I didn’t want to be the first to say it (thanks Minardi) but I thought this from the very beginning: the gray plastic floor is dreadful. It’s probably wood-look but it is, plain and simple, plastic. Trendy ten years ago, out of style now.

If I were to consider this home, I would ask for a painting and flooring allowance.

This is not a neighborhood where homes are selling because of what their floors and walls look like. In fact, no other homes for sale are even staged, which makes this home look rather out of place for being staged, and sort of like it is trying to compensate for something.

The median income in this zip is $46k for individual, $77k per household. This is not a community where people buy a home and rip out the floors because they are not the right shade of wood. These are houses that people buy because they need a home to raise a family in, not because they are trying to flip or get the newest trend in flooring.

The homes that have sold here have brown shag carpeting in bedrooms, old floors, ugly colored walls, tiny bedrooms decked out with Taylor Swift posters everywhere, small plastic insert type shower stalls.

The problem here is truly not with looks, it is with a price too high for less usable space.

remove the white chair.......its obstructing what can be a dining venue.. If I liked the property the dining situation would not deter me. Saying that , the small table is a "no no " ...too unrealistic in any scenario. The realtor told my Aunt to remove ALL her valuable antique furniture and she digitally staged each room on real estate listing. sold quickly. Your dining area needs special treatment..its doable...eliminate flouncy cheap curtains....needed instead - tailored panels on each end AND some sort of blinds ..... Needed also- light fixture over good quality table..... attractive rug to pull attention in....certainly AWAY from the stairs / you would use some color. Its probably not going to be the case you do the purchases and changes...The ONSET of prepping the spaces w realtor would have been the logical sequence....but , chair/ the small inappropriate table ought to go.... if you could make a small reasonable tweak I'd remove the curtains [too bedroom-ish] try inexpensive blinds because dining at the street side would require privacy.....if you want to install a fixture ? a choice... better realtor can digitalize all that needs to be created. is there nothing else the matter w the property...? then move on to a better realtor.

here is a venue..maybe you cant do it " full on " for the space but pls remove the things that interfere w imagining possibilities. Realtor should have some drive and more ingenuity about this. If he/she lacks experience ...big problem. I hope you can sell your property,

Dining Room #2 · More Info

here is simple digital staging for example.....it improves over owner's "things" sitting and not having the right purpose.

Downtown Columbus (Gilbert) Home Staging · More Info

Oh good Kevin is here.

I think Kendrah hit the nail on the head. But also the staging is bad in that it doesn't show non-creative people that there can even be a dining table placed in the area in front of the stairs. The cafe bar table doesn't help anything as it just shows space for 2 people. You'd be better off with a table for 4 people - maybe a rectangular no wider than 3' and no longer than 5' and place it with chairs pushed in to be in the space in front of the stairs. Make sure there is a clear path from the entry to the stairs leading up to walk along the wall there. It is not ideal as it will show how little actual living space the house does have, but people are already noticing that anyway except they are not seeing an eating area. Either way the place is small, but at least show there are possibilities and that the space can be delinated into two spaces instead of mixed together like currently shown.

Seems like it is a family neighborhood so just showing a table for 2 clearly highlights that it is small. A table in a separate area will make the floor space seem smaller as well, but it will show it is small, but workable.

I would never relist a house that isn't selling for a higher price after upgrades. I don't think you can stage or remodel your way out of a space that is small.

If you could take a few cabinets out and find room to seat 5 around a table in the kitchen, not the living room, that might make a difference --- with the right price.

And you should certainly spruce up the front of your house.

If Kendrah is right about the neighboring houses and the neighborhood, which I suspect she is, spending more money to reach an unrealistic price is a bad idea.

I tend to agree with Kevin, but I must warn you that I am the average mug who is interested in the subject of buying and selling houses but would never get involved in it because I lack the skills and the confidence to do so.

