Guess we're sort of in your shoes. We put our 'old' house on the market last April. In 6 months, we had only 3 showings. My agent was someone we'd dealt with before, was established and who we trusted. I could NOT get him to do any open houses, getting directional signs was a struggle, he only had the house listed on his website and the usual MLS ones. At the end of the listing, we took the house off the market, did a little more work on it (stripped some wallpaper, did some more painting, etc.). Mind you, even when we started, the house was in good condition, well-maintained, pretty, nicely decorated and staged and appropriately priced. This January, we re-listed with a different agency. One of our neighbors is a young (about 30) real estate salesman who was honestly, more help to us last summer than our original agent was. He wanted our listing, and contacted us within a couple of hours after the sign came down. When we were ready, we listed with him. He's been absolutely amazing!!!!! He's had our house on the usual MLS sites as well as on: Facebook, Twitter, Craig's List, etc. He put a gorgeous slide show of our home on Youtube. Within weeks, he held 2 open houses for us. He's been fantastic about keeping in touch and keeping us informed every step of the way. Well, guess what? We signed a contract to sell only SIX WEEKS (to the day) after signing on with him. And we sold for only about $15,000 less than we were listed at last summer (we actually are getting about $40,000-50,000 MORE than what similar homes in the neighborhood have sold for in the past year). Honestly? Even in this market houses ARE selling. But it's more important than ever that a seller find an enthusiastic, web-saavy agent. In the 6 weeks our house was on the market we had OVER 25 showings, and were still getting requests for showings for a couple of weeks after we'd worked out our deal with the buyers. I'd highly recommend letting your contract with this agent run out, and find yourself a hungry, motivated young fellow or girl who has a lot of sales (our guy is always going to closings--he sells a LOT). And yes, the more photos your agent posts, the better the potential buyer is able to evaluate the property. And it's apparently a fact that these days MOST buyers do their looking on the internet--it's the first introduction they have to your home. Just to repeat--a good agent is the best tool you'll have for selling your home. I am still floored by the difference in the services we've received from this fellow, compared to what the other agent was willing to do. There's just no comparison at all--and it was his enthusiasm that sold our house, definitely! And don't forget, after you do contract to sell, having a good agent is going to help getting through the process as calmly as possible--ours is directing us every step of the way, and he's really made things go smoothely for us.

"The best thing to do is sit down and talk to your realtor and be very honest with eachother - make sure it is clear there is no puffery or sugar coating. Ask them what you need to price the home at to sell it within your comfort zone of time. It may very well be that 379k is a good price and one you should stick to!!!! Some real estate agents will tell you a higher number to get you on the bandwagon, etc. Let them know to be brutally honest with you, and in exchange, don't get defensive, etc. if it is lower than you thought it would be. Right now in the market, the two most important things are 1. Is it priced to sell within my comfort zone of time? and 2. Will it appraise for the amount we're asking?" What good advice this poster gave you, read it again and put it in into action. The reality we discovered when selling our house (we closed Monday a week ago) is that no matter what the other factors are, if you want to sell your house it's all about price in this market. FWIW, we sold our house for 75,000 less than our original asking price, it was in a great neighborhood, always in the top 2 or 3, showing agents always stated it showed beautifully, yadda yadda, so on and so forth. The bottom line is that houses over $250k simply aren't moving, and it's a buyer's market. We could have sold it earlier for maybe more money, we just were not willing to accept the reality of the current RE market. Have you had any offers? If not AND you really want to sell I'd cut the price as low as you think you could go, then knock off another 10 to 15k, then be prepared to take 20 to 30k less than that. Unfortunate but true, good luck. Our neighbors really can't believe the prices that the current sells in the neighborhood are going for, they all think their houses are worth more, as we did when we first listed our house. Our selling price was 50k below the county appraisal. Let me state again this was a 10 year old house with absolutely no issues, when they did the inspection the buyers asked for nothing, as there were no problems. The point is this; the reality of the current market is all about price, you are competing with desperate sellers, even if you're not one you have to price competitively.

