House selling is a pain!

[shellbug]

My house has been on the market now 2 weeks and only 3 people have come to see it. Its really a pain keeping it clean with 2 boys and 2 dogs, uggg. Every day before work I always vacuum and wipe down the bathrooms and kitchen, I can't wait for it to sell. My hubby started his new job last week so we only see him on the weekends, he is about 3.5 hours away in Augusta. A very nice house we looked at 2 weeks ago ended up selling last week, I am not looking anymore, I don't want to get my hopes up again. I just wanna move. Thanks for letting me whine!!

[dnyed]

Two weeks isn't so long. Six months is. This time of the year isn't the best time to sell, but I hope someone helps you out. Don't apologize for ranting....

Good luck to you!

[Gruven_98]

Two weeks???? Two weeks??? I know that you're getting frustrated, but keep in mind that with the crisis the US is going through right now in the mortgage loan area, you may be waiting a bit longer.

I'll add to your rant...

Our house has been on the market for 6 months, several people, and not one stupid bid. Nothing, nada, zilch!! I couldn't have picked a better time to try and sell our house. But who would've thought that Ohio is #1 on the foreclosure list and has been for a while now.

So needless to say, we're taking it off the market and it's going on Craigslist sometime soon. Might have some bites that way.

But while I sit here 12 hours south of the wife and little one, I've been putting in the federal job applications back in Ohio. At once I had a killer attitude about the house selling and starting a new life down here in GA, but after 6 months, I'm at my wits end and it doesn't look like our fresh start is going to go as planned. Depressing!!!

K... i'm done. back to your regularly scheduled program...

[shellbug]

I know 2 weeks isn't that long, I just wanna move NOW! I have the feeling I am going to be here for a while. Sorry you are going through all of that! I wish this job opportunity my hubby got came a little ealier this summer, now the kids are going to have to change schools in the middle of the school year, maybe, I guess IF we sell our house.

[tjk0225]

Originally Posted by dnyed

Two weeks isn't so long. Six months is.

Six months isn't long. Twenty months is long.

Anyone interested in moving to the Indianapolis area?

[silverspeedbuggy]

Yes, the market is really tough. My other half and I just sold our house and it is a royal pain. My best advice to you is to keep doing what you are doing: cleaning daily. Did you specify that you need 24 hours notice for a showing? That helped us stay sane with the cleanliness; if we had no showings scheduled the next day we could slack a little that day. The other thing I can tell you is perhaps have one of your agent's friends walk through and offer some suggestions for staging. Sometimes some really small fixes that take less than 20 minutes can really make a huge difference in the buyer's perceptions. One thing our agent pointed out to us were a couple of small dings in the trim in doorways; touch those up with fresh paint. It only took 20 minutes to do the entire first floor and it was amazing how much of a difference it made.

[CaptainXeroid]

Chin up Shelly and here's wishing you success. 2 items that may be of interest.

My brother & his wife had 2 rental properties on the market in JAX for over a year and their home for 10 months before everything sold. They had to deal with a soft market due in part to high insurance rates that you won't as you're not on the coast.

During the 'housing boom', one of my coworkers bought a new house before her old one sold. The two mortgage payments screwed her money up big time, then after the old one sold her ARM blew up.

[13Beetlejuice13]

we finally had an offer on our house but we're taking $15K LESS than we started at, plus paying the realtor $4100 out of pocket, and taking a loss on the new carpet we put in every room and all of our appliances we just bought last year. All told, we're probably losing about $10K to get rid of our house. What a nightmare this move has been. I feel for everyone trying to sell a house, how totally frustrating it is, especially to have people come thru, look promising and then go on to buy some other house, god it's awful right now. Keep thinking those good thoughts. Ask you realtor to have an agent's open house or something like that. Your realtor hosts and open house for a bunch of other agents from different agencies. They all go caravaning around to different houses together, ask about it.

[from Margaritaville...]

When you enter your next listing agreement, pay the 6% commission but, instead of 3% to the listing broker and 3 % to the buyers broker, pay only 1 1/2% to the listing broker and 4 1/2% to the buyer's broker. This will encourage agents to bring those few buyers that are out there to at least look at your home. Say, for example, that your home will list for $300,000, with this commission schedule your house will pay the buyer's broker as though your home were selling for $450,000. That's a pretty nice incentive to bring prospective buyers (a rare sight these days)over to see your home...

[FarrisK]

Also, a little tip that my parents learned last time we moved:

Bake a tray of chocolate chip cookies either the day before or the day of a showing. I know it sounds crazy, but the second set of people that looked at our house after we started baking the cookies bought it straight up.

Try it out!

[13Beetlejuice13]

Yeah, amkes it smell nice and "homey", plus it covers up and suspect odors.

[shellbug]

Yeah I heard about the baking thing, next time I am going to bake some apples and cinnamon in the oven. They already did the caravaning thing 2 weeks ago. The last people that looked gave me like a 15 minute warning they were coming, totally stressed me out, running around like crazy plus my dog just had surgery to remove a skin tumor, ugggggggg. Thanks for all the info!

[bluebee]

I totally feel your pain! My condo was on the market since April. We had five buyers and three escrows. We are finally closing on it today. It's been such a grueling process and I am so glad it is nearly done.

One of my biggest gripes about selling a home is DUMD agents who call and say there are coming and don't show up. Jerks! I scrambled all over to clean up the place and you don't even call to cancel.

Keep your head up though! I'm wishing you good luck!

[KatWoman]

There's a house around the corner from me, different development. They have been trying to sell for nearly a year now. They seem to think their realtors arent doing a good job as the sign in the yard changes every other month, literally. I pass this house on my way out to work every morning, so far they have had Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Home Smart, West USA, Remax, and DPR Realty trying to sell their home. If these folks watched or read the news they would know changing realtors isnt going to change things.

[shellbug]

I have one of those kind of houses by me, now they are selling it by owner but haven't dropped the $600k price yet, get a clue.

[shellbug]

Still trying to sell my house, but seems like the market is picking up here. This past week I had more people looking than I had the whole month of Dec, let alone Oct when not one person came. My 14 year old went to live with his dad last week to start at his new school. Can't wait to get over to GA.

[Lmhansen]

On the flip-side, buying a house isn't easy either. Driving around every weekend looking at houses and noting pros/cons for every one. We drove 100 miles yesterday looking at houses, and of the 6-8 places we looked at, only one is good even if it's a little on the expensive side...

[shellbug]

Well I have found the one I want in Ga, hopefully it will still be for sale when we sell this one. We want to use our VA loan so we have to sell this house to use it again.

[warren]

if you've found THE house in georgia, you may want to consider making an offer...contingent on the sale/closing of your current house...

if the owners won't bite, you can still keep an eye on it.

[iScott]

Good luck, Shelly! I'm sure it's tough with today's market.
I'm sure you'll be happy when we can call you an official Gerogian!