However, this is what I agree with in Kevin's post:

... pull it off the market, bring in a painter and add some soothing wall colors to create warmth and definition.

... the current floor is a bit overwhelming and ends up being all that buyers notice.

After those updates, relist it around $335K. If you keep dropping the price as is, a flipper will scoop it up, do the makeover themselves, and turn around and list it for $350K.

ETA: I was never a fan of the grey craze. It's quite depressing, cold, and just not my cup of tea.

I say that if a flipper wants to buy my house, do the redecorating/renovating and sell it for more than they bought it for, I don't care - especially if I'm already living in another house. I want to sell my house now, not pay for it while it's getting redone and relisted and wait for that sale.

@Gret - I'm curious how well you are able to use Zillow. Have you run your own comps? Are you familiar with how to use the various filter features to see homes in your area and what they have sold for and look at the inside and outside pictures of them?

Do you see anybody staging their homes? Do you see homes for $285k that don't have a table for four people? The homes I see at that price can do so. Yours does not. Lower your price significantly.

Your realtor and stager are taking you for a ride. I am sorry you are in this position.

285 is about 50K overpriced for a homeowner, and about 100K overpriced for a flipper. A flipper will come in and rip out cabinets to get a table in, paint all the cabinets and wood white, and revamp the landscaping/curb appeal. But they have to get it at a substantial discount to be able to do that, make a profit, and end up no higher than 300. There would be zero point in doing that, as you are chasing a steep slide that needs to just stop following the market down. Get ahead of it, with a significant drop, and do nothing.

Nobody cares about the floor. They'll have a rug in the living room. A 4BR house that doesn't have room for a table for 5 or 6 is not going to sell. A house that's on the market for considerably more than comparable houses is not going to sell. You can't stage your way out of problems.

When I was looking at houses, there was a beautifully staged house owned by a real estate guy. It was drop-dead gorgeous (and massively overpriced for the size). The staging did a fantastic job of disguising the smallness of the space, so we saw the listing and thought, "This is our house," but when walking through, thinking about where we'd put this or that --- I'm sure at your house people wonder where they will eat their meals, --- the size was pretty clear. Would I hire the sellers as stagers? Absolutely, they were clearly pros at a high level. Did I buy the house? Of course not.

The house was on the market for months. They took it off for several months and relisted it at 75% of the original price. It sold for less than that after two years since it was first listed.

"You can't stage your way out of problems."

Very well said.

still....there can be solutions.....the dilemna is pretty obvious given the feedback shes gotten. a high bistro table w two benches is not going to be a solution ... you could put the bistro table w other stools -smaller/ with backs in the kitchen with all the floor space ...and use the length of space currently w bistro table for a longer table. then youd have 2 eating areas whereas there is a lack of a good eating space now.... and solution number 2 has to do w the money subject.......renting brings in money....it could be a temporary solution not yet discussed.

I know you must be frustrated and confused with all the advice.

Staging has become such big business but I question its real value. Our first realtor really pushed that. She wanted to rush us into a low offer to move out before holidays and take another of her listings that really wasn't what we wanted. We took it off the market to enjoy the holidays and switch realtor. We opted get a bridge loan to move into the next house avoiding hassles of showing with 3 small children. We sold it empty with no added fix ups for more than the first offer. It was a tiny starter home and look more spacious without the dining table staged with china and linen napkins. It was also spring and summer season which I think was more important than staging. I am no expert and worry about how we will sell this one as we build the retirement one. But in your shoes I think I wouldn't gamble money on remodeling or staging. Can you afford to take it off the market for the slow season or just take one of those low flipper deals? Wishing you a good deal either way.

“A 4BR house that doesn’t have room for a table for 5 or 6 is not going to sell.”

Except that it did sell. And it will sell again. For the right price.

Brutal truth. It's a hideous kitchen. The cabinets are oak that nobody wants, the floor is a huge mistake with the counter tops. You do not have this:

You have this...ugly, and a clash of warm/cold.

