House on the market

I used to live over in the Copperfield area.  Nice area.  Good Schools.  Relatively close in compared to where Houston is building out and what's coming. And the house is obviously well taken care of.  Just need the right buyer to come along.  Sales in our neighborhood (which is on the opposite side of town) are taking around 3 months it seems.  But gosh, 3 months seems like 6 when you're trying to sell, doesn't it.    Maybe your buyer will walk in this week!  Good Luck.

P.S. I'm assuming you do Bridgeland and Houston every year right?  They are right in your neck of the woods.  It's like an hour drive for me.  bleh.

We live in KC, so sorry we can't be the buyers for you.  But just went through the same experience and just want to say hang in there.  I got stressed when we went a few days without showings, my wife got stressed when we did have showings as people were coming through the house and everything had to be perfect - so that pretty much equaled stress all the time. 

We were on the market for exactly 40 days before the offer came (to the day when our Realtor, and my sister said would be the DOM).  My training suffered some as well, and I was preparing for Escape from Alcatraz - but we made it through and I successfully escaped   It just takes that one buyer that loves everything about the house that you do and I am sure they are out there. 

Good luck!

Hey BT Realty,

We just listed my mother's house this week also.  

This house is where I grew up.  Seeing it as a real estate listing is sad.  Still I hope it sells quickly to a family with two or three kids.

TW

It's disheartening to have showings and no bites for sure.  I swear my Florida house had over 30 showings before I got an offer...and all of them pretty much said the same thing..."too small".  *sigh*  I can fix ugly.  I can fix broken.  I can't fix small.

But, then a couple came along that didn't mind small and needed inexpensive...so...it all worked out. :D

But yeah, I got sick of showing after showing with no results.

Everyone's situation is different, but have you considered making it a rental?  I just did that with my parents house recently (Mom passed away in October). 

A combination of not-quite ready to let it go, a recent surge in rentals, and me not needing the money, I decided to give it a shot.  Got a property manager to take care of the phone calls for running toilets.

I wasn't too optimistic; a 4 BR, 3,000 SF didn't seem like a popular rental size, but they found a family in about a month.

If you're on contract with a sales agent, it may get sticky trying to add rental as an option, some realtors only want to sell.  I found a company that seems to do more rentals than others.

When my wife and I were in the market, there was one descriptive word which, if used, would guaranteed I would not go see the house.

People can't get loans to buy...lenders are being REALLY stingy (knee jerk reaction to the housing crash caused by willy nilly lending).  You'd be amazed how many people have to rent because they can't get financing.

I have family all around Dallas/Ft. Worth, cause I grew up there, and in the McKinney/Allen/Frisco area they just can't build houses fast enough.  (side note: if your off of Eldorado or in Stone Bridge Ranch, I might have laid pipe in your neighborhood)  Go south to Desoto/Duncanville/Lancaster, and see what you get.  You're in a good pocket up there.

have you received any feedback from the lookers?  any common themes showing? 

we listed out house last year at this time and struggled to get showings and never sold.  those that did give us feedback had a common theme that they didn't like the condition of the neighborhood (lots of foreclosures with bad yards and a HOA that didn't pay the bills to the landscaping and other maintenance).  we have the house back on the market right now and it's a 180degree difference.  lots of showings, one offer on the table, and the hood is in way better shape than last year.  we're much more optimisitc this time!  it's crazy how cities like Houston have sub-markets that can be drastically different.

best of luck!!  where you moving to?

My townhouse in lovely Crystal Lake IL was for sale for over a month with about 5-6 cumulative showings. We ultimately got an offer that was about 55% of the price I bought it for, and $15,000 off the asking price. The Chicago-suburban real estate market (FAR NW SUBURBS) took a HARD hit in the real estate crash, and it generally sucks right now.

We took the offer because I had a relocation deal thru work that allowed me to take a low ball offer, still pay off the mortgage, and have money for a down payment, just to get out of it. Had we been on our own, we would be living there for the rest of our lives, and possibly even after that.

?http://www.trulia.com/homes/Illinois/Crystal_Lake/sold/100701-2835-Cobblestone-Dr-Crystal-Lake-IL-60012#photo-10

We are looking in our area, Spring and Cypress.

yeah, we're moving about 1mile away from our current house.  funny how that works. 

good idea on refinishing the cabinets.  makes all the difference in the world.  our house came with the stadard bright oak color and we restained them with this...http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2005555/16543/general-finishes-java-gel-stain-12-pint.aspx.  it's the best stuff we could find, and it was highly recommended by a couple of woodcrafting stores.  i think for a total of $150 and about 4 days worth of labr on my part the kitchen looks completely different becuase of the cabinet finish.  we've actually gotten several compliments from realtors and buyers on the "custom cabinets".  HA...if they only knew what they used to look like!!!  new counters would be good to, but you might not get your money back out of it.  if you need a reco for someone on counters in the cypress area, PM me.