale, real estate, foreclosure)

[mindy410]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone out there is trying to sell their house and if so, how many showings do you get a month? Im from the Lowell area and Im getting an average of 1 showing a month if that. Just curious if other people are getting showings and if you are what are you doing to get them. My house is priced right for the size and is compatable to other houses in my neightborhood. I see plenty of houses that are getting showings that over priced. So why do they get showings and I dont and im priced right!!! Thanks for any help. Mindy

[Parsec]

if you say the house priced comparably to other houses in your neighborhood, then it's overpriced. in a down market, you need to price it either at or below the price of recently sold houses; not at the same price as all the other overpriced houses currently for sale.

[mindy410]

Hi, what I meant to say is it is priced right for the square footage. Other houses are priced higher than mine with the same square footage. Mindy

[Valerie C]

Hi Mindy
How long has your house been on the market? Has your agent refreshed the pictures every couple of weeks, so that it appears "new" to people who are searching on the Internet? Nothing worse than a green summer lawn on a listing in December (especially this year!) Good pictures of interior/exterior are a must, unless the price is a real bargain.

Does your house have multiple pictures/virtual tour/customized text, etc. at realtor.com? I discovered that in a side by side comparison (same house/price) I was getting nearly DOUBLE the people viewing the listing that had more information (multi pics/virtual tour/customized text) vs. that of the "basic" listing. People tend to dismiss the one picture/basic information listings, again, unless the price is a noticeable bargain, priced well below other similar homes. Ask your agent how many views your home has had since going on the market (the system breaks it down by week) Good luck, it's a tough market...

Parsec is absolutely correct--your house may be overpriced if you've set the price by comparing to the current inventory of overpriced homes on the market today. What really counts is sale prices of the last 30 days, which your agent hopefully is supplying for you.

[smarty]

Also... older houses move slower during winter... Real estate slows down after thanksgiving... holidays.... we just had high snowfall in DEC in years... big credit cruch... so much inventory...

If you want to move your house quick.... drop 10-15%. If not, you may have to drop the same amount in a few months... when more foreclosure happens due to people cannot afford energy bills, credit card bills, taxes, ... (It is about $500/tank for heating oil and with the cold temp... it may only last 3 weeks.)

People who can afford are bargain hunting at towns with good schools.

[MammaLakn]

We listed our house end of May 2007, we accepted an offer end of October 2007. In those 5 months we had about 8 showings. Three came back for a 2nd look, one of those resulted in a ridiculous offer which we didnt accept (they were not willing to deal). Most showings were over the summer. We were nearing the end of October and we pretty much accepted the fact it wont sell until atleast spring. Since our listing was going to expire in a months time we decided to slash the price with $10K leaving little room for negotiation. Got a call a few mornings later asking for a showing on short notice. I didnt go through as much trouble as previous showings. The ppl who came loved the house and it was under contract for $7500 below asking that same day. Our asking price was $20-30K below compareables, all of them are still for sale and we are about to close on our new house in North Carolina

At the end of the day it all comes down to price and how motivated you are to sell. We accepted a relocation offer from my husbands employer, so at the end of the day we just wanted to get rid of it and move on without shooting ourselves in the foot. We walked away with $40K all of which we are putting down on our new house.

Good-luck!

[capecodcathy]

It doesn't really matter how many showings those "comparable" homes are getting. Are they sold yet? Doesn't sound like it.
Compare your house to comparables that have actually sold in the last six months, taking into account the holidays, difficulties obtaining mortgages, Buyer economic concerns and Lowell has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.
Consider what has sold and price lower if you can. Otherwise, be prepared to wait a while.

[MassREBroker4u]

MammaLakn has the answer to the buyer's market. You either list your home right at where your comparables sales are selling, and not a penny more, or you stay on the market and let all the 'looky-lu's and tirekickers' come by from time to time and then you wind up as an expired listing.

She was able to re-generate her listing by slashing the price by $10,000 and then negotiated another $7500 more with the buyer.