Take it off the market until March one. You've done nothing but telegraph online a beg the question, "what's WRONG with it"?

Either re price in March having done nothing, or use the same time to have counter tops replaced with white laminate, and get cabinets painted to white, ( screw the grain showing issue, LEAST of the problem here ), be RID of the red tone.

Either way, get it off the internet, off the multiple listing .

It's the price, for what you HAVE and that is why it is to this moment, sitting unsold.

Lose the inappropriate light fixture as well!!

You can change up color tones all you want, it isn't going to give you more table space and it isn't going to give you more square footage.

Most of the homes in your neighborhood have sold for $300k - $330k. Again, here is what they have that yours does not:

- They are larger than yours. 1,600-2,000 square feet.

- They have separate dining area or connected area that is large.

- They have finished basements that serve as second living rooms and in some cases have second dining areas.

- They have big usable back yards.

These homes functionally fit a family of four. Your home does not.

This tells me you are going to be selling to a different customer. Your customer wants to buy into this neighborhood but can't afford $300k. And, they are not going to be a family of four. Maybe a couple starting out, maybe a single mom. And they are probably looking at homes for closer to $250 k and these homes don't exist in your neighborhood.

Face it, your home is an odd one out. You are trying to attract someone that isn't typical for your neighborhood. You need a pro-active agent for this. Open houses are not proactive. And what agent wants to be proactive on selling a house that on the bottom end of the price scale?

You are in a hard spot. So yes, you can make a home with colors that look better. But you are going to have to do that AND list it for much less.

Check out this home a few blocks from you, which sold in 2022 for $280k. The new owners, who I presume made upgrades, but who really knows -- listed it last October for $309K. Within two weeks they lowered it to $285k. It sold a month later for $282k. It is 1,600 sq feet, has a much larger dining area and separate living room, plus separate finished basement, a large porch and patio. Why would your home sell for the same price? It won't.

You bought this house eight years ago for $175k. You added new floors and a new kitchen. You hoped you could double the price of the house. You thought you were a flipper of sorts. But your choices were poor, and your space is still the same space that you purchased.

I worked as a realtor and prior to that worked for a real estate attorney where he practiced eminent domain law. The value of the home is based on the neighborhood's land value and then on square footage, then on condition. For 95% of homes those 3 factors set 95% of the value.

Buyers go out and look for homes in their price range. If your house is the nicest one in their price range in the neighborhoods that meet their criteria they buy that home. You have to know your competition and price accordingly.

Staging can help, but it doesn't change the price. If you have 3 homes in the same neighborhood, same floorplan and same price the one that is well staged is likely to sell first.

On the other hand, if you price the home that is staged $10k over the price of the other two it will sit. Most buyers are influenced by staging, but not as much as they are influenced by their wallet.

Sadly, sellers often list with the realtor who says they will list your home at a highest price. Realtors need listings to generate calls from buyers. Without listings your phone doesn't ring.

Some of those buyers are going to also have a home to list. The person listing their home for sale is also going to want to buy a home. . . Your success as a realtor is based on your ability to get listings. I remember losing out to other realtors all too often because I was honest about the value of someone's home. I watched other realtors give the pie in the sky numbers, get the listing, sell 3 homes to buyers generated from the listing and have the seller reduce the price over and over until it finally sold. Usually it sold for less than it could have sold if it had been listed at the right price when it was listed. It was frustrating to watch people get blinding by greed and screwed over by dishonest realtors, but it is part of the game.

Flippers only make money when they can buy a home well under market value. The idea that you can take a typical listing and renovate the home for a profit is just not realistic. https://www.jlconline.com/cost-vs-value/2025/

In your market, that kitchen is fine, except for the fact there's no room for a table to fit 5 or 6 --- which is a serious problem. If you were selling in the $750-$800K range, maybe the kitchen cabinets, counter and floor would be an issue. Changing them in your house is not going to make a difference.

