Anyone on here work in real estate? Could use some advice please!

[Arimeh]

Ok just after some advice (or opinions from other people if they like!) about our house.

We've been on the market since September, and its reallllly slow down here. Apart from the inital 2 or 3 people that came to look through it - we've had no interest whatsoever.

We know that the market is slow, the real estate agent keeps on telling us that. We had one person "interested" but had to sell their place in St Helens first, and apparently its even MORE slow on that side of Tassie than it is here (near Launceston).

Now, my mum has offered to purchase the place as an investment for her. However - she has to sell her block of land on the sunshine coast, and its slow up there as well. So no movement up there apart from one buyer who is interested - but of course - have to sell their house in Beerwah first *sigh*

So our problem - when do we drop the price we have on it to get the sale? We have until the end of the year to sell it. We have to sell it. Its currently on the market for offers between $255,000 - $275,000. There are two units next door on the market (nearly exactly the same but smaller versions of ours, and they share a common wall, we are separate and have a double garage and a nicer outlook out the back) and they are on the market for $239,000. We've been here for a year, and they were on the market for $260,000 when we purchased ours (for $265,000) and now he's slowly been dropping them - and still no interest at $239,000.

DH is telling me to get a date in mind so we can drop ours too. I told him that it doesn't seem to matter if we drop it, otherwise the ones next door would have sold when they dropped their price. He disagrees, saying that people maybe didn't want a unit as small as that for that price.

I'm unsure what to do. I suggested dropping the price in June if we haven't sold it by then. Is that cutting it too fine considering we have to be in Queensland by next January? How much should we be looking at dropping it for? Sucks that we can't even make our money back on it what we paid for it, but we are sacrificing that so we can be with our families again and DH can go to uni in Qld.

Any suggestions? Advice? Investors amongst us? hehe

[toomanyshoes]

When we've sold houses I've always tried to sell it as a home, I'm not sure how to explain it, but I know from looking at houses I always knock money off an offer for a messy house and empty houses, will always offer top dollar if I *have to have it*.

I always dress the house like a show room so when people see it they see themselves living there.

Have you compared your place to other in the area? (not just the ones in your block) How does your price stack up against those?

Whats you're advertising like? The last place we sold we went with a RE agent who uses a professional photographer and has excellent online presentation skills. Is you're advertising aimed at the type of people you are trying to sell to?

[misty]

I would definitely be looking at dropping it, if you can afford too.

The other option might be keeping it on as a rental property, whilst it is still on the market for sale.

[Arimeh]

Toomanyshoes - well its listed on the internet, we took the pics ourselves, but they turned out ok. Its advertised as a family home - its a 3 bedroom unit, but its got heaps of storage and we all fit in here just fine (with cupboards to spare!) but most of the people in the other units up the front are older people that have retired, and it was an older couple that were most interested in it. Price is at the right level in comparison to those listed in the area.

Misty - We can't afford to rent it out while its on the market. When we move to Queensland, DH will be on Austudy, and I'll be on whatever government benefits I can get because I will still have 3 kids at home (only DS will be of school age - 5 years). We won't get our full benefits if we have an investment property, and we wouldn't get enough rent for this place to cover the mortgage, meaning we'd have to cover the rest of the mortgage AND pay rent in queensland AND living expenses - on hardly any income. Its just not possible - we have no choice - we HAVE to sell.

[Phteven]

If it's been on the market for a while it's probably gone a bit 'stale'.
You could try taking it off the market for 3 weeks or so, styling it a bit, dropping the price and re-listing.

[Arimeh]

If it's been on the market for a while it's probably gone a bit 'stale'.
You could try taking it off the market for 3 weeks or so, styling it a bit, dropping the price and re-listing.

We did consider doing that, however, we can't afford to pay for the advertising that the real estate has charged us for so far - we were planning on paying it when we sell. But we don't have the extra cash lying around (we're on one income obviously) so this isn't really a solution either - but we did consider it. Until we thought of the fees.. LOL

[Little Chicken]

Now I'm not saying your place is out of date or anything, but you can be amazed the difference 'dressing' a place for sale can make. De-cluttering, fixing paint chips and dings etc. My SIL spent $1500 completely repainting, putting half her stuff in storage, updating light fixtures etc, and got an extra $20000 on the sale price. There are heaps of books and dvds out there about how to dress a place for sale.

[Arimeh]

Now I'm not saying your place is out of date or anything, but you can be amazed the difference 'dressing' a place for sale can make. De-cluttering, fixing paint chips and dings etc. My SIL spent $1500 completely repainting, putting half her stuff in storage, updating light fixtures etc, and got an extra $20000 on the sale price. There are heaps of books and dvds out there about how to dress a place for sale.

Yup we did that when we sold our place in queensland, however this unit is only a year old, so it has nothing to fix and all fixtures are modern etc.

[kawazuki]

can you ask your agent to "hold" your sale, so stop advertising take it out of the window etc for a few weeks.
so you wont be doing a new advertising when you go back on.
your just HOLDING the advertising for a few weeks.
get it out make people think its sold, then put it back on with a new price etc...
we are looking at doing that with ours has been on the market since november we are the best house in worst street tho