I've been trying to sell my house for the last 9 months or so, and am getting very frustrated about the whole thing, and would definitely like the advice of those more knowledgeable about these things (and to vent a bit, sorry ahead of time...).
I've lived in this house for the last 8 1/2 years or so, have paid the mortgage down to the point where if I were willing to jump through all the hoops that I could drop the PMI (but at the moment it would cost me more than it would save). It's been- and continues to be- a great place, but I've just outgrown it. The large 1 car garage isn't big enough for all the working I love to do one cars and the driveway isn't conducive to the small fleet of them that I own (and even less so when you add my fiancee's into the mix), and the layout and flooring just doesn't work well with the large dog I'm marrying into. It's a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath tri-level, about 1750 sq feet, built in the mid-60's on a bit more than a 1/4 acre corner lot with an oversized one-car garage and a fenced back yard.
I originally listed the house with the agent who had been my agent when I bought the house. I had the whole interior (minus the wood-paneled basement) repainted in the same neutral color it had been but using much better paint (previous owners had painted it as well but used cheap paint that came off when you tried cleaning anything off the walls), cleaned everything up, and moved everything either into storage or over to the fiancee's place where I would be living except for a few things to stage the house. Also pressure washed the concrete outside and had the asphalt driveway re-sealed (that resulted in a slight fiasco as on the day we were to list the house, the realtor stepped in a puddle of it on the side of the driveway and then tracked it into the house- and onto the carpets. She very definitely paid for the carpet cleaners to get that out...). She really didn't suggest doing much of anything else to the house, and we listed it for slightly less than higher-end ideal for the sale price.
Despite having listed it at the height of the season- beginning of spring here- it got very little traffic. And some half of the people who signed up to see it didn't even go through the front door- the house sits on the corner of the neighborhood, and on either side across the street are apartment buildings. Not particularly dumpy ones- but not high-end condo type places either- and this apparently scares lots of people. After a few initial showings, things tapered off- and never really picked up at all. The realtor was rather unresponsive when it came to suggestions or thoughts on trying to drive more traffic to the house, and we had to press for her to do an open house- which didn't happen until some 3 months after the house was initially listed. It wasn't very well attended. Through all of this, my fiancee (who had actually sold a house before) had been saying that she just didn't think the realtor was doing her job very well and we should find a better one. After asking some friends to look over the listing and give me their input, pretty much all of them couldn't believe that the realtor hadn't pushed for us to do some inexpensive updates to the kitchen and bathroom which hadn't been changed much from the original design and looked very outdated. Eventually, we dropped the original realtor toward the end of the summer and enlisted the realtor who owns the place my fiancee is renting.
He gave us a very frank assessment of the house and the issues he saw with it- including the kitchen and bathroom as well as some issues with the exterior that needed to be addressed. The original realtor had been very reluctant to criticize anything, but the new one was very up-front about what he saw and thought would help. We spent about a month and about $1k making updates to the kitchen (refinished the cabinets, put down vinyl tile over the ancient linoleum) and bathroom (used an epoxy to 'paint' all the rose-pink tile white and put down vinyl tile there too). The fiancee also convinced me that we should paint the wood paneling in the basement, which I have to admit did improve the look of it considerably. The house was re-listed with the new agent at about the same price it had been when we took it off the market.
That was about 3 months ago. He did an open house fairly quickly, but didn't have that many people show up it seems. There were a good number of showings initially, then things slowed down over late November and December, and then have picked up a bit since Christmas to the tune of about a showing a week. We dropped the price by $4k mid-November. But we've still not gotten any offers on it, and it's getting pretty frustrating. Honestly it's been quite a financial hit having both the mortgage (though I dropped the extra I was putting into it when I moved out), storage units, and the part of the rent I'm paying at the fiancee's place. I'm getting a bit of a relief on that now- two of the fiancee's good friends are going to be renting it while they're looking for a more permanent place to rent which will cover the extra costs I have for not living there (they're not paying as much as the house should rent for since it's short term & they're friends).
Things have picked up recently, but there have over the course of the time we've had it for sale been exactly zero offers or anyone who has said that they were actually interested in the house, and I'm wondering if it is going to go well heading in to the traditionally busier spring season. The realtor thinks it's positioned well- it's priced lower than many other properties in the area including many that are smaller and have less updates and desirable features, but it's hard to accomodate for the 'apartment factor'. On the good side of things, I'd have to drop the price very drastically to be selling it for less than what I have left on the mortgage- but I don't want to just give it away since we need the sale of it to provide a down payment on a new place.
Here's the Zillow listing- the Bird's Eye should let you see the apartments in question. I'm figuring that at least a small price drop soon would be good to at least bump the listing back up in the searches. It was also suggested to up the commission listed for the buyer's agent from the 3% it is now to 4% to make it more appealing for agents to want to sell their clients on buying it. What do you guys (and gals) think? Thanks!
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2157-Larkspur-Dr-Lexington-KY-40504/77512535_zpid/