"I watched other realtors give the pie in the sky numbers, get the listing, sell 3 homes to buyers generated from the listing and have the seller reduce the price over and over until it finally sold."

This is what nobody talks about when they talk about listing their home and engaging a realtor. What is the realtor's real motive? It is not just to sell your home, it is to generate new clients for themselves. It doesn't mean the realtor is evil. It is just how the field is structured. This is why I am skeptical of advice given to me by most realtors.

Your realtor gave you a pie in the sky number with $300k, but it was less than your pie in the sky with a cherry on top number of $315k, so it looked like he was being realistic and looking out for you. He might not be a bad guy, but there is nothing realistic about this situation. Look at all you have gone through with this sale. It is stressful and I really feel for you.

I’m late to the game, but one look at that floor would turn me around and back out the door.
Sorry.

debra

I agree w Sigrid. Gret, can your realtor help you find someone to do something like these improvements? Getting an electrician to put an outlet over the fireplace would also be wise. It would be the only place for a TV in this room it seems. Gret - if you add some dimensions to your plan it would help us help you better. Tough spot to be in - sorry.

Edit to add: To get the dining for 4 minimum in the kitchen....maybe an L shaped corner banquette tucked by the stair corner would work better (and, maybe no slim pantry will fit but hopefully at least a 12" wide one will). The open entry closet you have would be fine if it was just the mudroom for everyday use but it's not great for a first impression/guest entrance (from the buyers perspective as a first impression). Simple bipass doors in white would work - maybe you still have the ones that were originally there I assume?

OR you just chuck it all and drop it another huge amount in price and call it done. It's really a math game since who knows how much worse this market will be come spring?

I will also add that I help a couple of real estate flippers here in the Indianapolis area so I know the situation (at least I know the situation here). Things are sitting longer and they aren't pricing as high as they used to be able to get away with.

"The previous owners remodeled the kitchen and removed the area that used to be the dining room area and put in more cabinets."

Several people have said "Gret" made bad choices for the Kitchen, but Gret did not - the previous owners did. That doesn't change the fact that many of the choices made by the previous owners were questionable, but I thought I'd clarify that Gret is living with what she had.

@Gret - what is your family composition? How did you handle the lack of a table? If it's just you and one other adult, that may be why it worked for you and will like not work for a family or others who prefer a normal size dining table at table height - not bar height, which your stager put in and most of the people I know who went with the fad a decade or so ago have since removed them and replaced them with a table-height table.

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It was mentioned that you have it listed as a 4-BR home but one room does not have a closet. Does it at least have a 3'x5' window? If not, that 4th bedroom cannot be a BR (at least in my area). I think you also have to have a closet to call it a bedroom, but I'm not sure. I suggest you look into that as well.

When we were looking, we found that houses never looked as nice in-person as the staged (virtual or otherwise) and most were distorted to make the rooms appear larger than they were. We learned to not trust the pictures. So, while virtual staging might help bring in foot traffic, if the house does not live up to the pictures (or at least close), you will likely not get offers (or ones you want). We looked for over 3 years b/f we found a house we were willing to buy knowing it needed work (it was only 4 years old but the builder went for looks over functionality, especially in the Kitchen and Pantry). Our offer and ultimate purchase price reflected the changes we knew were going to have to make. It is likely that prospective buyers are also looking at your house the same way - how much work & how much money it will take to make it a home that works for them.

I don't know where you live, but unfortunately, I think the housing market has cooled off considerably in most places, even the Baltimore/DC metro area where I live. Inventory is up and sellers are a bit spooked by the political climate and the current mortgage rates. That means that sellers are going to have be much more realistic in the pricing of their homes AND realtors need to understand that the real estate market is no longer a sellers market with bidding wars.

