Selling Our House

**Shawn** · 03-21-2008, 11:08 AM

We have a 1.5 Million dollar home in a suburb of Chicago. We bought the home for $1.4Million in 2006 and spent about $100,000 in upgrades after we closed - for instance adding a movie theater, wood flooring all throughout (we replaced all the carpeting), custom vanities, etc. We have a mortgage for $1.2M. We realized when all this stuff with the economy is going on, that we should be living a more modest lifestyle and saving for the future. So we put our house on the market in January at 1.6Million. We then realized most people in this market want a deal - so we priced it at $1.4M (maybe a mistake?). Anyway, we are getting tons of showings on the house, and many of them fall in love with the house and ask to come back multiple times, but no offers. It seems the common theme among them is finances - I don't think most of them can afford it, but our realtor says in this market you can't ask for pre-qual letters or anything like that. So basically, we have about 5 showings a week and no offers and it's priced $100k under what we have invested.

Are we making a mistake - should we raise the price and just try to hold out until the market rebounds, or continue showing the house to every joe that wants to see it, etc or maybe lower the price more? We are even thinking of buying a new house now and just moving there so the showings don't interrupt our lives like they are now. What do you recommend?

**carlam** · 03-22-2008, 08:37 AM

This market doesn't mean we don't ask for mortgage prequal letters?!? I don't waste my time or my seller's time if someone isn't qualified. It sounds like you are just holding your home open for anyone. Stop that practice right now. A potential buyer for your list price/ market will have financing in place and will not be offended for request of proof.

Are you just trying to sell now because of the sluggish market and you are fearful of what? If you don't need to sell now, don't.

**karyljm** · 03-22-2008, 10:50 AM

HI Shawn I agree with Carlam, your realtor is wasting your time. There are so many people who just like to look. My parents use to do that just for fun and decorating ideas. And with the price of your home there are going to be a lot that don't qualify.
Also if you don't need to sell you should wait, the market always has gone back up, this happens about every ten years.

Best of luck!!!!

**Greg** · 03-24-2008, 07:45 AM

One of the reasons you have an agent is to make sure that people who come to look at your house are serious and qualified buyers. If they haven't talked to a lender then they aren't serious or can't qualify.

Not only to people look at expensive houses for entertainment they look at them for nefarious reasons too.

**VancouverWa** · 03-25-2008, 12:49 PM

Hi Shawn,

I like to have a property completely available.
No buyer/client gets in my car unless they have been pre-approved and most of the agents I know follow the same rule. I would never waste my time showing a property that I knew was out of my clients price range.

I would say that most of the buyers coming through your property are prequalified if your home is listed with a Realtor.

I would not focus on the amount of showings, I would focus more on what those buyers are saying about your property. Are you selling your competition? What are those buyers bidding on? Is your Realtor following up on the showings? With the amount of showings your getting, I would say the sharks are circling and it's just a matter of time before an offer is submitted.

Best of luck

**flatfeemls** · 03-25-2008, 09:49 PM

The market is bad right now. Text it out for as long as you want and try to look at what is actually selling in your area. This is an expensive piece of property and might take time.

Paul Gioffre

**Shawn** · 04-04-2008, 06:41 AM

What kind of difference would there be by selling now versus in a couple years? Is it worth it to hold out for the market to get better? Man I hate selling a house, it's a pain!

**Kleimer Company** · 04-08-2008, 01:09 PM

Making the decision to sell your home is an important decision. Once you have made that decision, you want your home to sell in the shortest time, at the best price, and without hassles or problems. You may have asked yourself, What can I do to help facilitate this process?

One of the most important things for you and your real estate professional to do is to look at your home through the eyes of the buyer. And remember, those eyes may change from week to week depending upon the availability of other properties. Once you have done this, you and your real estate professional need to market your home so that buyers see and feel the benefits and value in ownership of YOUR home.

So what is it that a buyer will want? First of all, all home buyers comparison shop for value. They judge price and condition against the features and benefits offered by each of the homes they are considering. Some homes may be easily eliminated because of poor condition or overpricing. After the two or three homes with the highest value are identified, the final selection is usually based on pure emotion.

**mjgiorgianni** · 04-08-2008, 02:32 PM

I'm not so sure I agree. I believe it's a numbers game and you should show it to anyone that's interested, people talk.

With a lot of the high priced home, buyers will not figure out there finances until after the find a home. They assume they don't need to do this, so they just start looking. I'm not saying it's the greatest thing, it's just the way it is. Real Estate Agents won't push them hard enough.

Showing your home multiple times a week is great and sooner or later that right buyer will come along.

**mjgiorgianni** · 04-11-2008, 07:36 AM

Why not? The more you show the better??? It's all about getting the showings. Remember, Real Estate is a numbers game! Yes, they should be qualified, but most are not.

"but still the most people are not very rich.even though they really want to buy in the bottom of their heart ,they will be frightened by your price"
RE: They wouldn't consider the home or even see it if they were frightened by the price.

Hold open houses on the weekdays. This is when the more serious buyers are out. I do open houses Mon-Friday and have had very good success holding open houses and have sold multiple open houses the very same day.