First I would like to say your house is very nice. It looks clean, well decorated and welcoming. The bad news is, it seems to be a very high price point for your area. There are only two houses, yours included within 10 miles of your home in this price range and the other one sorta blows yours out of the water. It has more property, more sq footage and it is 40K cheaper. The fact that there doesnt seem to be anything within 10 miles of your home in your price range, probably means finding a buyer that can afford to live there is going to be a long road. I dont think there is much more that you can do except to lower your price to compete with the competition. If you can't do that, then you just might have to sit tight for a few years until the market rebounds.

IMO, your pictures can be better. I'm not sure if they are just dark or out of focus. I would look into getting a pro out. The other minus is the agents site. It took a long time to load on my computer, plus I couldn't get the slide show to work right. I am on a Mac but haven't had problems with any other site.

From what I do see you have a nice house.

Below is the realtor.com link. You have 4 pictures there, 2 of the same room. Have your agent rearrange her photos on the MLS.

Here is a link that might be useful: Realtor.com link

I agree the photos could be better. Since I love to cook, the picture of the kitchen didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Not only is it out of focus, but there seems to be a lot of clutter around the whole area. A close up or two wouldn't hurt and definitely get better pictures.

Thanks so much for your candid comments! I agree the photos could be better. I saw that other house just listed, but it looks very dated to me. The outside is nice but the inside seems to be no comparison. Does that make any difference in the comps or is it strictly based on size of house and property? I am guessing that other house is 10+ years old, judging by the forest green carpeting in the bedroom. It also appears to have laminate counters. Our kitchen is the absolute best feature in our house. It has custom maple cabs with every bell and whistle possible, granite counters, double ovens, 5-burner gas cooktop and lots of other really cool features. (I realize those are not evident in the photos OR in the description, so THAT may be part of the problem!) I think our agent was trying to show the open floor plan in the photos, which left out lots of nice details, such as our beautiful moldings and wrought iron stair railings.

We realize that our house may be expensive for the area right now. (There are many other similar houses in the area just none on the market, which I thought was a good thing but maybe not!) We also realize that it may be that we don't have enough equity to lose to be able to sell the house for what it would take--we are willing to get nothing out of it but enough to pay off our agent and the bank but even that may not be enough. Since we are already asking $50K below what we paid for it 17 mos ago, we may just have to stay here. If that happens and the market comes back, we may thank ourselves later! I just want to give it every shot we can at getting it sold now if at all possible.
I really appreciate your taking the time to look and post comments!

Based on the demographics for your area, I'm in complete agreement with linda117 that your potential buyer pool is reduced considerably due to pricing.

The home itself is beautiful. While the pictures are not great...they're good enough for me to see your problem is not the driveway.

You may very well have to wait it out & allow time for the area's median income level to catch up to your price point.

/tricia

P.S. I also agree that the pictures should be retaken. Realtor.com seems to have recently gone to, "the more the merrier", with pictures so I'd post at least 8-10. Personally, I don't like to show too much of a house or there's no need for a potential buyer to schedule a tour. But, the public's getting accustomed to seeing multiple pictures on realtor.com & you can't fight a trend.

First I'd like to say your house is lovely, the pictures are acceptable but what I find really lacking is the initial description "12.05X10.09 DEN OFF MASTER BEDROOM" sounds like you have a awkward layout, does everyone that uses the den go through the master bedroom? You say the kitchen is "the absolute best feature in our house" but "WONDERFUL CUSTOM KITCHEN" doesn't convey that. Storage and unfinished basement just don't put a spark in my heart. In my area there are a lot of houses that resemble your exterior design and there is nothing in the description that would influence me to look any deeper at yours. Let me know why I would LOVE this house! And to nit pick just a little (sorry) the type is all cap's and isn't it a laundry Chute not "shute". I'm Just offering my opinion to help cover all bases but I think your Realtor needs to give this some spit and polish to catch peoples attention.

If you are looking for blunt....

Agents like this are why more and more people are going with FSBO and flat fee listings. For a 400k house, they are probably going to end up with about 3% commission after the split with the buyers agent, right? So is that a $12,000 flier? Fuzzy pictures? No description of your homes best features? Are they doing anything else to get your house sold?

You actually have a lovely home and there is no inherent reason why you shouldn't be able to sell it. You need to market its best features though. If your home has significant upgrades above comparably sized homes in your area, you have to point that out to people. If you don't, they are just going to think your home is incredibly overpriced and won't give it a second look. If your home is near the top of values in the area, that is even more important. Anybody looking at higher end homes is going to expect all the bells and whistles. Your buyer pool is going to be pretty small, so you can't afford to have any of them dismiss your house out of hand.

