Should I buy a new refrigerator?

[Texas Proud]

A "new listing" generates a lot of attention among buyers ("hey look, this is something new. Maybe it's a bargain or what we've been looking for and others will scoop it up") but only for a brief period. It could be that your realtor wants to time that "splash" for when more buyers are available. For consideration: List it now for 6 weeks, take it down over the holidays (so you guys can enjoy the house) and let it "reset", then list it again in the spring. One certainty-- It won't sell if it's not on the market.

I was going to post similar info.... also, make sure that your agent can list it later with a new listing. I have seen a number of houses listed again and again, but it seemed they went to different agents and they 'started over'.

But like Samclean said, if it is not listed it will not sell....


From experience... make sure your agent has someone else there to cover for them if they are out. I got an offer on Dec 24th for an all cash deal at a discount to what I had listed. I did not get this info until the 27th. I could not get in touch with my realtor until Jan 3rd. The offer had been removed as they bought from someone else. I was willing to sell for that amount, but because we could not get in touch with our agent we lost out. Cost me an additional $5K to $7K because I had to wait, keep paying utilities etc. and the new agent cost me more money (I had a discount with my first agent as I used them to buy my house).

 

[Dimsumkid]

For consideration: List it now for 6 weeks, take it down over the holidays (so you guys can enjoy the house) and let it "reset", then list it again in the spring.

A real estate listing for only 6 weeks? Shortest listing I've ever gotten was 3 months....unless the agent is a family member or a good friend? I'll have to ask my agent today about this. It took my current agent 11 days just to get a yard sign on the property! We're moving onto a new agent Wed.

 

[samclem]

A real estate listing for only 6 weeks? Shortest listing I've ever gotten was 3 months....unless the agent is a family member or a good friend? I'll have to ask my agent today about this. It took my current agent 11 days just to get a yard sign on the property! We're moving onto a new agent Wed.

I really don't know. As slow as properties are moving, I'd be surprised if an agent turned down a listing if it was attractively priced. But, since there would be promotional costs, it might be good for a seller to offer to pay the listing broker a few hundred dollars right up front to defray those promotional costs and encourage them to accept a short listing. It can't hurt to ask, at least you'd find out which agents are hungry and motivated.

 

[Retire2013]

The ideas offered here by several posters to list now then take it off to enjoy our home over the holidays then relist later in early Spring is excellent. I will approach realtors with that idea. I have not signed any listing agreement yet. In fact, the house is not even ready yet. I am still working on it evenings and weekends (I work long hours in my job!). Thank you again. I really learn so much from everyone, so please keep giving me any advice, share your thoughts. Trying to sell one's house is such a daunting and emotionally taxing experience, isn't it?!

 

[Dimsumkid]

I just met with my new agent and posed the "list for 6 weeks" and she said with the expenses involved in a listing, she wouldn't take on a listing this short. She doesn't have a problem with 3 months, but that's as short a term that she would take. Hopefully you can get someone to go 6 weeks.

 

[samclem]

I just met with my new agent . . .

Well, she's not your agent until you sign on the dotted line. There are plenty of fish in the sea.

Anyway, good luck. If you don't see a yard sign for 11 days, that will be a strong indication that she's not a go-getter, either.

 

[Dimsumkid]

Samclem,
I used this agent on the estate sale last winter. I liked her and what she did for me. This current agent that we're leaving, was DW's choice and I never cared for her. The new one was my agent of choice all along.

 

[Katsmeow]

Trying to sell one's house is such a daunting and emotionally taxing experience, isn't it?!

Yes. Well, it wasn't the time we sold to the first person who saw the house....but usually yes.

This time has been by far the worse. About this time last year we started getting our house ready to sell. We've done this before so know the ropes.

First we decluttered. Went through and threw out things. Called 1800GotJunk to pick up stuff. Then we packed away stuff. All that took awhile since we were still working then.

Then we decided that this time we wanted a quick sale so decided to spend a little money on professional staging. Got the stager in and then started on the stuff to get the house ready (such as painting, etc.). All that took longer than we expected. We had to wait for this, that needed to be redone, etc. We had planned to be on the market the first week of March.

