You haven't even hit the weekend yet! If you've had 3 already, you are off to great guns!

Ready for a fair question? How common is it to have the garages "under" the house in your area? (to me, that would be a negative of your house compared to several of the "comparables" listed on the coldwell banker website.)

Why are you 30k over 2 of the "comparables" on the coldwell site?

Here is a link that might be useful: your listing; not a broken link

Kirkhall, garages under are not too uncommon in our area due to the terrain. There are two others on our street. One of the comps you mention also has this. As for our being priced $30K higher, it's due to our finishes. We have completed renovated our entire home over the past 5 years, inside and out. Our realtor felt everything we have done, including a high-end kitchen remodel, warranted the price. Otherwise we would have been priced similarly to the other two comps.

Congrats! Can you sneak away to a hotel for the weekend and escape? :)

I'm not suggesting this be changed, but are your rooms really that generously sized, or has your agent stretched the photos?

Your house is beautiful and the rooms do look huge. Hope you get a good offer soon.

Some of the photos do make the rooms appear larger than IRL, but for the most part they are decent sized rooms. Thanks for the encouragement!

nhbaskets, it just so happens that I lived in your city for several years, and still have family in the area.

The garage--given that so many of the older homes in the area have no garage or a detached garage, this "under the house" garage shouldn't be a huge issue. It might turn off one or two specific buyers, but most will just be glad there's a garage.

I think your agent should play up the location more. There are a lot of people who work in the greater Boston area who are moving to southern NH. Something like "minutes to the Spaulding Turnpike" might lure in someone unfamiliar with the area.

Also play up the closeness to the schools. I suspect that kids will be able to walk to the middle and high schools. Not sure about Garrison--are they bused from your location?

And "minutes to downtown shopping" wouldn't hurt, either.

I see your house as a prime target for families with kids. But many of them don't start house-hunting until spring, with the thought that they will move over the summer. Do you have to sell quickly, or can you wait for prime house-hunting season?

I am curious about the metal roof, though. That's not really common in the area. Do all the houses in the sub-division have them?

Small world, camlan! Thanks for the suggestions as to playing up the location. Our realtor is of the opinion that people do not read the write-ups, but rather go straight to the pictures. Therefore, she doesn't like to include long write-ups in the listing. I have to admit that I look at the pictures first .

Originally we were going to list in the spring, which I'm told is March 1 in the real estate world. This was moved back to February 1 when we decided to be serious about a spec home that was framed. Then a week ago Tuesday we were asked it we could have the house ready to list immediately. Pictures were taken last Wednesday...I was still decorated for Christmas less than 24 hours before! We worked like crazy over the long weekend and had our first showing on Monday afternoon. I'm amazed how much we got done, including redoing our hall bath with a tile floor, painting the vanity, new countertop, sink, and faucet plus full paint job. Thank goodness for my DB!

The three showings we've had all were families with kids. We are located in the perfect spot with the middle and high schools within walking distance and Garrison a short bus ride away. A few years ago they put in a Hannaford's close by, which has been extremely convenient. All we need is a Dunkin Donuts!

The metal roof is something we had done 5 years ago. It looks like a normal asphalt shingle roof and has a 50 year warranty. After we were so pleased with it, one of our neighbors installed one too.

Congratulations on the early listing activity!

A few thoughts. Odd that photos would be thought of as the first line; I almost never looked at the photos first while home shopping. My first information gather would be the details to make sure that house would meet my must-haves; bed/baths & house and lot size, gas in kitchen, a/c. I'd then see where it was located on the street maps, checking proximity to train tracks, freeways etc.. Next, I would read the description. Finally I'd look at the photos.

Sometimes the photos would be so nice I'd see a house that did not meet all of my wants. I expect to see photos of the features touted in your house's description; your MB shower and the closets, for example. If the asking price is higher due to these types of upgrades, there needs to be a photo to reinforce that projection. Otherwise, it is easy to discount it as hyperbole--I think everyone has seen examples of that in listings!

Good luck with selling your home. I'd love to have your floors and kitchen. And now, back slowly away from the ledge... ;)

Good Luck! It seems like a very nice home and sounds like people are interested already so should be a good sign you won't have it for sale very long.

One note on the photos and them making the rooms look larger - I don't think this is a good thing at all. People expect more room and when they arrive it will look smaller. Sounds like this has been your feedback too.

I would make sure the photos are not taken with an odd lens, but rather that they appear as they do in person in the listing.

I agree that photos should exist of items highlighted in the description.

Yikes. Two showings today, one of which is coming back in the morning for a second look. Then there is a new showing later in the morning. So much for sleeping in!

Gyr--there are photos of the items mentioned in the description. It depends on what site you look at. The virtual tour has all of them.

Thanks for all the encouragement!