In our area, you cannot call a room a bedroom if it doesn't have a closet. It must be different in OP's area because even though it was mentioned in the comment section of the listing, the room count shows 4 bedrooms.

OP doesn't seem to be coming back.

Do not spend more money if you are trying to sell. No matter what you do. someone else will not like it. Then there are buyers like me looking for a "Needs updating" house as I would remove any updating anyone has done and reverse the house back to 100 years old as much as possible.

And floors and cabinets clashing is not good. Hard tile floors, and plastic fake wood floors are both bad. But - let a buyer make their own changes - make a $___ allowance for changes in the sale. If the layout is not too bad, someone will buy.

Both the photos Jan Moyer posted clash, so I am not sure what her point is - two photos of clashing kitchens.

It is a lot to deal with and absorb. As noted above by kcooz, it seems the original poster has not been back or commented since the original post.

Well if Gret does come back I hope they don’t loose hope. I seem to have lost sight of the obvious- just stage it the way they were using it. Having a fireplace in a dining room is charming. Just keep that main floor dedicated to kitchen and dining. And at a minimum rotate the chandelier in the kitchen so the long way goes with the space better. I go back to my original comment about the stager not doing the space any favors.

The only thing not doing a REAL favor is the price of the house. Everything sells. Homes in horrible locations ,homes with poor maintenance, homes lacking everything pleasant you could ever dream of.

They don't sell at the price you want, they sell at what someone is willing to pay,. That's the house price/value= what someone is willing to p.a.y. Any town, anywhere. Trailer or mansion.

Yes, Elvis has left the building: )

I think too many people get hung up on the 3 br vs 2 br on the listing. It is technically an ethics violation for a realtor to list a home as a 3 br when it is truly 2 br + an office, but the description is stating this so there would be no legal recourse for the buyer to sue the seller or the agent. At the end of every MLS listing there is a disclosure stating that the buyer is responsible to verify the information. Since the description states that the third bedroom is actually an office the buyer is aware and the seller can't be legally be found deceptive or hiding the information.

The whole is so clashy that I think that only a quick coat of white paint for all the remaining wood would make it not look jarringly mishmashed. That isn't going to help the overpricing situation though.

Jan Moyer is correct. It’s ALL about the price, all the talk about dining space (or lack), 3 bedrooms vs two, flooring, etc etc. is irrelevant. Price , & in some cases, location. My home is in a very sought after area, buyers will pay top dollar for a poorly maintained 60 year old home before it even hits the market. Happens all the time.

A fireplace in the dining room might be charming, but this is a very small house. Which means the dining room table is also the kitchen table. And where are you going to put the living room? In a tiny bedroom upstairs? Where, in all probability you can't watch TV while your kids are doing homework or asleep? Or in the basement?

The best presentation is to show where the buyers will eat their meals and where they will relax. No place to eat a meal --- that cafe table will barely hold two place settings --- or no living room are problems that probably take a serious discount to overcome. Clashing floors, not so much. Not in this market. Besides, many people don't notice things like that. Houzz is full of people who worry about tiny little details most people don't notice. My first reaction to the kitchen was that it's quite nice.

I didnt look at the listing and 'assumed' the family room was down the steps like a typical split level. Who knows???

I suspect Gret is not coming back b/c s/he did not like what was being said.

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@gret - Unfortunately, tough love is needed here. No one is maliciously posting, everyone is trying to help. Read the advice and decide what to do about it. You don't have to take anyone's advice but read what is being said so you know the potential issues that are preventing your home from selling.

Good luck!

No eat in kitchen..........?

Very recently, a home in a town south of me by 40 miles. Located on the Erie Canal, once very prosperous. Alas, no longer, despite many lovely shady streets, homes 1920 ish with deep shady porches, and my clients the largest home of all. Tudor, gated, huge property. It even had a name...: ) to belie:

No decent school system, no private schools religious or otherwise, a town now drug ridden, diverse, but not in a good way. No shopping of note beyond the grocery. Dine out? Hope you love Burger King or pizza!

