I think your home is beautiful, whenicit. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I prefer no furniture when house shopping. That way I'm not swayed by their decorator- decorated home, which mine would not be. Then I use my own imagination as to what it'd look like with our stuff. I just love your kitchen.

Corner lots are considered an asset--at least around here. And I also prefer a kitchen NOT open into other areas. Who wants to eat and look at a kitchen full of dirty pots and pans?

Your realtor needs to take more and better pictures--and from different angles. I would suggest cleaning the carpets, but since you've replaced them I think you've done about all you can do without spending money.

I'm anxious to hear what others suggest.

Looks very nice, would like to see more pictures

Staging wouldn't matter to me but I'm not typical. Still, kI think there are just not many buyers out there. The one sure way to sell a house in this market is to price it so low you create a buyer. Not sure anyone really wants to do that though.
Does your realtor have a reason for thinking that staging will work or is this just a drawing at straws idea? I.e. has she looked at all the empty house solds in the last 6 months and did a percentage of them have staging?

I prefer empty houses. However, most buyers seem to get caught up in the glitz of a nicely decorated home. Seasoned buyers & realists will prefer an empty house, because they know their furniture will look nothing like yours. Not trying to insult anyone, but marketing (pretty packaging) is a powerful tool.

Your house looks very nice. If it's not selling, the price, or no serious buyers looking may be an issue. Although, if it's a family home ( it looks like a family as opposed to empty nesters live there) you're trying to sell, the Spring/Summer times are when families move. So it's as good as it gets, as far as buyers looking. After September, it slows down because the kids are in school etc. It's important to make it attractive to buyers NOW before school starts.

If you really want to make it look more appealing, you can try a couple of things like placing fresh towels & soaps in the bathrooms. Placing fresh flowers/fruits in the kitchen. You can do little things like that to make the place lively, without bringing in furniture.

IMO- Religious & personal things should not be displayed when selling a house. I wood take that CROSS down from above the built-ins. Some people get offended when they see religious things, if they are of different Religious persuasion.

I too prefer empty.

Corner lots can be VERY tough sales. The lack of privacy and the extra shoveling in winter, not to mention the possibility of higher taxes make a corner lot less desirable to many people.

You may want to take the cross/religious articles out of the fireplace picture.

Thanks Dabaunch & Xamsx - I keep forgetting to take that dang cross off the hutch!! We are not particularly religious, it just happenned to land there...so I will get that today.

I did put towels in baths since the pics were taken and I put a few picturse/knick-knacks out. I was thinking about stocking the fridge with beer and wine with a note that says it stays with the house!! LOL!

The house 2 doors down after being on the market for about 45 days but it was 1) not a corner and 2) a traditional center stair plan... It did sell for $27k less than asking and they made them get out quickly.

We will likely lower the price soon but do feel it is priced right now...assessed value (just done in May) is $358 and we have it priced at $368,900.

I think our realtor has been trying out the staging idea as I suspect he is being marketed to by the stagers and feels he is doing them a favor by giving them some business. We nicely said "No thanks" as her ideas were minor and she essentially said that it would not take much. We actually have furniture we could move back to the house that would coordinate and not cost us anything except sweat equity...but didn't want to do that unless people felt staging was a must.

Patti43-thanks for your vote of confidence on the kitchen. This is where we put in the most money, adding the granite & tile backsplash. Before it did not have an overhang on the island and the counters where white formica with a cranberry stripe on the side - ugly.

Does anyone ever put little notes around their house? I was thinking of putting something in the 4-season porch to indicate "This room made a great play room when our children were young and a great TV room as they got older and finally a nice quite porch room." Sounds too cheesy? Really the last part never happenned as they are only 10 and 11...but that is what the plan was to be had we stayed...

Lastly - more comments would be great & please check back when the virtual tour is added (if you can) to see the rest of the house. Perhaps the bedroom that has a mustard gold paint is stronger than I think? I just don't want to paint that room because it has a huge 10x12ish closet and it would be like painting 2 rooms.

The house looks very nice. Like others, I like seeing unfurnished houses. I can more easily picture my stuff there. As for staging, I was told (but didn't do) that a table with two or three chairs in the kitchen would be nice because it would give the potential buyers a place to sit and talk if they like what they see.

The house 2 doors down after being on the market for about 45 days but it was 1) not a corner and 2) a traditional center stair plan... It did sell for $27k less than asking and they made them get out quickly.

We will likely lower the price soon but do feel it is priced right now...assessed value (just done in May) is $358 and we have it priced at $368,900.

What price did the sold house actually get? Was it closer to $358K or $368K? Whenever I hear/read "the house sold for $XXX but it has [doesn't have] YYY..." I usually read the sentence as rationalizing a higher listing price. If you're in a buyer's market, often the reasons aren't enough to justify a higher price. Is a corner lot better or worse than a non-corner lot? Some people say it's bigger so it warrants a higher price; others say there's more noise/less privacy so it is less desirable.

FWIW, I have never been able to discern the relationship between the assessed value and market value. The only time I felt the assessed value was reliable is the day after the sale is recorded when the assessed value becomes the amount the buyers paid. Even then, that value can become obsolete within six months.

I think a very little bit of furniture would be helpful...
You won't spend a dime but you're sure to find something serviceable by checking your local freecycle.org and craigslist.com

Jane

Where would you suggest the furniture Jane? The one thing I don't have is a kitchen table & chairs, sold my old one to my brother and using the new one. Do you think counter stools would help at kitchen counter?