Unfortunately, alot of the sellers out there right now are upside down because of ARM's adjusting and values are below what they owe on their mortgages. Another reason why so many listings are hanging around and then expiring or cancelling.

[NY'er lost in MA]

...and to be honest, showings are a HUGE pain in the you know what

What you want is offers- not tons of showings. When we were selling our condo we have tons of showings and a few low ball offers. Later on in the process we went to FSBO and I was there for all the showings- most of the time you could tell in the first minute if they were remotely interested.

I agree with the others- you need to price the home below or at a level of other recent SALES, not listings. And even then, it may not sell. The market combined with the time of year is not ideal.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by mindy410

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone out there is trying to sell their house and if so, how many showings do you get a month? Im from the Lowell area and Im getting an average of 1 showing a month if that. Just curious if other people are getting showings and if you are what are you doing to get them. My house is priced right for the size and is compatable to other houses in my neightborhood. I see plenty of houses that are getting showings that over priced. So why do they get showings and I dont and im priced right!!! Thanks for any help. Mindy

Some comments for you based on my recent homeselling experience:

1) One showing or less per month tells me that your listing agent is sleeping on the job. They should be pushing you to price more aggressively to get more showings, and to keep dropping the price as often as necessary to keep the level of showings up, until you get an acceptable offer. How often you drop the price, and to what level, will be determined by the market's reaction as well as your decision as to how soon you want to sell your home. To keep the tire-kickers from wasting your time in useless showings, ask your agent to add a remark to the listing, informing other realtors that showings are only available to people who have pre-approval for a home in your price range.

2) Your agent should also advise you if there is anything you can do to make the house more attractive to buyers (clean-up fix-up within reason) and should tell you if you need to get quotes from professionals showing how much it would cost to fix any problems or make any updates that your "visitors" to date have mentioned. Comps are only a rough gauge of value. Realistically, values are determined by the buyers. Values based on square footage are only a guide IMHO. When you're the buyer, do you base your offer on the SF, or do you look at the location, the condition of surrounding houses, the suitability of the yard, the attractiveness and updatedness of the interior and exterior, the condition of the major systems, and - especially today - the bargain factor?

3) your listing agent should be networking with other realtors. Did your agent hold a broker's open house? Is your agent part of a larger organization sharing listing info, or are you dealing with a small "local" realtor with less networking capabilities? This won't necessarily sell your house, but it does indicate a level of professionalism and spreading-the-word about your home.

4) Push your agent to do their job or get a different agent. If you have to come to a discussion board for help instead of getting it from your agent -- red flag, red flag!!!

5) Valerie's point is well taken. Make sure you MLS listing has attractive photos, an inviting and correct description of your home, and a movie if possible. Some of the photos and text on MLS listings look as if they were prepared by a 3rd grader: photos are often dark, taken at a bad angle, have clutter or trash in view, don't show all the critical rooms of the house, or are just plain time-wasters (I need to see the bedrooms, not a dreamy shot of a flower out in the yard - get real, whoever started that ridiculous fad) and there should be at least 6 views. Show me less than 6 photos and I'm thinking, "what is the realtor trying to hide?" Text should be professional and without spelling errors. (Um...don't check my post too carefully OK? I'm typing fast ) If you don't like what you're seeing in your listing, demand change. It's your money. Everything's done electronically these days; changing photos and/or text should not be a big deal for your agent.

Finally, since I've been in your shoes and understand the frustration, I just want to emphasize that putting an irresistable price on your home is going to sell it faster in this market than anything else you can do. There's just so much competition in both the regular and foreclosure categories, you won't sell quickly unless you wave a bargain in the buyer's faces. You don't have to take utterly ridiculous offers, like 40 G's under asking plus money back at closing. But you should negotiate carefully when you get a serious offer from a buyer who seriously wants your house and has the means to close in a manner and time acceptable to you.

GOOD LUCK! We're pullin' for you