I don't know, but it's so important to get the price right at the very beginning.

Not much help, sorry.

Just a tip: never use an exclamation mark, ever, other than in dialogue in a novel. And why capitals? Also, what's the stuff in the middle of the room in photo 21?

Just a few questions.

You say you had 20 showings with no "negative" feedback, but was there any "positive" feedback?

How big is the lot, and is that lot size common in your town, or just that subdivision? Also, the $780 HOA fee. Is that monthly or annually, and what does that cover? That info should be on that website.

You should have the school information ready for the buyer. What are they like and how do they perform? Also get crime statistics for your town. If things are good (low crime, great schools) then have that info on a sheet of paper that you hand the buyer along with all the info on the house. You have 30 photos on the website, so do you have a packet you can give the prospective buyers with those photos when they enter the home? Make sure you have the room sizes in that packet too.

Now here's where you must sit down with your agent and get some information. How long do homes in your price point stay on the market? Is your home an average price for your town or is in the stratosphere? Just what is the time frame for a $300K house to sell in your town?

Yes, most of the feedback has been "house shows well". The lot is fairly typical for this area. The high annual hoa fees are for lawn maintenance. The front and side yards are cut every 10 days and fertilized for the entire neighborhood. Schools are very good and rank high in the state. Thank you for your feedback.

Looks like a nice home. Assuming there are no weird floorplan designs, then my guess is that you are overpriced.

The suggestions in the above post are fine and well, but they are not the reason the home is not selling. That stuff is fluff to make the seller feel good.

It is good advice from above that you know the absorption rate of your neighborhood. How many homes in your neighborhood sold in the last 12 months? Let's say the number is six. Then find out how many Actives are currently on the market. Let's say there are 12. This then equates to there being an absorption rate of about one home every two months. It also means that there is currently two years worth of inventory in the neighborhood. Using this type of data, you can position yourself in the marketplace to ensure that your home is one of the next one that sells. If the inventory of ones neighborhood is too great, then an overpriced home is very, very unlikely to ever sell.

Your house is lovely. What are the comps for your neighborhood? One tip I have, rearrange your furniture in the living room and remove the wine cooler in the dining room. My house was for sale for ten years in Maine, don't fret yet.

First, lowering the price does not necessarily signal desperation. It signals a seller that has become realistic about pricing.

If a buyer perceives a seller as desperate so what? The buyer can make a low offer, etc. That doesn't mean you change your negotiating strategy. You counter with something acceptable. Let buyers think you are desperate to sell and make an offer. It might just stick.

Also--agree with others. Tell your agent to get rid of the ALL CAPS. It's annoying and difficult to read. The photos are fine, but really not compelling enough to make me want to read that mess. If there are other homes in the area, I would probably skip yours for that reason alone.

Nice home. Re the Photo 21 - I sense a retired USMC.

Do you actually have a car port as well as a 2 car garage?

The house is beautiful. I looked at the school info, the 'walking score', bird's eye view, etc.

The bird's eye view must have been taken ages ago, as it shows a neighborhood under construction with just dirt everywhere, although that would only turn off someone who hasn't seen your neighborhood in person.

What would possibly turn me off is the proximity of the Walmart about 1,000 feet away. Do you hear traffic/noise for it, and does the lighting in their parking lot light up the sky at night?

I saw that your street has a 'walking score' of 29, which means 25–49
Car-Dependent, Most errands require a car. I wonder if that has any effect?

(1) All caps has got to go. Also, the neighborhood description is odd. I usually only see that when there isn't much great to write about the house, which is clearly wrong, because the house looks great. But it's fine, just really hard to read.

(2) I'd lose picture #21. Too personal and not a great picture. Your agent has done what many have done and not taken into account how pictures look on realtor.com - they put a transparent black banner across the bottom of each picture. So when pictures like yours that are taken from a low angle and tend to feature the ceiling vice the floor, are posted on realtor.com, even more of the bottom of the picture is effectively cut off and does the pictures no justice. I know a lot of buyers use zillow and other non-MLS websites (that don't have this bottom-picture issue), but due to the number of inaccuracies in the web scraping I think they're getting smarter about going to the source - using realtor.com or a Realtor's website (IDX).

(3) Houses don't sell because they are priced too high. Looks like there's a nearly identical house just down the street for $299K and another one for $325K (with awful pictures, but that's not going to stop buyers from looking at all the inventory). So you've priced yourself at the top of the market and that means you're going to sit unless there is something that makes your house so much more valuable to a buyer. Look at the price from a random buyer's perspective, and don't wait too long to make a price reduction. Does not mean desperation, it means realistic. Do it before you lose your buyer pool.

