why wont this farm sell ugh

[capall beag]

I know why the house is not selling!!!!

It looks like it could be wonderful but the pictures and the lack of enthusiasm created by the ad left me feeling like blah!!!!

I think you need to get serious with your realtor.

He/She works for you!

I think advertised the right way that house/farm should sell quick, by are standards it is a complete steal, 1/2 acre sells for more than that here sometimes!

My parents just had a bad deal with their realtor and when the contract ended they changed realtor and had success.

The Realtor needs to be passionate about your home and selling to get their job done. I completed my real estate exams but do not practice but that is basic, they need to be able to bring the buyers in with just one photo.

I would be hopping mad if I was you.

 

[txminipinto]

I feel your pain!

Our house has been on the market since September. But.....I didn't sign a contract with our realator - you shouldn't have too! And she's done a great job advertising, there's just no lookers. Plus add in the fact we're on the Gulf Coast in Texas. You'd think all those who've relocated to our area from Katrina and Rita would be looking for new homes, but they aren't. We've dropped our price as well. We've had 3 interested parties so far, but the place just wasn't for them. Don't fret too much. I hear January is the month to sell. It'll sell, the right person just has to come along.

 

[Horse Hugs]

Kay,

WOW. You are getting royally screwed by your agent. First off, he should be advertising your house in the paper and Homes magazine. His line about houses selling off the internet is a bunch of crock and the ad he has on there is terrible. He should have described in great detail all the features and selling points and certainly have more pictures. Next time when you list make them put in writing that they will advertise your house in the paper x amount of times and whatever else you want. Don't just trust them. Bad agents will tell you anything until they have a signed contract and then they forget about you. If they won't put it in writing-find someone else.Try a one month listing and see if you like the agent first before you sign on any longer. I don't know what prices are in your area but it sounds as if you have it priced low. That, and the lack of any glowing, descriptive adjectives about the place makes it sound like a dud. It looks like a beautiful home and a great piece of property. Find someone who will treat it that way. Describe in detail all the indoor features and play up the horse fields and barn. Dig through all your photos and find some nice shots back when it was furnished to ad to the shots that will show it empty. Go through ads and find one that you really like and show it to your new agent and tell him that is what you expect. If you decide to do an auction- make sure you have a high enough reserve.

Good luck. Selling a home is very stressful.

 

[Just Us N Texas]

I feel your pain. When Jerry and I moved to Texas and put our house up for sale, we thought it would take no more than 2 months. The day we told the realtor we were taking it out of her hands, she came up with a buyer at a decent almost asking price, contingency contract. Since then we have had 2 more offers. One we couldn't accept, because he wanted to pay us more than the price on the contingency contract, and did not want to involve realtors. The second was a live bid, asking price, and wanted to close by Nov. 28th. Since we had the contingency contract, we had to give the first couple 24 hours to take off the contingency, and sign a contract to buy. All so complicated and confusing! They of course signed the contract. We thought that meant they would go ahead and close. No such thing. They then proceeded to go through FHA, and it has been a long drawn out thing, with all the extras you have to have done with the government! The appraiser, termite inspections, septic inspections, and overall inspection. It passed all, but the time consuming aggravations make you want to scream! Mind you the contract says the house was to be sold as is! We still had to make a couple inexpensive repairs. Of all things, one of the things was that a bathroom drain was running "slow". Jerry fortunately was in Ky. at the time, and went to the house, used a bottle of Drano on the sink, and found that the inspector didn't know how to open the drain all the way. Anyway, now all we are waiting for is for the mortgage company to write the loan for the people! That should only take another few weeks! I hate selling property. With or without real estate agents, it is a big pain in the butt. By the way, one realtor told us that nothing sells from Thanksgiving till Jan., but then the market opens up again. Hope that is the case with you. But, please change agents!

 

[Bluerocket]

From what you say about the Realtor --- I would be shopping NOW for a new one --- and interviewing him/her for their ideas -- and guarantee that he/she will do the things you want done (open house, internet listings, virtual tour, new photos etc...)

