HSA is pretty good. They buy parts from where I work. Always seem like good people

Bahbahmickey,

You're making some serious (and very common) rookie mistakes here. Not reading all responses which prob cover lots of this -

-Pricing correctly at the beginning is the way to go. Houses that sit too long gradually lose appeal with agents and buyers and are a red flag.

-Your price can sometimes be higher than your agent suggests so long as you can justify it. That's harder to do yourself when you don't have the experience or haven't paid your dues in this area. Sometimes you can tell yourself things like "my house should be able to get this because X reason," where X reason sounds great in theory, but doesn't really matter.

-You have the right idea in not completely trusting your agent but are overdoing it a little bit. Yes, his priority is to move your house and yours is to maximize your sale price in this particular case (rather than as fast as possible).

-A buyer almost always has outs so you can't really trap them into a deal. Not just with the attorney review and inspection periods. If they get a serious case of cold feet, it's very easy for them to get their potential lender to ****-can your mortgage financing and fall through on that contingency, which is part of a standard contract.

-The guy who backed out, it happens. Yes standard move there is for him to send over his list asking for a new furnace & other stuff or concession but he didn't even bother trying. Given history he could be a time-waster but it's typical for sellers to write things off as something wrong with the buyer. You can't ignore the possibility that your place didn't have as much appeal when he had more time to think about it and see the inspection report.

-As described your house sounds like something of a fixer-upper which is priced above market. Maybe it looks great but when you need a new roof, windows, HVAC that's a big deal.

-An old furnace and the need for new windows compounds it - just because a place is old doesn't mean things don't get replaced now and again. I just spent plenty of $ on a cheaper furnace/AC system and replaced 6 windows in a townhouse, they're expensive and then there's the PITA that Joe Ordinary Buyer faces getting it done (especially to a buyer looking to move in to their new home, or first time buyers)

--if possible you might consider pulling the listing and doing the repairs because it's very likely they're devaluing your property more than the cost of repairs. You aren't in a hurry you said...at very least maybe get some bids and see what kind of costs you're talking about...then look at them from a buyer's perspective. If a place needs $15k in critical repairs people are going to deduct that and a lot more for their trouble.

--Yeah you don't get his $1k deposit. You have material defects on the inspection report. My last sale I had to put a new drip pan under the new furnace (I forgot) and small things like that. In many cases small things on the inspection report aren't an issue you need to address or are enough for the buyer to walk. That's not your situation.

--If your pricing is too high, a bad appraisal could also tank the buyer's financing and send you back to square 1 again btw. So there are controls here on your pricing beyond what a buyer might be willing to pay.

-Avoid the temptation to ever tell your agent "not to bother" when following up with anyone who's shown any interest on the property. Let him waste as much of his time as he pleases.

--Introducing nonstandard contract clauses is a horrible idea and very petty unless you have some exceptional thing going on. In a great seller's market you can have some leverage in what you can ask for in offers (good faith deposits, etc), but nobody wants to pay you if someone falls through because of something they can't control. In your case you might as well have a cover charge at the door for viewers.

--Likewise, you don't have to pay disappointed buyers who may feel like they just wasted two weeks only to find out your place needs more work than they expected.

What jumps out at me is that your agent is saying $175k is the right price, and you still feel $182.5k is a waste of time? If you have concrete reason to take that much issue with his valuation--what was the reason for your +$12k btw?--then he shouldn't be your agent.

You've got a hot market right now but I'm not sure how much you ought to screw around. As described it sounds like you should go with the market price and be prepared to make a couple repairs or concessions on top of it.

As someone who walked from a house without submitting an unacceptable list, I wouldn't have even made an offer if I couldn't get the EMD back.

FWIW, the house I walked on was under contract, but the listing has been changed back to active. Guess another person realized the reno job was lipstick on a pig.

Here we are talking about home warranties and I came across this article today.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/05/...rth-the-money/

Thanks everyone for the well thought out responses. Sorry if I sounded like an a-hole.

I do think I've priced it correctly. Looking at some comps I don't even understand how someone could say the house is worth less than $185k. I know most people have a bias that whatever they own is nicer than what the market thinks, but I don't think I'm one of them (I know everyone w/ the bias think this too though).

What leads you to believe our listing price (or my valuation) is too high? We listed Monday afternoon and by Thursday at noon we had 12 showings, 8 more showings that we had to cancel, 2 offers, and a contract for $2k below list price. We also relisted last night and we rejected one showing (we really couldn't do it) and have one scheduled for today and one for tomorrow.

