nope, they should drop the price NOW.

Talk to her broker and ask WHY? Sounds like agent/broker are not on the same track as you. Get aggresive and keep calling--or insist they meet with you and do more selling for YOU, not just to get listing--

You definitely don't want to stay too high too long. And yes, she should be doing these things. You definitely should be happy with the way your home is being marketed.

Thanks all -- So it's not just me. She's the most pleasant and likable person you'd ever want to meet but that in itself isn't going to get my house sold. It seems there's always an excuse. We realized after we signed with her that she's also an associate broker over 53 realtors. She has two listings currently. One morning she said she was coming by with flyers and asked if I'd be at home. (We now live next door to our home for sale, so it's vacant.) I waited all day and she never showed. I popped off an e-mail to her the next morning suggesting it would be nice to recieve a quick phone call or e-mail whenever something came up, as I'd sat and waited on her until five pm. She appologized, stating that her manager was ill so she had to teach a class at another branch for her and help out needy realtors in her office. Fine, but a phone call would have been nice. She promised a couple of types of advertising - one in a publication that gets mailed out monthly and Craigs list. She missed the deadline for the first - but says she'll get it in next month - and the second hasn't happened still. She raved about our location accross from a park and it's visibility being perfect for open houses, saying that an agent in her office just "loves" our neighborhood and wants to hold one for her. Still nothing scheduled.
The price was dropped yesterday finally. When I checked out the listing online I realized she'd still forgotten about the huge shed. I called her again, which was tricky since I've got really bad laryngitis and can barely talk, so it's now been added. She said she'd come by today with new flyers reflecting the price drop and an a sign to add onto the existing sign in the yard mentioning it. She hasn't showed again.
The initial listing had mistakes which took several phone calls and e-mails to straighten out...I feel like I'm having to babysit her!

Sounds like you need to fire her!

Honestly, what is she doing for you that you can't do for yourself? You hire a realtor because they have avenues to expose your house that you may not have and hopefully can offer you the experience to get the job done. It sounds like its been put in MLS and she's done. You can hold open houses, print flyers and put yourself on craigslist. Im not sure what you mean when you say shes an associate broker over 53 realtors? An associate broker just means she has her brokers license and is working in an office that already has a broker. There can only be 1 broker in a company, the rest of those that have their brokers license then become "associate brokers" unless they choose to open their own office. That doesnt mean shes in charge of even 1 other realtor.

It sounds as if she's giving you alot of cock and bull. Changing a price in the computer takes about 2 minutes at which time she could have changed the remark about the shed. Get her on the phone, tell her what you expect and give her a time limit. If its not done,talk to the manager about getting another realtor or canceling the listing.

Make an appointment with her broker and list everything you had to ask to to do, and her excuses. and ask either for a new agent or release you from her company. In fact you can print this out to help you.

I don't know if this is a local thing but your "shed" would be a "shop" here - sounds a lot better to me!

Another thing that I don't think is just local is to inflate the listing price at first and drop it quickly just to get the initial listing price into the mls data so that it can be used in one of the most basic salesman techniques - anchor and adjust. It is so tired that the chances of it working would be about as good as me sending my bank info to that poor rich guy in Nigeria. But you do get to put out one of those flashy and popular "reduced" signs which I gather is just a bit better than a "used to be way overpriced" sign.

You should be happy with your agent! It is a service industry and you are the customer! However, you do have a contract (that your Âagent came up with and had you sign) and realize that you are pretty much trapped and your Âagent can feel free to do as they wish. Their sense of urgency is not the same as yours they have pretty much done what they HAD to do (look at the contract)- they have put your house on the mls and it is up to another agent to sell it unless a buyer somehow falls into their lap.

You will definitely should complain (as suggested above) to get results, you are on the Âback burner and if they are working at all they are trying to sell the houses on which their contract is almost up - seems to happen almost like magic.

Best of luck to you! It sounds like you are really interested in selling your house and your representation is getting in the way, anyone would be frustrated and upset.

First and foremost - does she understand the market or will you continue to drop the price as foreclosure's pop up everywhere? This is what I believe happenned with the realtor's we chose & stuck with (and to some degree babysat) for the first year on the market.

Tell her you want a comparison of every house in your school district or reasonable surrounding areas (that is for sale) and you want to know the price/sq. ft. then you need to price yours the lowest.