That looks like a lovely place --- but from the picture of the house - I would not believe it was only 9 years old --

Good luck and keep us posted please.

JJ

 

[Shari]

I understand what you are going through KayKay. We did that last year.. sell our old Farm.

What I did was post lots of high quality pictures...inside, outside.. all the neat points too. I wrote up all the extras the house had. And put all on my own web site I set up.

I know you can't do this now because you no longer live there. But Staging the house with just enough furniture to make the house warm and appealing. Baking cookies,, even those slicing ones in the oven just before folks come to see the house...offering the possible buyers cookies.

Sounds like your real estate agent isn't doing enough for you.

Do you have any friends in the area of your old Farm that could help you out with things there?

We sold our place in 17 days,, but it wasn't because of our lazy Real Estate agent.

I did all of her work. "T'ed" me off to say the least. I knew what to do because my Dad had been in Real Estate for a very long time..so I learned some good things to use.

It was nerve wracking selling. <<HUGS>> Kaykay...

 

[Jill]

I have no idea what the real estate market is like there, but your farm is lovely. I do not think in my area (just south of Northern VA), you could not get what you have for even 3x your asking price!

 

[Sanny]

Around here your house would be listed for $500,000 or more. It would also be marketed a LOT DIFFERENTLY though. It would be marketed as a hobby farm/horse property and should be featured as such. Yes, houses sell on the internet all the time, but not with a blah description like that and such plain photos. My dad was a real estate agent and from what I see and hear, yours really sucks. Obviously a beautiful newer home but the photos stink, no real description, no mention of the horse facilities, barn or fencing (around here ANYTHING that mentions "horse property" or "hobby farm" is a hot commodity). Anyone buying off the internet is going to expect lots of photos and prefer a "virtual tour" and room for lots of detail and description about the house and property. They need to be motivated to actually want to call and schedule an appointment to see it. Besides the internet, I always see really nice color flyers of horse properties and hobby farms posted at our co-op and tack shops around here AND I totally disagree about the agent saying houses don't sell at open houses. I think they do, and not always to the person that goes through the open house. They might tell their neighbor, sister, cousin, etc. about the "perfect house" they found. I think it might be worth your time when the listing expires, to advertise and host your own open house and drive down for a couple of days. No one knows the house better or can answer the questions better. You may also get an offer without needing an agent involved just get an attorney to make sure all the paperwork is in order. The house we live in now, we found without our agents help - by driving around the neighborhood we liked, we brought the agent into the deal after already seeing the house and the sellers turned down the offer we made on the house - it was too low and they needed to get more out of the house. We ended up dropping the agent - we were trying to sell our house and buy another at the same time. I think three months after being rejected by the seller we went back to them and offered a LOWER offer (but no agents involved) and not only did they accept the offer, they BOUGHT our smaller, less expensive house from us in order to facilite and speed up the process because they were moving out of state. (they rented out our old house). It all worked out in the end. I'm all for using a good agent - my dad was one - but when they don't do the job - you have to look at other options.

 

[kaykay]

you know i hadnt even realized how blah this write up is or the fact that it mentions nothing about being a horse/hobby farm until you guys pointed it out. Im so close to this situation that even i cant see clearly. I do though ask him to include the painting studio and barn in the descripton but he never would

funny thing is he just called and said the people that looked at it 3 times want to make an offer but their agent is gone on vacation. Then he said he has a new couple interested that "may" make an offer.

I think because the listing expires soon he is finally trying to get it sold. Or hes lying to me to get me to relist with him. I told him in no uncertain terms last week that i will NEVER relist with him.

thanks for all your support

 

[Sterling]

I think it's beautiful and I definitely would be looking at it if we were relocating to that area. I have noticed in looking at ads from Realtors.com that most of their ads are "blah". They just give you the specifics and don't go into a "song and dance"...so you pretty much have to look for the acreage, barns, fencing etc....I think if it just lists acreage, you would have to contact them to find out if they are zoned for horses. Thats been my experience with them anyway.

I do hope you sell it soon...I know how much a headache it can be especially now that you're all settled in your new home in Ohio.