Yes the one for sale listed at $299k has been on the market for over 5 years (on and off). They have had 2 pendings this summer but something fell through on either the inspection or closing. The neighborhood is prime location for convenience. Less than 4 miles from the largest shopping mall in the state. Every chain store (Home Depot, Petco, Target, Walmart, Academy, Publix, Movie Theater, tons of restaurants, etc are less than 5 miles.

The Walmart is close but from the neighborhood you would never know it's there. There is a buffer zone behind it that actually runs to my property line so no construction will ever occur behind us. It's a very small neigborhood (52 homes) with 3 cul de sacs.

In ref to pic 21 - yes USMC.

The comps for the neighborhood are all over, ranging from $375k down to upper 200's. Thank you everyone for your feedback.

Your home is beautiful...the only negative I can see from the map is the close proximity to two rivers. Has there been any flooding in your area?

I've never sold a home but I sure do look at a lot of open houses--sorta a hobby I guess--I think your home is lovely--really quite charming.

It's a beautiful home. Can I ask what the paint color is? I think you mostly have the one neutral color everywhere.

I have no clue why your home is not selling. It really is a most attractive home- decorated very tastefully and up to date.

There is NO excuse for a posting in all caps. About half of the people that I know will refuse to read it at all as I just did.

nancypie1: Most of the house is painted with Sherwin Williams "Urban Putty" flat. The dining room and master bedroom are a slightly darker version of it.

I like your description, pleballerina. Made me go and have another look.

And yes, it's a great colour, especially with those white trimmings.

Are taxes higher than other areas? High HOA fees? Good school district? No easy access to freeways/high traveled roads? There are so many logical, as well as illogical reasons why people are interested/dis-interested. And how is the price in comparison to comps in your area? Your neutral paint color is a definite plus! Beautiful house!!

Thanks for the color, I may use it in my hallway, where I have white trim. Best luck in selling your house.

I couldn't find the sq ft of the house or measurements of the rooms.

Jane

The thing about ALL CAPS - it's not just a style preference or people nit picking. It's that it's HARD TO READ. Especially if it's one big, long unbroken paragraph like that. I tried to read it but I too just kind of went "why bother."

Why is it still like that? Would be very simple to change.

I think the house is beautiful. As a buyer I would worry about the vacant land between your house and Walmart. Could that become another shopping area or an industrial park?

Hey, pleballerina, Troy took your advice and used your description!

I think you've got great photos, and any of the nitpicks people have mentioned aren't enough to keep someone from buying.

I'd look at the competition, watch what's selling, how fast, and for how much. It could just be time (there are 10 comparable houses on the market and only 2/month sell), or it could be price. Look at what has sold and compute what value that gives your house (i.e., play appraiser and adjust for square footage, etc.). I'd do that analysis before I just randomly dropped the price.

But you might have to drop the price.

That's the thing, when people carry on about capitals and exclamation marks, it sounds like nit-picking.

But... all capitals make something hard to read. Lack of punctuation does the same. And you need to make writing easy to read. Exclamation marks look amateurish and they make writing weaker. If you want to emphasize a word, put it immediately before a full stop. Or a comma.

The house is shown so incredibly well and now the wording is great too.

Lower the price, never desperation. It moves your listing to the front for the local agents to see it in most cases. Also move the photos around to freshen it up. Good luck!

Just want to add to the others -- beautiful house! Nice pictures (except for #21). I can see why you've had 20 showings -- shows very nicely.

Cool! My property description got used-I hope it helps!

pleballerina: Thank you, I loved your description and my realtor did too! Thanks to everyone, we really appreciate your feedback and are incorporating much of it. Hopefully it will sell soon and we can get back to normal life.

acadiafun1: No the vacant land behind the house is owned by Walmart and is a mandatory buffer zone between the shopping center and housing. It can never be developed/sold as long as the shopping center is there.

Repaint that garage door immediately. That door is about 25% of your front elevation and it looks faded and blotchy. Prospective buyers pull right up and that's what they stare at as they get out of their car. Probably nothing you can do now, but the 12" deep cabinet above the fridge with no side panels seems to immediately alert people that there is some cheapness going on in the kitchen.

I just went back and had a look at the garage door.

I absolutely disagree that it looks faded and blotchy but then I am a person who loves subtlety and things that blend, especially when it comes to garage doors and garages. So from the photo, I like the way it is.

In fact, often I find that a garage dominates a house and this is something that I particularly dislike. A house is for people not for cars and when I feel that a car is somehow more important and the people are living with one, including its fumes, I look the other way.

I do not feel that this garage dominates.

And my gosh, what a clever idea to have a room above it and that facade. Really lovely.

Have you looked at recently sold properties in your area? In my area, a $300,000 house would sit on the market for a year or more. There just aren't many buyers here who can afford that much house. It seems anything north of $250,000 is a sticking point where I live.