You are all asking the same questions that I've been asking myself. I have a call in to her now.
Cheapheap - I wondered about perhaps calling it a workshop too. There's no electric running to it though - would that matter?
When we signed the contract with her -in January - the average DOM in our subdivision was 34...Now over the last month repos are popping up right and left and selling pretty quickly. That makes decent marketing of our home even more important. The subdivision was built in the 60's and is a mixture of homes that have been updated and ones still stuck in the 60's with the original cabinetry, blue, pink or green bath fixtures, etc. The neighborhood s still fairly desirable around here though.
Care to critique our listing? The Realtors.com one is http://www.realtor.com/realestate/tucson-az-85710-1095286409/
For some reason, more pictures are at on the Tucson Association of Realtors website (tarmls.com) listing #20805780

Realtor.com listing:
1. "New bathrooms--yea!!"?? Oh brother. :Rolls eyes:

2. Not everything needs an exclamaiton point.

3. There are too many duplicate pix on the realtor.com site. The extraneous pic of the fridge (#6 of 6) should go, as well as both pix of the island with window beyond. I don't know what that's supposed to show. (These same pix are also on the tuscon site)

4. On the tucson site, the pic of the hallway (!) should go. Also the one of the hose hookup and the French door. Having a shot of just a door makes no sense.

It's interesting how you always hear about 'unreasonable' sellers who are 'unrealistic' about their homes' worth, and yet so many people coming on this board lately asking advice are saying 'we wanted to list for $x but the realtor convinced us to list for $x+' Who's being unreasonable here? I can't help but wonder if it's some way of inflating their listing prices so they can tell the next seller 'I've listed 50 homes in this market in the last 6 months for over $200k!!' Omitting, of course, that none of them sold for their listing price.

If your agent can't be bothered to show up for appts, or call to cancel them w/in a reasonable time, I think that the broker should either release you from the contract or provide someone who is a professional. There's no excuse for that, unless someone died.

When I talked to our realtor last night I had a list of questions ready. The first thing she asked was if we were ready to have an open house yet. I told her that we'd been ready since the day it listed! The house is sitting empty, so open houses or showings can be done ANY time. As I went down my list "Why haven't you done this, as you promised?" "Why hasn't that been done?" and so on, she started sounding embarrassed - as she should be. I know that Tucson, and more specifically our neighborhood, is having problems especially with all of the repos popping up suddenly, but that's why we hired her - to MARKET our home, not just slap the house on the mls and then forget us. SHE'S supposed to be the expert on marketing our home, so we shouldn't have to tell her what to do. No more excuses will be accepted - Either she do the job she was hired for or we'll find someone who will. We're pissed that she's twiddling her thumbs while we watch prices plummet. Supposedly now the pics will be redone, advertising done immediately, the wording on the listing changed, new color flyers delivered, an advertised open house this coming weekend and on and on. We'll see. She has a couple of days to get it together or I'll be on the phone with her manager.
Anyone have some spare fairydust?

$204K!? Why not $200K? You'll catch the lookers from $150K - $200K as well as the $200K - $250K lookers. I agree with you that a $200K listing is probably a better idea.

Pictures (I won't get too picky):

Tuscon site:

* The dining room (another kitchen pic?) picture is extremely dark.

* The hallway picture makes your house look like a rabbit warren. Get rid of it!

* Why do you have a picture of the corner of a bedroom? To show it contains a closet? by definition, bedrooms contain closets.

* Nice picture of your Realtor in the mirror of the half bath

* The sliding door picture leading to the backyard is ugly. I focused on all the utility boxes.

Wow are your taxes cheap!

On Realtor.com are all those pictures of your kitchen? That's odd.

While your pictures are not very good there is nothing in them that would prevent me from viewing your house. The house itself is very tidy looking, albeit a bit dark.

Your pictures on Realtor.com are terrible. They all seem the same. There are two of the same table or what appears to be a table. Are you selling the table or the house? LOL. How about a photo(s) of the new bathroom(s)? I second the idea of dropping the price. You'll pick up a whole new crop of buyers if you're even at $199,900. Good luck!

We recently sold in Tucson in the NW near Thornydale btwn Ina and Cortaro. I feel your pain because while our house was listed, new listings came up with considerably lower prices. Many were short sales which were harmful to our ability to sell, yet the homes had no updates and were not in good condition.

Tucson market is tough. Really tough. Homes in my old neighbourhood are now selling for considerably less than what we sold for in Dec. We were lucky to get out when we did.

One home that is bigger than ours by 100 sq. ft and had a pool was listed for $20K more than ours. It was vacant and we toured it before we listed. It was not in good shape, it was dirty and needed work. There was mould in the fridge, dead bugs everywhere and needed TLC.

We sold in Dec for $220K. That house is now active contingent for $179K - only two months later. All other homes save two are priced from $150K - 190K. Our neighbour is in short sale listed at $155K.

While I do think your realtor is dropping the ball, you need to be prepared for it being on the market for a long time or reducing your price to a point where it will sell.