 

[wishful]

Frankie is right. Its the down payment that stops most deals.

We had to pay 20,000 down when we bought our place in the sticks of Alabama.

Woud have bought a bigger/newer house if the down payments were not so huge.

The bigger the price the bigger the down payment got.

Frankies advice would be a God send to first time home buyers.

 

[Crossbuck Farms]

When I bought my farm, our house took over a year to sell. So we carried two mortgages. It was rough but we sold it ourselves. Screw realtors.

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

WOW Kay, I cant believe your not having any luck selling your place for the price your asking, even way UP NORTH where I live you wouldnt find anything with 5 acres and a 9 yr old home for that price. I live in farming community turned resort-a OLD farmhouse in need of repair, with 1 acre of land -right on the corner by me, just sold last summer for $155,000.00 they were asking $169,000. but you should of seen this house, it didnt even have a regular heating system, no insulation, the roof had been reshingled---OHHH, about 20 plus years ago, and the windows were as old as the house,it also needed a new septic system (mound system) the only thing it had going for it was all the oak, old tin ceilings, and some stained glass windows. Up here its as fast as land or homes go on the market they are sold. We missed out on 40 acres, it went up for sale in the morning, and was sold by mid-afternoon, when I called. I would be firing and speaking up to your agent, he sure dont seem like he is doing anything for you! Corinne

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

frankie i agree the pics are terrible and i have asked repeatedly that they retake them but they wont.  I also asked that they put pics of the inside to do a virtual tour again he wouldnt do it. 
he has also refused to do any open houses or any ads.  he says all houses sell of the internet and advertising is a waste.  now keep in mind this agent is one of the biggest remax realtors in our area.  supposed to be top dog

also i have heard from other agents that he never returns phone calls etc.  this agent has been a nightmare from day 1 and i will never relist with him.  4 weeks ago i asked him to go by and check the gas tank and he promised he would.  well he never did and never called and the tank ran empty.  russ had to drive from ohio to illinois to thaw the house and get the gas going again.  He did apologive for "not following" thru but thats it.

oh also we did lower the price.  farms in our area are sellling in the 240 range and the homes are much older.  we started at 210 and went down to 199. 

we have owned 6 homes and never had one take this long to sell

526247[/snapback]

​

I think you answered your own question on this one RE LIST WITH SOMEONE ELSE...

when we bought this place the sellers agent had a horrible repuation sort of the used car salesman of real estate he was awful to work with and be around and a HUGE turn off to be honest he acted like he was doing us a favor by showing us the house he couldnt sell for over a year even my daughter who was 13 at the time said wow should i wear a short skirt and stuff my bra that might get him to be helpful.

I bought anyway but i really wanted this place many will just move on. I think you need to find someone who really will show a vested interest in your home and selling it. Sometimes those who are top dogs... have so much on there plate that one sale might not be a make or break on there own dinner table you know what I mean.

 

[horsefeather]

kaykay,

I went and looked at the ad....I'm speechless! That is one of the WORST ads I have ever seen!! I couldn't figure out what the 'extra' house, garage, ? was. Didn't mention a barn. If I was looking for a place for me and my horses, I would have moved right on past that listing.

Your place is absolutely beautiful!! I know it would be 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' (which I happen to be the QUEEN of

) but I don't think I would sell even if he brought me an offer!! I wouldn't want him to get 1 single penny!!

If you do decide to list again, get a 'hungry' agent!!

Good luck,

Pam

 

[whiskeyranch]

I didn't read all the posts, so some of this may be a repeat.

Don't resign your realtor. I have found that small local realtors with mls capability work much harder for their money. Our realtor, who is now a friend, says he will drive to China to sell a house!

I agree with needing inside pics. We sold our house last year in 2 months. for nearly the same price, for 3 acres and a 1500 sq. ft house. Our local realtor had LOTS of pics on our mls listing, and I'm not sure what that building is in your pics, so more info. should be listed about that.