Why, so it does! Sorry for my mistake; many virtual tours use odd zooms and movements that make me want to scream, so I tend to avoid them. Upon review, your home's virtual tour makes your house look even nicer than in just the regular, still photos. Congratulations on the many showings. Hope you get an offer quick, so you can catch up on that sleep. ;)

Here's another resident of your and camlan's world:

I graduated from St. Thomas HS!

Beautiful house, and I agree with camlan to market to Boston commuters. Isn't there a train from Portsmouth? Or a bus?

You may want to list in either The Boston Globe, or any of the major newspapers from the North Shore (MA).

Ellen

Ellen, there's a train from the center of town to Boston, and a commuter bus from Portsmouth. It's a bit weird to think that southern NH is becoming a bedroom community for Boston, but it is bringing better public transportation.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the second showing tomorrow!

nelles, my sister is a STA grad also. The Amtrak Downeaster runs from downtown Dover north to Freeport (LL Bean) and south to North Station in Boston. There is a stop in Durham at UNH where I work and is heavily used by commuters. Bus also goes to Logan and South Station.

NH was just rated the #1 state in the country!

Here is a link that might be useful: Politico state rankings

It sounds like your listing agent is not qualifying the buyers through the buyers agents. They should make sure the size of the house is the right size for the potential buyer.

Found out this morning that the buyer with two kids plus one on the way was someone I know and knew about the house from my posting on Facebook.

Have had two showings this morning. One was a repeat. Our realtor is expecting one, possibly two offers by Monday. One couple who looked today would be the perfect buyer...large downpayment, don't have to sell another property, appreciate everything we've done to the house, and would be okay to not move in until after our new home is ready later this spring. Fingers crossed!

To amuse ourselves this afternoon we're going to look at appliances for the new house.

Hoping you get two good offers and a quick and hassle free sale.

aarsic,
Are you suggesting that the listing agent call the buyer's agent and tell them that the rooms are probably too small for your buyer, so just go ahead and cancel the showing?
There is no way that I would tell a buyer to stay away. Buyers tell me stuff all the time, that ends up not being the direction they end up going.

The pictures are very appealing, the house looks absolutely do-nothing-but-move-in. I'm selling a similarly sized house and, I don't know about you, but we have small bathrooms (normal for when the house was built in 1972, but really small compared to what people want today). I think this has held us back, but there's nothing that can be done about that. We get "looks great" feedback, but hear the "too small" comments as well. Sounds like you are on your way to an offer--I'm crossing my fingers for you! Because---YES, it is exhausting keeping the house perfectly clean all the time!

Feedback from the three families has been that they need more room...well, yes if you have 2 kids and one one the way, 3 bedrooms probably won't be big enough!

And with 1800 sq feet - it's going to be a cosy house.

Nice looking!

Don't worry about the buyer's agent making sure the buyer is suitable for the house ... after a couple of houses, they'll catch on.

OMG! We just received a full price offer! Only contingency was appraisal at or above sales price. On the market 6 days and got this. I can't believe it!

Congratulations!!

How nice! I hope your appraisal goes smoothly.

Doing the happy dance for you!

Great News! Hoping for a smooth closing and transition to your new home.

Congrats! I'm not surprised as your home is beautiful. Good luck with the next steps.

Woo hoo! Glad to hear it's going so well.

Congratulations on the quick sale!

Thanks everyone! The inspection is scheduled for this Monday afternoon. A neighbor came by last night and was telling us some horror stories of what they found in their attic (same builder). Having never really looked in our attic, we thought it best to take a peek and sure enough, we have two rafters located by each bathroom fan that has mold. Both fans are vented to the soffit. So glad we looked ahead of time rather than finding out on Monday.

I'm now thinking we should get a few quotes beforehand so we can be armed when the inspector crawls up there.

Anyone have experience with this?

nhbaskets-aw congrats! I just caught your screen name and my first thought was oh no she is leaving that kitchen? As if that's all it's about, haha! I have your kitchen bookmarked. :)

What a whirlwind! I hope all goes smoothly for you.

So @nhbaskets, what happened? I'm dying to know how the inspection went, and if you had it checked out beforehand!

"we have two rafters located by each bathroom fan that has mold. Both fans are vented to the soffit."

I'd like to know how this was handled.

That being said, I'll bet a lot of sellers in this forum would love to have your 'problem' of being inundated with buyers!

Sorry I'm just catching back up on this thread.

Our inspection went great. They said our house was in exceptional condition for its age...funny, I don't think of a 20 year old home to be old, especially here in New England! The only issue was the mold in the attic, which we knew about, thank goodness. We received several quotes before the inspection for the remediation and also contacted the company who installed our roof. We are taking care of having the mold remediated, but first we are having ridge vent installed and the gable vents closed up. The fans will then be exhausted directly out the side of the house on the gable end. All told, this should cost us $3k. I'd rather have it done beforehand rather than giving a credit at closing.