Also, I noticed from the listing that you only have an evap cooler. Lack of AC could be the difference to a family buying a home on the same street that has dual cooling. Your price needs to reflect lack of AC especially if other homes in your area have it.

I did a search at realtor.com based on your zipcode b/c I don't know the name of your area. It found several houses with more square footage and AC for considerably lower prices.

I don't know if this search link will work, but this is what I came up with. If it doesn't work, search for your zipcode with 4 bed, 2 bath, in the 175-225K price range.

One thing I noticed lacking from your listing is the realtor didn't mention the beautiful beams in the room with the fireplace. I think alot of the photos could be improved as some make rooms seem smaller than they really are - the baths are a good example.

Hang tight. You may be in for a long haul unless you have a realtor who is doing the job and it sounds like yours isn't. In addition, if your home isn't in line with comps and BELOW what has actually sold in the last month, you could be in the position of chasing the market down. Right now in Tucson, comps mean nothing b/c the market continues to fall at a very quick pace. It took me awhile to figure that out.

Thanks Sparksals -- We're figuring out that pricing can be really tricky and are prepared to drop ours more. We're accross from Jesse Owens Park in Desert Steppes Estates - bordered by Sarnoff, Broadway, Camino Seco and 22nd, if that helps. I clicked on your search which is the correct zip code, but close to half of those homes are in much less desirable neighborhoods (Not that ours is anything fancy, lol). The AC comment sure makes sense so I checked it out. Of the 9 homes in our subdivision, 3 have AC. One's a short sale (145!!!), ones on a super busy corner with part of the flooring listed as concrete, and the last is a rental that's been listed forever.
We seem to have gotten our realtor in gear. She had an Open House on Friday - five came through, one couple is very interested but is heading to see what they can qualify for;(
She had another Open House yesterday (Saturday) so I'm waiting to hear how that one went. I do know though that she was still there with someone 1 1/2 hours after it was set to close...

"...with part of the flooring listed as concrete..."

That's not a bad thing. Stained concrete is in style now. Pesonally, I'd much prefer it to carpet or tile.

terrie - I'm glad your realtor is now on the ball.

I don't know your area, although I drove through a few times.

Glad the lack of AC won't be that hurtful to you, although, if your home is still on the market in the summer, people will most likely pass for a home in another zipcode that does have it.

For me, AC was make or break. There's no way I would've survived summers there without it!

Did I mention I miss Tucson? I'm sitting here in freezing MN. My friend tortures me when she tells me it's 80+ degrees! lol

Thanks Sparksals -- She's having open houses again late this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon too. Hopefully the park traffic brings in more people again. Last weekends' went pretty well.

A cheapy major fixer-upper that went on the mls yesterday with only a cooler that doesn't work went under contract immediately, grrr. Hopefully ours sells before the heat sets in, but with two coolers it stays pretty comfortable except for monsoon season.

Meanwhile I'm heading over this morning to prune back the lantana and the snail vines& bouganvillea on the trellis' on the front of the house since things are starting to green up nicely. A few freezing nights played havoc with the front yard this "winter". We've gotten comments every spring and summer from passers by about how nice our front yard looks with everything blooming... We really need it to look good NOW though!

Stay warm in MN! My mom in Ohio and a brother in CO had snow this week. We did yard work and my hubby & son played golf in shorts the last couple of weekends, lol. This is the time of year that we just love it here.

Hi Terrie,

We are currently buyers, and I can tell you that the buyers know what an unreasonable price is for a house. We have been watching the market, studying comps, etc. So when something is priced too high, we tend to chuckle and think "Who are they kidding?" It's too bad your Realtor is putting your house in this position.

As far as your Realtor.com listing, here are my thoughts...

* The kitchen pics are nice and bright, which is good.

* I'd like to see a pic of the front of the house that is a bit more close-up

* Why is a rocking chair all alone in the middle of an empty space? It looks like it is in the garage??

* The all-white-painted brick walls looks very ... institutional. Consider hanging some temporary artwork to warm that stuff up so we don't feel like we're looking into a jailcell (sorry).

* This is going to sound picky, but nicer (and not brown) towels in the bathroom, please. Something clean-looking, like white towels, would be best.

* I agree with the other poster: Enough with the ex!clam!a!tion! points already. No "yea" at the end of the one sentence.

Good luck!

"We are currently buyers, and I can tell you that the buyers know what an unreasonable price is for a house. We have been watching the market, studying comps, etc. So when something is priced too high, we tend to chuckle and think It's too bad your Realtor is putting your house in this position."
You know, after weve talked to our realtor further we feel that she initially priced it about right - for that week. The comps supported her suggested price and the average DOM was 34. We were the nervous ones. Unfortunately our neighborhood is suddenly seeing the effects of some of the surrounding areas. We're now at 195,000.