We got on the market in mid-April. We told our agent (whom we have used before) that we wanted to sell quickly and wanted to price on the lower end. We didn't want to maximize price. (This is because we had already bought our replacement house that we planned to do extensive renovations to...making long story short, it now turns out we will need to demolish it and rebuild).

Well we got a lot of traffic but no offers. After a realtor open house it was clear that we were overpriced. So we reduced the price. SOme of the other negatives mentioned, the agent told me she had known them but had never mentioned to us.

So now it is six months later, we've reduced the price a little over 10%. I think it is a good price but wish we had listed it at this price six months ago. We've had a lot of showings according to the realtor for our price range but no offers. Typical feedback is they don't like our floor plan (we have a large house, but smallish kitchen and only one dining area).

Listing expires next month. We are inclined to take it off the market until it can come back on as a new listing (local MLS rules say how long that needs to be). We will probably switch agents. She is nice and responsive but hasn't really given us much advise. Every price decrease or other change has been initiated by us... All very frustrating particularly since we really need to sell.

 

[Retire2013]

Will everyone please post when your house gets sold so we can all congratulate you and celebrate your success? We all NEED good, happy news! To anyone who is trying to sell a property, best of luck to all of us!

 

[AngelFly]

Get one on layaway

 

[W2R]

Will everyone please post when your house gets sold so we can all congratulate you and celebrate your success? We all NEED good, happy news! To anyone who is trying to sell a property, best of luck to all of us!

Good luck to you too, Retire2014! Let's hear it for selling to follow one's ER dreams, and moving on with life.

Luckily this is not a contest since real estate markets differ so. Still, once it's sold it's sold and worth a big grin no matter how long it takes.

 

[Moemg]

Will everyone please post when your house gets sold so we can all congratulate you and celebrate your success? We all NEED good, happy news! To anyone who is trying to sell a property, best of luck to all of us!

Good luck to all you sellers ! I am doing work on my house but I'm not ready to list . I hate having my house on the market for more than a few months but hopefully you will all sell quickly or at least in a reasonable time span !

 

[Emeritus]

I opened the freezer door -- and got drenched with a freezer-full of ice cold water..which then pretty much flooded the wood floor in the kitchen, to say nothing of my ruined wool suit.!

Cant say about the rest, but wool is processed in cold water. Putting a wool suit in ice cold water is a traditional means of taking off stains such as mustard.

 

[Emeritus]

So now it is six months later, we've reduced the price a little over 10%. I think it is a good price but wish we had listed it at this price six months ago. We've had a lot of showings according to the realtor for our price range but no offers. Typical feedback is they don't like our floor plan (we have a large house, but smallish kitchen and only one dining area).

Listing expires next month. We are inclined to take it off the market until it can come back on as a new listing (local MLS rules say how long that needs to be). We will probably switch agents. She is nice and responsive but hasn't really given us much advise. Every price decrease or other change has been initiated by us... All very frustrating particularly since we really need to sell.

Unfortunately your house appears to be overpriced for the market

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Will everyone please post when your house gets sold so we can all congratulate you and celebrate your success? We all NEED good, happy news! To anyone who is trying to sell a property, best of luck to all of us!

Ditto on the luck to all! I hope people will post when they sell, too. I plan to retire no later than 2014 and might possibly try to unload this place when I do. I hope I can at least break even as I will have owned my home 10 years by then.
A co-worker sold her home of almost 20 years here in PA in the spring and moved back to where she grew up in Alabama. She sold it for about 15 percent less than comparables in her neighborhood to the first person who made an offer. She just closed on a new home in Alabama which she says sold at a steep discount so it all worked out in the end. She did a bang up job of cleaning out all the clutter from her home before she listed it. She also did a little painting in neutral colors, made sure everything was very clean, did a lot of repairs so that everything was in working order, and hired a landscaper to give the place curb appeal. She lived near a college and the person who bought the place is an investor who plans to rent it out to students.