The house? Overloaded with... you. name. it. (This happens to designers. You leave a home, gorgeous, and the client simply Can't Stop "decorating" and can not stop buying.) I almost had a heart attack when I saw it after a several year absence. Topping it off? Her love affair with fur throws, overly accumulated in every room and plopped on every stick of soft furnishing. I nearly had an asthma attack, and I Do Not Have .....asthma. I did however, sneeze my brains out.

Oh my GOD in heaven what happened here, "B", we need a massive PURGE!! You can not photo and list this, nobody will understand!

I dragged my sister out there to help me, got my burly movers, two trucks, four guys, and for a solid day we hauled a third of the furniture out, sent it off to his warehouse, and staged. The Very Big Challenge of a Very Dark house, a client who loves Very Dark, and all the rest above remained. Still, a huge property but only three beds as one was her huge built in glam CLOSET. Still No eat in kitchen!!

Four days after listing.........the house is sold for 800k, which anywhere else might have been at least 1.5 mil despite all above. Was "B" antsy to dump it, along with the huge property taxes/maintenance costs ? You bet.

The buyer? Someone originally from the town, a someone who had always wanted the house. For decades , he lusted over the home and property.. He'd have willingly paid any price. He paid the ask. Read " I . want. this. "

Done. Sign here.

On that note? There's a remodel/MOVE story that goes with this, so with that? A thread: ) ........................soon. Need more coffee and having a recall sneeze fit at this very second.

No eat-in kitchen is fine, if there's a dining room. But, this house is small. If you go down to the very bottom and look at the sketch of the layout and the pictures of the interior, you see that without room for a table in the kitchen, they'd need to put a kitchen/dining table in the very small living room.

The kitchen had too many cabinets. There was a section of cabinets that could be removed to create room for a table. It would have made the house so much more practical.

^^^

Exactly, and SOMEONE who considers a kitchen table irrelevant, someone who just wants clean shelter, will buy it at the right price. It is still the PRICE,price, price

Plop a 42 inch glass top table with a couple chairs in front of the patio 6' slider, lower the darn P.R.I.C.E and move on: )

Is this the house with the Pacman video games? Better if it were empty.

Gret, I felt bad for you in this predicament. There was a home in our area that was not selling and potential buyers complained that it was missing a feature the other homes had. They added the feature and the home sold in 3 days. Perhaps see if you can remove some cupboards and add a small table.

You need a proper kitchen and dining table. And then work on curb appeal.

The RE market is stalling now with the economics of inflation and higher interest rates and higher home prices, insurance etc.

There are fewer buyers so it's a buyers market. No more bidding wars -- houses must be priced properly even if it means lowering the asking price.

The problem is the OP doesn't want to drop the price to that point. If you go back to this picture which shows you all of the first floor, you can see that if the cabinets by the stairs were removed, there'd be room for a kitchen table, that doesn't block the sliders. You can also see that the OP plopped a little table in the living room, but the table was too small for a family who wants the 3 bedrooms and the living room is small, too.

So, yes, dropping the price will help, but the OP will get more buyers, which usually means a better price if more people find the house to be a reasonable option.

I think Gret left the building...

Gret hasn't been here for a week.

The previous owners put those cabinets there. If @gret is willing to take them out, repair & paint the wall, and add a table, I think it would be a big help.

BUT, then where to put the refrigerator. Unfortunately, that would open up a can of worms - trying to retrofit the Refrigerator somewhere without redoing the entire Kitchen.

I think Gret's best bet is to figure out how much it would cost to redo the Kitchen and then give a credit of that amount in the sale. It might provide some help with someone trying to purchase a home - they could buy at the lower price and remodel at a future date (and make-do with what it is for now). Maybe even use it for creative (but legal) financing?

Yes, Gret is gone.

The page you requested was not found.

You all gave her good advice.