WE found our new house on a website called HAR, Houston Area Realtors group, all the realtors who belong to this group list their properties so it gives them a much broader area to advertise. Our new house is 100 miles away from the old one.

It can also be a benefit to find a realtor who has a mortgage person in office, they can help get buyers financed alot more, because they all work together for the sale. Helps with those buyers who want to buy, can almost buy, but need the extra finance help to make it reality.

Anyhoot, your house is lovely and remember this is typically a bad time of year to sell, your realtor may not be working as hard as he needs to since he is the "big shot" and I would hold tight on the price if you can until spring when people start looking to move over the summer.

 

[Anne]

Gefz, we JUST went through this situation. We had to move due to a job change. Listed the property for sale in Apr (the 1st to be exact) The first realtor advertised on the internet and local papers said he knew a lot about rural properties, sold a lot of them,but he was a Century 21 agent. The ad was poorly written though he did let me change the wording and took more pictures of the "horse facilities." We had an arena, barn, round pen on 21 acres, in southwest WI just a few miles from the IL border.

I have found that C21 ads are difficult to find on the internet compared to other companies and as "unuser friendly" as they can get.

He had the listing for 6 months. Well actually we dropped him with his agreement just about 5 days from the contract termination with a list of names that he wanted to reserve the right too if any of them came back with an offer.

We listed with a Coldwell Banker agent who worked a lot in the area. She didn't know tons about rurual property, we walked her through some things, but she was well known locally and a super business person. Got much more local advertising as well as a better internet listing and she let me ad pictures I took myself as well as some she took.

It was again a "new listing" lots of pictures in the papers with the ad,(in Oct.)and we accepted an offer in about a month.(the 1st week of Nov) It was a "low" offer which we negotiated up just a bit to where it worked for us.

The best motivator to work with it, was that they did not require a "contingency" or have a home to sell.

I'm sure if we hadn't changed realtors we would still be struggling with the situation.Nothing wrong with changing realtors at all. The first realtor can "reserve" names of people he thinks "might" make an offer.

And I would push that local advertising it's what got ours sold, We closed Dec 9th.

Wishing you the BEST LUCK out there I know how hard this can be and the stress involved.

Anne

 

[Shari]

KayKay,

I just thought of something I forgot about. <<smacking my forehead!!>>

You can get a couple of Mortgage places to look at your house. That is what I did.. and had it Quailfy for a "No Down" Mortgage. Then they put a big sign in front.

You do not carry the Mortgage,, but it is a deal that the Mortgage companies can offer.

Now I do not know if you can do that in your state,, but it might be worth it to take a look into that deal.

 

[fourhorses]

May I also suggest that you run ads (or have your new realtor do it) in the local, regional horse publications. If you have a local dressage club, eventing organization, etc. That way it gets to the people who it needs to get to......horse people!!

 

[DunPainted]

Kay....When I was at your house, the most striking thing to me was how well manicured the property was, as well as the layout. The corncrib, turned barn was a stroke of genius! It maintained history, yet functional for hobby farm use. The giant porch is another, wonderful selling feature....leading to the final, main attraction...CLASSIC OAK INTERIOR THROUGHOUT!

If someone, either yourself or agent, could feature a "newer", custom built farm house situated on a well-organized, maintained hobby ranch. It offers tranquility of a rural farm setting, close enough to shopping convenience.

Dump the agent! He's probably alienated other agents, if he's such an arrogant snob. If he's already threatening his "cutomer" with litigation, its logical to assume his bullying business acumen precedes him. When an agent behaves in this manner, it's clear other agents refuse to show "his" properties.

At most, find a realtor that'll agree to a 60 day contract. If they're worth their salt, this shouldn't present a problem for them personally. Insist that a broker preview be scheduled within a week of listing.....open house every third/fourth week (too many will turn buyers off), approval of internet/virtual tour photos prior to advertising to the public.

Don't be afraid to provide your own description of the property to the new agent. Very often, agents get in a rut or have a mindset of certain "features" to mention. Help them do their job.....and if they're not inclined in working in partnership, RUN!

Thinking positive thoughts!

Cindy