I hear what you are saying. I have tried to give my realtors several pieces of helpful info. while trying not to step on their toes. I wrote bullet points on a sheet I called "Why 21 Cottonwood is a GREAT BUY and a PERFECT FIT for you and your family." They did use my bullet points to write the following description that was in the paper for last Sunday's open house:

OPEN FLOOR PLAN, PERFECT FOR ENTERTAINING INSIDE AND OUT! This 4 bedroom, 3 bath home has a custom built gourmet kitchen with solid maple cabinetry, 5 sealed burner gas cooktop, double ovens, separate pantry, center island with vegetable sink, granite counters, butlerâÂÂs pantry, built in
desk area. First floor master suite with large bath, study and custom closets. Sunroom leading out to a private deck overlooking the woods, large media room with a built in snack bar for family movies. First floor laundry with clothes chute. Additional 2200 sq. ft. walk-out unfinished basement, 2 car garage. All this on .67 acres

I think I am going to ask them to make this the description on the internet and on the sheets in our flyer box outside the house.

Also, I printed a flyer on card stock with the kitchen's best features listed that I have on a wrought iron stand on my island.

At the open house, one man apparently called his wife and told her he was at the house he told her about and wanted her to see it. He told our realtor he would like to make an appt for his wife to see it. I have heard NOTHING whatsoever from our realtor since the open house. (We have a team of 2 and the one who is more aggressive is on vacation.) I am going to talk with her as soon as she returns about making these changes. I also think we need to get people in.

One final question, assuming our new house will be done the end of August, how soon should we cut our price to the rock bottom? I keep wanting to do it sooner rather than later because I am afraid time is going to run out. Our realtor says we just cut our price $5K last week, so let's let that run its course a while. I don't want to sound desperate, but I don't want to waste my time picking out items for a house I've put 10% down on already but might not be able to buy if I don't sell my current house!!! Thanks for the advice!

Paul, the "den" they are referring to is our master "sitting room." It is adjacent to our master bedroom separated by french doors, and we are currently using it as a nursery. It is another real "bonus" of the house, but I agree it needs marketed as what it is.

Ahhhh, you don't just have a master bedroom, you have a master Suite! That sounds far more appealing. Maybe its a regional thing but I think of a den as a common space like a family room etc. As Bill said your buyers pool is somewhat reduced by the price listing being on the high side but there are people out there that are willing (and able) to pay for the nicer features your home offers if they realize they are included for that price. The blurb used in the paper would certainly make me want to see more your house, and your photos although not great are almost a teaser to bring them on site (love the vanity in the master bath). I know it's not easy to tell someone their job but I think you need to be firm with your Realtor about the online ad. That is where most people look today, perhaps you could find a couple of examples online and print them out to show your Realtor how others are presenting their homes. As far as the price, I wouldn't chase the market with a series of small drops, I would hang in for a bit and make one decent price drop a little later, people searching by price may be looking in the $350 and up or $400 and up ranges so I don't feel you will gain exposure to a different market and I don't know if $5000 is enough to make someone say "oh, now I can afford it" or "Oh, now it's worth it". It's not easy to sit and wait especially with a deadline closing but it may be what it takes. Just my opinion of course, but best of luck. Paul

.....a clothes shute???! please correct to 'chute'. Words are my 'thing' :). Salena

Thanks for the continued thoughts. I e-mailed our realtor and asked to beef up the internet description, take better detail photos and a virtual tour as well. Hopefully, these things will increase the interest and the traffic to help get our house sold. If anyone has any other thoughts I welcome them! Thanks again!

I wouldn't chase the market down by reducing the price by dribs and drabs. If you want to move get it priced to sell NOW.

Your agents should be doing the writing, it not get new ones. You are paying them If you are not happy, negotiage the commission, in writing.
Are they local and do they know the area and the type of people that are looking for this home. If not aggresive enough, ask why ?? You have good ideas and there are good ideas here. Are your agents overworked? Do they care? Are they working for you?
We went thru 3 agents ( in our case, 3 different companies) before we found one that sold the house in 3 weeks. All the other kept coming up with excuses.

Thanks, yes, our agents are local, very experienced and I do think they care and are aggressive. Since they will be making commission on both the house we are selling and the one we are buying, I think they are definitely motivated to help us sell. We are happy with them. (Hope it didn't sound otherwise!) Also, our driveway was recently completely broken up and re-done, so our house was not really able to be shown for a few weeks, which I'm sure didn't help the house's reputation. I was just looking for any objective feedback on how we might be able to improve our on-line listing, realizing there's always room for improvement!) Thanks again!