Zoe, to be completely honest, I probably wouldn't have taken your cat-scratching-post couch either, because it costs a fortune to have things reupholstered to look halfway good (and as chisue found, you may not even get halfway good out of it)! I've been watching Craigslist for furniture and thought I had come across a few decent things... until I found out what it would have cost to have them reupholstered, even with cheap fabric. Shocking! Even slipcovers are expensive too now - if you want something that actually fits and stays in place for more than a few minutes without being mostly sweaty, itchy spandex, it can cost as much as a complete reupholstering. (Let's not even talk about how many Craigslisters are completely delusional about what their worn-out, ugly furniture is worth. If you bought a couch from Billy-Joe's Discount Furniture and Bait Shop for $750 and let the kids and the dog jump all over it for 5 years, it sure ain't gonna be worth $250. It's very debatable whether it's worth $50, or really belongs out on the streetcorner for the scavengers.) BTW, with the upswing in bedbug and other infestations, some charities in my area are refusing upholstered items entirely. I also found out the hard way (and they may have gotten burned by this as well, thus rejecting all pieces with any cat damage at all) that an upholstered chair that had "a few cat scratches" had had a lot more "cat activity" on it than that! It was out of a storage unit in winter so I couldn't smell anything but as soon as I got it inside a nice warm apartment - whoooeeeee. Fragrant. As Frances points out, it's all very nice to recite the mantra that "everyone should buy only 'quality' furniture" (huge pet peeve: using the word "quality" when you mean "good quality"!) but let's be realistic. Most people of ordinary means can't come up with what "high quality" furniture costs these days. I went shopping for a sturdy, not fancy but reasonably nice-looking wooden bed frame year before last and got quite discouraged at the outrageous prices - but having something made was even more bruising to the checkbook. (Frances, I'm curious, does that $250-300 worth of supplies include the tools required to make a nice piece of furniture? If so, I'd very much love to know where you're buying your tools!) dabunch, I go to Dollar Tree every few weeks. It's a great place for consumable stuff like greeting cards, paper towels and baby wipes (for the dog), and they have some great knockoffs of pricier products. I don't see why I should pay $4 for a pint of Plax mouthwash when 1 1/2 pints of an identical product in a less-attractive bottle is $1.

Hi calpat, I was crying about getting 40 or so spam a day - until I talked to my neighbour getting over a hundred ... A DAY! She let that box drop and is opening another. I've told some people unwilling to do legitimate surveys to get a different e-mail box - just for them. So if they get connected with a spammer, they just let the box go. Hardly any making these wonderful offers ever have a real address that they send from. By the way - had any offers of a potion to enhance the size of some of your female/male parts? Some of the over a hundred or so that I've got offer guaranteed overnight results. I've replied saying that I'd be afraid that would be painful. If I were a working person - I'd want to take it on the weekend - so I could stay up all night to watch the growth. If I subscribed to all of the hundred or so offers - how would I deal with the monster - backpack? Not big enough, wrong location. Kid's stroller? Can't put it on escalator in stores. Sling? Would be too heavy for my shoulders. Shopping cart? Too deep. Wheelbarrow? Now - that might just be what the doctor ordered! Need a *full-siized* van, of course, for longer trips. But - where could I find a partner who could accomodate my needs? Probably need to seek a mare, elephant, etc. Would need a pad to keep track of when they came in heat - they wouldn't want to talk to me at other times. Do the guys selling potions - also sell stepladders? I sometimes reply trying to sell them my newsletter about money management, as I've become concerned over the years in the personal financial planning business that so few know much about money management, that I'm keeping the letter going after retirement. Single copy free to anyone with e-mail address, they can subscribe if they wish. Should save them hundreds, more likely thousands, in their lifetime - unless they have one foot in the grave, now. Often people who get something at no cost give it little respect, this letter distills many years of experience, expensive training, etc. so it would be a mistake to give it away free, though I could afford to. I don't like to be arbitrary - so price of the newsletter is negotiable. Having been a number of years a clergyperson, I've tried not to be greedy, either - so will likely ask them to contribute most of the fee to charity, especially worldwide ones, as there are huge needs in many countries, these days. They can negotiate to send my newsletter to their friends, relatives, colleagues in community, sport, church, at work, etc. Will build their group of friends, make them famous - and help them raise some money, as they keep some of the (negotiated) fee, send most to charity - and send some to me, of course. This story is real, as a matter of fact - and it's all true. As for all of these guys who have these great money-making ideas ... what kind of business is such that the fellow working there, who wants to encourage you to do the same, is so proud of it that he tells you almost nothing about it in the original message - apart from how much one may possibly make? A company that keeps their door locked, and has an unlisted phone. Most of them don't give me an address to which I can send a message, go to ask a question, etc. - their front door is locked. Few give a phone number to call - and most who do have it lead to an agency. The email address that they use when sending the message is false - unlisted phone. Not only is the phone unlisted - the guy who sent the message is a liar. The only way that I can contact them - is to fill in a form, telling quite a bit about myself ... ... to leave your resume in the mail box, please ... Which quite a few may use to assemble a database - that they then sell - to other spammers. What chance does such a recruiter think that he may have - of getting me interested in his offer? About one chance in 19,999. Have a happy spring/summer weekend, all. joyful guy/Ed