My agent & his wife is one of the top 10 couples I would trust my first son/daughter with if I was out of town or dead so I'm not sure I don't trust him. I do trust him, I just think he was wrong in thinking my house is worth 182.5k or less.

It was a fixer upper when I bought it 5 years ago. We totally gutted and redid both bathrooms, torn down an old deck and built a new one, torn up dog-piss soaked carpet, torn down a rail above the stairs that was ****ty/loose and built a half wall, etc. I would say besides the roof it is move in ready. It may need a new furnace and windows at some point, but we've never had an issue with either so assuming they have to be replaced in the next 2 years seems wrong.

I am too lazy to remove the listing and doing the repairs/ paying to have the repairs done.

My RE agent has said multiple times that getting an appraisal above the 188k won't be an issue.

Yeah, I understand that. I introduced the idea of adding a clause before I knew that out was super standard.

Thanks again for your well thought out response.

I really want to hear Minirra's response to my bolded question above, but I wouldn't mind hearing from others as well. Mainly because I think a lot of you all know more about RE than me and you ALL seem to think I am pricing and valuing my house too high and I can't understand why. I know usually when everyone says you are wrong, you are wrong, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

AND since we are on a gambling site I think some of you may appreciate this short story:

So when me and my brother (who bought the house w/ me 5 years ago & lives at the house w/ me) were meeting w/ the RE agent a couple of Thursdays ago contemplating our action on the 2 offers my brother wanted to accept the 182.5 offer and I didn't. I asked him to give me an hour because I was thinking about buying his half of the house and I'd pay him 1/2 of 182.5 and I'd give him money as if he sold his 1/2 in 30 days. He said okay he'd be willing to do it if I wanted. Welp, I chickened out, but my Dad jumped in and bought his half. So 16 hours later when the guy accepted our counter offer (of 188k) my dad was jumping for joy, but now my brother is the one that feels relieved.

My Dad said he is willing to be apart of the process as much as I want but will be a silent partner if I wish. He is convinced we are undervalued and wasn't that disappointed the guy bailed at 188k. (This may explain some of my confidence that we are not overvalued.)

You keep bringing up the comps, but maybe you're wrong about the comps and the RE agent who spends a big chunk of his life looking at that type of stuff understands them better than you.

The value of your house is what someone is willing to pay. If it is worth more than $185k then you will get multiple offers and maybe a bidding war. If it is worth less then every offer will come in under.

Also, are you interested in making money or do you want to win? How much is it costing you each month to own the place? Let's say that you hold out for 3 months and get $188k but it costs you $3k (making this up, you need to do the math) a month to stay. Are you really ahead with the higher price?

The reason people think you are wrong is because a professional agent told you at what price you should list your house, and you basically said thanks for the input, but I'll figure it out on my own.

All the clues line up with the story that you are in the category of thinking your stuff is worth other people's same stuff.

The fact that you really trust your realtor only makes this seems more and more to be the case.

Having said all that, no one will be able to tell you who's right and who's wrong (subjective anyway) unless they are familiar with the area and see the comps.

I agree he is way better at looking at comps than me. However, isn't the 22 showings and 2 offers within the first 100 hours (20ish showings/ cancelled showings in about 72 hrs before offer was accepted & now 3 showing requests since we re-listed less than 24 hours ago) of the house being listed prove that we are fairly valued or at least in the right ballpark?

haha. I understand that the value of the home is what someone is willing to pay.

I don't even know what win is in this scenario. I just want to make some mula.

Sorry, I should have said this earlier (I may have a few weeks ago, but I don't rememer), but I am paying half the mortgage and utilities for a home worth about $185-190k and I am looking to buy a house by myself worth over $250k. The longer I stay in the house the more I am netting via mortgage and utility payments.

I am just surprised that the showings and offers aren't enough evidence where at least 1/2 the posters ITT say I am more likely to be right w/ our listing price than my realtor's original suggestion. FYI- After showing him the comps I was looking at he did say 180k or 185k seemed okay.

i realized pretty quickly the good faith money means basically nothing since every house will have problems when inspected to let you get out of it

it's a pretty lol system

make your realtor work hard for his commission

and never trust them either

i ended up just asking for money in lieu of repairs on my house

kind of wish i asked for more, but it was sort of fair

actually the seller suggested money and my agent came to me, it was kind of awkward how it was handled

That made me question EMDs for a bit, but a less than serious buyer won't want to part with the money even for a little while so it does weed people out.

