Pay for an appraisal. Do a web search - you will find some appraisers in your area. It usually costs somewhere around $300 or so. Tell them you are selling and want to know a price to sell at. Be there when the appraiser comes by - so you could pick their brain about what is selling while they are measuring rooms and such. They do appraisals on homes just before closing, so they are in tune with the recent market activity in your area. I did this when selling and it really helped me set a realistic price. Creeksides advice should also be taken, and do the appraisal as an option if you still don't feel good about the other agents' advice. You don't want to price too high or too low. My parents had an agent that suggest they price too low by about 5-10% and the comps they gave were not really in the same area and were much different in style, age, type, etc. My parents ended up pricing higher than the agent suggested and even SOLD for higher than the agent's suggested asking price and sold within the average timeframe for that area. Some agents want you to price it a bit lowish because they know this will move the home. They might not even realize that they are on the low end of the suggested price range. Many of them have seen homes priced too high that sit so they want you to price it so it moves. Can't blame them in some ways, but you don't want to give away ten grand by pricing too low if you don't have to. But you have to be careful not to price too high either - then you have a home for sale for way too long with no offers or lowball offers. Then eventually you might sell for lower than what you could have originally sold for because the home had been on the market for so long. Correct pricing is very, very, very important.

Staging and adding color to curb appeal would go a long way. It looks like you got the decluttering thing down, but maybe a little too much--some rooms are a little too spartan and thus not very welcoming. My first impression after looking at the photos was: -The kitchen was updated, but the color and style clash with the table and there are no stools at the island. These things tell me that I will need to repaint either the kitchen or the rest of the house right off the bat to make them flow better. The table (while it would be going with you & not staying) gives the wrong feel to the otherwise modern kitchen & the green tablecloth has to go. The absence of stools at the island make me wonder if there is not enough room for the stools and the table in that space. The chandelier & light fixture don't look like they were updated (the pots hanging from the ceiling draw your eye upward so you definitely notice the lights)--check out the big box stores for some affordable, easy to install updates. Love the window treatments and that wonderfully large window! -Living & Dining rooms both feel very spartan and cold in the photos. Pulling the curtains back will help bring in more natural light and make it feel more welcoming & open. Is the dining room table centered in the room or pushed off center toward the window? It seems cramped at the window end which to me says the room is small and family dinners will be elbow to elbow. As mentioned above, too many different paint colors--the yellow doesn't do much for me & the white or pale blue in the living room is very cold. Framed prints on the walls and an area rug would go a long way to warming the rooms up. -Bedrooms need warming up too--more framed prints & an area rug needed. Slide the bed in the master over so its more centered in the room. The way it is now, it appears cramped. It looks like there is a tray ceiling in there too--an off center bed is negatively accentuated in this situation. The green curtains need to go and be replaced with neutral colored ones and again, pull them back to let in natural light to give an open welcoming feel. -Masterbath needs some warm welcoming touches too. Framed prints, some candles, strategically drape a folded towel along the edge of the tub, add a pretty container of bath salts to the tub corner, add a pretty window treatment to the window above the tub vs. the plastic mini-blinds. Warm, fuzzy, yet tasteful bath rugs will help too. The walls need some color. Make it feel like a spa environment-somewhere potential buyers would like to retreat to after a long day at work. Don't forget a handtowel on the towel ring! -Love the family room--maybe an area rug...that's it. -J&J bath--looks good. Add a framed print or two, a window treatment, fuzzy warm yet tasteful bath rug & hang the hand towel up. Choosing a nice neutral color of towel throughout all the baths would help too. Something in a fluffy white or beige to give that spa like feel would be good. -Laundry looks great--open the curtains. -Nursery looks great--maybe a framed print or two. -Exterior: Deck needs new coat of paint. The front looks a little tired. Adding some spots of color will help the curb appeal--a tall fat planter with colorful flowers on both corners of the porch, some colorful flowers planted in the beds, maybe a couple tall plants under the porch lights. another planter or two with plants and flowers on the back deck would help make it seem more welcoming too. It seems like you were working on updating the house and managed to get to the kitchen, family room, laundry, nursery & J&J bath. The rest appears to have not been updated since the house was built. While I love antiques, the furniture in the unupdated rooms with this scenario does not help. The obvious brass fixtures in the master bath scream 1980s and most if not all potential buyers are wondering how hard will it be to update them. You definitely have 3 vastly different styles going on in the house which can cause a major disconnect with potential buyers. If you were to repaint the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, master bath & living room to more neutral colors (similar to family room & J&J bath) + update brass fixtures + add warming touches as outlined above to rooms for staging + exterior color and I think you could probably relist for the $290K in the spring and walk away with around $260-$250K. My BIL is a real estate agent and when we sold our house with him he even said not to tell him the absolute lowest price we were willing to take for the house. I can confidently say that repainted & staged well (including replacing a couple light fixtures, new comforter for DS's room, new bathroom stuff, quick exterior spruceup by adding color) when we sold our house. We listed the house $10K higher than the exact house down the street that sold a couple weeks earlier for a higher than average price for our neighborhood. We had an offer in 2 days and ended up with a bidding war between two potential buyers that ended on day 5 on the market. Trust me, potential buyers need to be able to see themselves living in your home and driving up to your home everyday--your staging makes all the difference. Good luck to you!

>Smart potential buyers will do their research in public records to determine how much was owed when the house was foreclosed on to figure out how much wiggle room there is between asking price and what the bank needs to get to break even. Sorry, but I don't follow this. In my area, there is no correlation between previous sale price and what the bank is willing to take. For instance, I've been looking mostly at townhouses in a specific complex. The last short sale that went through, the previous owner had paid 230K and the bank had it listed at 59K, which is about right. Currently there are two short sales: one where the last sale was 130K and the bank has it listed at 75K (been languishing for months at that price), and a newly listed one where the last sale was 235K and the bank has it listed at 90K. Actual REO/Foreclosure prices have nothing to do with previous sale prices, as far as I can see. I've also been looking at a little cottage that is currently on the market for 40K, foreclosed owner paid 499K at the height of the frenzy. So, for the OP, around here short sale prices tend to be optimistically high-ish, partly because the current owner could be on the hook for the difference between the loan balance and the sale price, but once they get into foreclosure the price is whatever whoever decides it should be to unload it quick. I don't think the realtors have much to say about this--it appears to be set from some corporate central office. Now that we're in the valley of fewer listings due to the robo-signing thing last year, everyone is asking much more. I expect that once the units held up by that start flooding back into the market, prices will drop again. But if you're looking for pricing logic, well, at least around here there isn't much.

ncrealestateguy, There was/is no buyer's agent--the appointment was made under the name of the appraisal company & my agent only knew about it after the appointment. Apparently no realtor went on the appointment as none was noted on the email alert. There is a lock box on the door & with the code they made entry to do an appraisal. The information I have gotten from my agent is that this was unexpected and odd. And then the info about the man being upset that his appraisal was higher than he wanted. I have never heard of this happening before and felt very uncomfortable. After re-reading everyone's input, including your very good question, I plan on speaking to my agent again. There is so much that I had never considered--thanks to everyone for the eye opening responses.