Selling a House? Have You Had Any Traffic/showings?

We may be putting our house on the market in the not too distant future, but I don't have any current experience. However, I am a fan of going the extra mile. I plan to put together my own literature about the public schools our house is in, local mom's day out & preschoools, distance to parks (including some pictures), info on the closest grocery stores , gyms, & other shopping. I'll put it together in a simple binder. Just informative things to make them already feel at home or at least make their viewing memorable.

I'm not sure if I'm any help, but we sold our house in 2007. We went on the market at this time of year and we averaged about 1 showing a week. The showings really didn't pick up until March. Once Spring Break hit, we had 1-2 showings a day it seemed. THe market was different back then, but it may not be a very busy time of year for house shoppers.

One other thing I did to check. . . I went onto every house search engine and did a search for my house, not by address, but by specs to make sure my house appeared. It didn't show up on a few of them, so I spoke with the agent, and she had to reload it or adjust something in the MLS (can't remember what she said she did). Whatever she did, it started showing up and that's when the showings started coming a lot too.

price is what sells in this market. Your agent has you priced too high. The agent's reputation or virtual tours, or any of that stuff doesn't matter now.

It's all price. Cut it,and if you can't, you need to sell short. If your agent doesn't know how to do that (many, many, many don't have a clue) you need to call us. That is all we do. We sell over 15/month and our listings have plenty of traffic.

Have you had it professionally staged? That usually helps the house sell up to 50% faster than a non-staged home, because a professional knows how to take your personality out of the home, and create a space that will appeal to the mass market. I can help you with that, if you like. I'm a Home Stager, and also a Feng Shui consultant, so that means that not only can I use your existing furnishings to reduce the cost, I can also move things around for the subtle effect of making your home "feel" as good as it looks. This translates well in the photos, too. Good luck!

B. Biehl
The Intuitive Interior.com
###-###-####

I think it's normal right now. We're not selling or have done that before. My husband and I are actually looking for a house to buy. And I've noticed where we are looking, that some houses have been on the market for several months. There is one that has been for a year. And another that has been since July. And I know we haven't had a lot of competition on any house we have looked at so far. I hope you guys are able to sell yours soon!

R.

I haven't seen many in this area, but when we sold our house in the dc area in April, 08, our realtor had a open house on a Sunday. She left the door unlocked for anyone to come through. That's how we got ours. Also, we were in a position where we could price our house lower than similar houses in the neighborhood. We listed for $10,000 less than the cheapest house and we sold our house in 11 days. We also told our realtor that there wasn't anything in the house that we weren't willing to part with. We ended up selling our TV with the house. We staged our house ourselves, which was easier since we had no children, but it makes a huge difference. I remember going it houses that has stuff everywhere, and although it was dirty, it really altered my decision on the house.

It has been pretty slow lately. We have had little showings on our sale houses and lots of showings on our rentals. People are still buying now though. You may want to consider a small price reduction to get some more traffic.

We had our house on the market for about a month last summer and didn't get one showing. It was listed for about $10K below market value.
I didn't know it at the time, but we think it was due to the economy.

I think its normal. The problem now is so many houses are foreclosed or being short sales that it is VERY hard to compete with. Either you drop to rock bottom price on your home and maybe even loose some money to sale it or rent it, I suggest that if you cant afford to loose anything on it and you need to move quick, you should try to lease it. good luck

Hi S.,

We have our home in S. Arlington on the market for 2 weeks now....... had an open house last Sunday and got 4 or 5 people in and realtor said that's great for January. We've only shown it twice. The market is very competitive right now so if you're not priced at or below the comparables in your area, you will not get as much traffic. People are looking for bargains......... best of luck!

Ahhh, I sure don't envy you. We sold our house last summer and yes we experienced the same thing. We'd go weeks at a time with no showings at all! Our agent held open houses, which seemed to get a lot of traffic, but that didn't get any offers. We were on the market about 4 months, but did end up with a pretty good offer. Best of luck to you. I know how frustrating it can be.

It is the market, but it should pick up in Feb. If not check the price, I must be priced right and you should consider stagging it. 98% of homes staged sell. All the homes I market that are stagged sell in less than 60 days. Also check the pictures if you send me a link or let me know your address I can see what real estate sites your home is on, Talk to your agent ask her to be honest and let you know what you can do about showing. Also consider a realtor bonus.