As for "Who are they kidding?" we had a couple come by yesterday while we were over there finishing the pruning out front who asked to see the house. We let them in, left them alone while we went back to the yard work They looked around for quite a while. When they came out the husband said it was about time they found a house priced right for the area. Seems theyve looked at quite a few other homes pricier than ours but not in nearly as good shape. They said they were going home and calling their realtor, so well see.

"I'd like to see a pic of the front of the house that is a bit more close-up"
Our first pic was a close-up. Several people mentioned to us - and our realtor - that not showing the driveway (big for our neighborhood) and the front landscaping was a bad idea. That probably sounds silly to anyone in an area where things grow without a bit of work. (Id have thought the same thing when I lived in Ohio and Colorado.) But being the Sonoran desert, a lot of people around here havent bothered with much landscaping. People stop all the time and ask who our landscaper is or to comment on our yard. As it greens up more the front pic will be changed.

"Why is a rocking chair all alone in the middle of an empty space? It looks like it is in the garage??"
The chair is something to sit on since the house is empty and no, its not the garage. We wouldnt have bothered to lay 18 porcelain tile on the diagonal or carpeting in a garage. Its a view from the family room into the living room.

"The all-white-painted brick walls looks very ... institutional. Consider hanging some temporary artwork to warm that stuff up so we don't feel like we're looking into a jailcell (sorry)." Hmmm - The white must be your monitor. Theres not a single white wall in the place. The color is actually sort of a tannish/pale peachy terra cotta -- popular for the southwest. And nope, were not going to put holes in freshly painted walls to hide anything.

"Jailcell" because its brick? Its adobe, which everything in the surrounding area has. Remember - 1960 home in the desert.

"This is going to sound picky, but nicer (and not brown) towels in the bathroom, please. Something clean-looking, like white towels, would be best." Lol -- Im sure that you mean well, but if someone decides not to look at my house because they dont like the color of towels I find that pretty funny. The towels are tan, not brown, with kokopellis embroidered on them - brand new and go with the kokopelli shower curtain.

"Good luck!" Thanks!

Terrie, you asked for feedback. I gave it based on the pics I saw. I not only "mean well" in my comments, I'm telling you the effect the house has on me from the pics.

There are some great shows on HGTV and A&E, some of which involve professionals letting sellers know how to make their homes more likely to sell; check your listings for the nights and times.

One of those shows involved cameras hidden in the house to record what people say during Open Houses. After hearing the comments, the owners often get offended and very "If you aren't going to buy my house because of __________, they I don't need you anyway" and months later they are still trying to sell the damn thing.

Neutralizing the house (so others can envision living there) and taking constructive comments into consideration is an important part of home selling, especially in this buyer's market.

I watch those shows quite often for ideas on both the old house and our new one. So often in fact that my hubby laughs and rolls his eyes at me every time I turn one on, lol. And I do understand that people make comments while viewing my home, both good and bad.
The ones who came though for the realtors tour the day after it was listed were asked for suggestions and have said that they wouldnt make changes except for the price - which we dropped $10,000 below what they suggested. That kind of surprised me. I expected to hear that it needs to be staged or a paint color changed - something that weve overlooked - but so far they say no.
So far Ive had negative comments from two other people whove toured the house that I know of. One came from another at the realtors tour who didnt like the "dead" plants in the yard right after a hard freeze. My realtor told her that they werent dead - just dormant - and would be cut back as soon as the weather allowed, as weve now done. The other was a realtor who drove by yesterday, saw the "price reduced" sign and stopped by. She was disappointed that it wasnt a fixer-upper - what she was looking for to rent out - and would have preferred white walls.
Ive been adamant with our realtor and the realtor doing some of the open houses for her that I really want to hear ANY bad feedback that they get, because if theres something that I need to change, and can, I will.
I know that some people wont like the style or layout, the adobe, the size of the baths or bedrooms, paint colors or whatever, and thats absolutely fine. Heck, if I thought that house was perfect I wouldnt have moved myself, lol! If theyre looking in this area of town though, painted adobe walls are what theyll find in almost every house. Were getting showings at least though - besides the 12 that have come through the open houses 3 others came through last week so that gives us hope! At five weeks we're trying not to get too nervous.
UPDATE - In the middle of writing this last night we got an offer! Its 95% but has some screwy terms Long story and complicated. Between advice from my realtor, her office manager and one of my brothers whos a pretty creative out of state broker, well be hammering out a counter offer today. Cross your fingers!