I suppose it does a better job of that with higher priced homes as EMDs are usually one to two percent of the agreed price.

Our hall bath, though small, is capable of having a double sink vanity and I am thinking about doing it. What are your thoughts?

You're wasting money making an already small (relatively speaking I'm guessing) even smaller. Double vanities belong in ensuites and 2nd floor bathrooms: save the money and put it towards a nicer countertop and lighting.

I can't say for sure based on some posts, I have no idea what your competition looks like or all of the variables specific to your property. But between the inexperience in your posts and your agent's advice, the general trend of sellers leaning toward the high side just because...and the fact that of the two competing offers came in under asking in a hot market...

That's a plus and solves one concern. So now you're squaring your judgement versus his experience and expertise. If he's not a brand new agent and local to your area, I can guarantee his probably dealt with an absurd number of homes in your price range. You can go against that if there's good reason behind it...being in no hurry is one small reason. But if he's aware of all the same things you are and still arriving at different numbers it's something to think about. Sounded like you were somewhat far apart.

Not saying it's a POS, it might show very well. But generally when a new roof and windows/HVAC stuff is needed people are going to put it a little bit into the fixer-upper category as far as "I need/may need to spend decent money to fix this very soon."

As far as never having a problem that's cool for you but doesn't mean much for the buyer. Then there's questions like how old is old, what does the HVAC system all together look like.

Understood, just keep in mind many buyers will feel the same way especially younger ones in that sub $200k type of price point. Someone like me has v. good people for the work & the patience, and is just going to crunch the numbers. But will be looking for a concession on everything I've got to fix + my time & energy. Unless every comp needs a new roof (etc) it's a negative.

If it were just an old water heater or an aging washer/dryer that's usually NBD because people tend to replace them more often and are cheaper. HVAC stuff isn't cheap. [PS - You ever carry a furnace up to an attic up one of those narrow pull-down staircases?]. Also replacing old windows can create/reveal other problems, flashing, some painting and things are usually involved unless you have some seriously neat contractors. $$$.

At a minimum I would have another sit-down with the agent and try to sort out why his numbers are what they are. He liked the $175k list and you not only don't like $182.5k as an offer but you think it's a waste of time, so something is off.

Sometimes agents like to price lower to drive up interest and get the herd thing going with buyers in competition in crazy areas. Ask some of these other posters what that's like buying in hot sellers' markets. Above listing offers happen all the time...of course once you've already been on the market a few weeks it's tough, because to try it now is a price reduction.

Also getting showings is nice but converting them into offers at the price you want is something else. People will still look at a house that might appear overpriced on paper especially one that just listed, figuring they'll just make a lesser offer (and maybe reason there will be less interest to compete against). Investors certainly will and do all the time.

It's an affordable type property which appeal to a larger pool of buyers so you'll get traffic, a $200k house isn't exactly an $4m private island. The downside is that there are going to be a lot of other common type places for them to look at.

I am not talking about a double vanity. I am talking about a single vanity with dual sinks.

Not including where the tub is, the bathroom is 5'x8'. We went to Ikea and found a dual sink vanity that is 48". If we put the new vanity starting from the same position as the current one, it would stop about 14" from the toilet. Too close?

Question about selling my house... we listed our house and got an offer and signed contract. This was beginning of April. Inspection found some minor things but buyers accepted a credit at closing to cover repairs.

Closing was supposed to be June 2 according to the contract. But they did not have appraisal done until Friday May 22. When I inquired last Monday what was the status of the closing, their attorney said they will not be ready since they still need to get the appraisal report back and get their loan finished. They asked to move closing back to June 19. They did include the conditional mortgage approval from their bank.

What is my play should they ask to delay the closing again? Is there anything the seller can do if the buyers keep delaying the closing? We've already moved out so I want to get this done. I'm not convinced they are going to be ready in 2 more weeks - the conditional approval from their bank had a huge list of things they still need to provide to their bank before final approval.

I'd ask your agent, but you could tell them you'll agree to the delay this one time. After that, the deal is off.

Of course, if there wasn't much interest in your house before this couple, they might have you by the short ones.

Well it was only on the market for 10 days before this offer... I think there would be interest I just don't want to go back to square one and start the whole process all over again 2 months later.

Why did it take them so long to get an inspection?

They had the inspection right away. The appraisal is what took forever. I guess the appraisal is done by the bank, so either the bank was very slow to schedule it, or else the buyers spent a long time shopping for a bank.

Bank appraisal takes a bit