 

[Retire2013]

Dear All, I don't want to start a new thread, so please answer this question if you happen to see this: I have real hardwood floors, beautiful oak with a coat of polyurethane over it, there are some scuffed marks from chairs/furniture being pushed around over the past 10 years, should I refinish the hardwood floors? Re-polyurethane it? It's large house, this will cost several thousand dollars to have it done professionally. I am a CPA, working long hours at my "day job!" so I won't have the time to do the refinishing myself. Your thoughts and advice on this are much appreciated. Thank you ALL!

 

[Moemg]

I'd check Home Depot or Lowe's for something to touch up the scuffed spots . I used one a few years ago and it worked fine and the price was right .

 

[travelover]

I'd check Home Depot or Lowe's for something to touch up the scuffed spots . I used one a few years ago and it worked fine and the price was right .

I think I read somewhere that you can clean the scratched area well and brush on diluted polyurethane with a small brush. Google it .

 

[Dimsumkid]

I have real hardwood floors, beautiful oak with a coat of polyurethane over it, there are some scuffed marks from chairs/furniture being pushed around over the past 10 years, should I refinish the hardwood floors? Re-polyurethane it? It's large house, this will cost several thousand dollars to have it done professionally.

Went down this path earlier this year. Make sure you still have some urethane on the areas in question. If so, you can try buffing it out yourself using an auto buffing unit, or a drill on a slower speed using a buffing pad. There's products at Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware or True Value too. Min Wax and Bona Kemi are the products I've seen. I used the Min Wax floor reviver (comes in 2 finishes) product from Home Depot, about $20 for 32 oz. These new products have some urethane in it, so it helps to "rebuild" the urethane that's still on your floors. I used it on bare spots and it did improve them too, although the instructions were for spots not worn down that far.

My floors were 60 years old and never refinished, med. brown from all the yellowing, so I ended up refinishing the floors (friend recommended them when he did his), costs me $1/ft, the guy initially wanted $1.25/ft,but reduced it when I let him do the stairs too. They did a really nice job too, but the new poly stunk big time for weeks, even after airing it out daily.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I think scuffed floors will have more of a negative impact on prospective buyers than the not-new refrigerator.

 

[samclem]

Dear All, I don't want to start a new thread, so please answer this question if you happen to see this: I have real hardwood floors, beautiful oak with a coat of polyurethane over it, there are some scuffed marks from chairs/furniture being pushed around over the past 10 years, should I refinish the hardwood floors? Re-polyurethane it? It's large house, this will cost several thousand dollars to have it done professionally. I am a CPA, working long hours at my "day job!" so I won't have the time to do the refinishing myself. Your thoughts and advice on this are much appreciated. Thank you ALL!

I definitely wouldn't re-finish all my floors just because of a few scuff marks. You can try to repair it yourself by lightly sanding the scuffed areas (try approx 180 grit) and applying new polyurethane on these areas. Be careful--get up all dust/hair, etc, and take care not to introduce bubbles as you brush on the polyurethane. Then do what you can to keep dust off it until it dries, You're more likely to have success if you know/can match the gloss level of the existing coat. You can buy a one quart can and give it a try on one of the less conspicuous areas as a low-risk way of seeing if you want to do this.

There are products for "renewing" polyurethane floors (Varathane makes a product called "Renewal" they claim will fix scuff marks) but I don't know anything about them and a don't have much faith in their claims.

 

[Retire2013]

Thank you ALL for these ideas on how I can fix these scuffed marks myself. I'll try it this weekend.

 

[TromboneAl]

There's this stuff called Restore-a-Finish that is good for touching up cabinets, etc. Might work on floors.

 

[Retire2013]

Dear W2R, is your house on the market yet? Or are you still putting the finishing touches on it? Any open houses planned?

 

[Dimsumkid]

Will everyone please post when your house gets sold so we can all congratulate you and celebrate your success? We all NEED good, happy news! To anyone who is trying to sell a property, best of luck to all of us!

I may be too early in announcing this but....

Was about to close a 1 yr rental lease on our house today (delayed from Monday), then got a 2nd lease request and then an offer all within 1-2 hours today! After several offers/counters, we accepted the house for sale offer tonight! They want to close in 30 days and willing to put down 25%. My fingers are crossed, but I don't want to celebrate until we get to close and sign off. The housing market has been really slow here, got 5 rental requests in the past 45 days and 3 have been with horrible credit/foreclosures.