Here is a link that might be useful: Here are pics I took this morning

JYMD - the house down the street was listed at $415k for about 400 more square feet. Not a walk out (neither is ours) but not a finished basement (ours is, with a 3/4 bath). Theirs did not have granite, had walls painted purple, had hollywood lights in master bath...but I can tell you it had some stuff we don't have too...like a 2nd bath in the upstairs... They sold for $387 so still higher than what ours is listed at. I probably should check their appraised value to see if it sold for under that just so I have some idea in my head of how that appraised value fits into the equation.

We are also including a front load washer/dryer and all appliances stay in kitchen...even though they will need to be replaced :-)

Yikes! Do repaint the gold BR. I feel there is something wrong with these photos. Maybe the angles? I'd put a few pieces of furniture and some live plants in the house, then take some pix from a lower angle (knees). That can make a room look larger. Also, I didn't see any BRs or baths on the listing page.

Thanks for the thoughts on the gold bedroom. Ouch, we are tired of painting but I guess Iowa Hawkeye gold isn't cutting it!

What is wrong with the pics? Probably the fact that *I* took them, forgot to turn lights on in many of them, rushed & didn't take time to find the right angle. I don't have a wide angle lens like many realtors use, just my Canon elph digital that fits in my purse. Hopefully when realtor adds more to site they'll be professional pics.

I'm not certain how much of an asset a finished basement is - after our last basement fiasco, we'll never purchase a house with a finish basement again regardless of how perfect the rest of the house is. Finish basements hide a LOT of problems.

Question (and this is not preventing you from selling, just some questions):

* Why the valance in the middle of the arched bedroom window? The window is an architectural feature to be played up, not cut in half.

* Get the stuff off the mantel in the great room.

* Any thoughts on the red carpet in the office? I will say it does not look bad due to the draperies and room color, but have you heard any feedback concerning this carpet?

* Your house seems a bit dark. Is it the day or the fact that the shades are all half-drawn?

All-in-all I think your house is lovely which is bad because that means it is either your market and/or your price.

xamsx - I am intrigued by your opinion on the finished basements and would like to know your take and what happened....please share.

Our current house has a finished basement - approximately 4/5 of it is finished, so about 1800 sq ft. There is a great room, a full bathroom and a bedroom in addition to a "who knows" room. The rest of the basement that is unfinished is a tool room that houses the furnaces and hot water tank.

When we purchased the home all seemed fine. A few of the basement doors didn't close properly, but we really didn't think much of it as basements are damp so doors warp, and there is some house movement that may push door frames out of plumb.

Approximately six months after purchasing our electrician noticed water in the basement. We called in a water-proofer who fixed that leak in the wall and suggested we call in a structural engineer.

The structural engineer was puzzled as to why we'd call (this is near a wet land area, but we checked with the Army Corps of Engineers before we purchased and found that our area had no problems with foundations although they cannot say with certainty that your home will not have foundation issues or problems until it is 40+ years old). We immediately said "trees" and the structural engineer was like "oh yeah, lots of tree problems in your area". (He later told us he recommends that people plant trees 35 feet+ away from their house.)

There were so many trees planted near our house over the years (we took down 10 when we moved in and still have more on the property) that the roots cracked the foundation on one side, pushed it in on the back side so that the I-beam stuck out and caused cracking and shifting to doors and window frames.

We did have an inspection but the inspector does not tear out anything to look behind walls. He probably should have questioned why the doors didn't close down the basement, but, I didn't question it either.

So, we had 1 1/2 walls membraned, steel pylons put in every five feet along these walls and the I-beam hole sealed (and you don't even want to know about the deer mice and voles that took up residence in the basement ceiling - that needed to be replaced too!).

The water-proofers did find evidence of two "repaired" cracks from years ago. The former owners (not the people we purchased from, they only owned for a year) may have thought they repaired the problem. I cannot say.

Never again will I buy a house with a finished basement. If a basement is unfinished there is no hiding these probems and the home owner is fully aware of any cracks or problems as they occur.

I agree w/Patti43! I, too, hate open floor plans. DH and I attended a b-day party over the weekend at a house that had an open floor plan...kitchen, dining room, living room, and MASTER BEDROOM were all in one big open room...ugh. I hated it. Only room with walls was the bathroom...thank God. The basement, too, was wide open.

I, too, prefer looking at empty houses so I'm not swayed by furniture, decor, etc. Easier to imagine how my stuff would look in the house. I agree about taking the cross down.

It's a gorgeous home, whenicit. I'm in Iowa, too.

In the price that you are offering I'm disappointed in the back yard. It looks like it needs landscaping. It has no privacy. It looks like you put money into what people could see from the front and just forgot about the backyard completely.
For a vast number of people buying a new house and then having to spend big bucks on landscaping/fencing besides is too daughting a task to even think about let alone act upon.

In the pics I'd get rid of the doormat inside the foyer. It takes away from the beauty of the tile and the overall apperance of the foyer.

The room with the fireplace and built in.... that built in looks out of proportion in that room. I think it would play better if that entire area including the built in was painted one color.....either the white or the yellow.

The thing to remember with empty houses is that there is nothing to distract from flaws, so everything needs to be perfect. No scuff marks on the base boards etc. I looked at a house recently before and after the owners moved out and I was AMAZED at how many more flaws I noticed when there was nothing in that place. (And I'm pretty careful at noticing stuff too.)

Carol from NY - interesting perspective and valid but our reasoning was so the kids could play football without trees in the way. The perimeter of the house is all landscaped but there is only one tree outside of the kitchen window...

Having a bare backyard would no deter me--I'm a hands-on gardener and want just that! It would allow me to design my own place without ripping out existing plantings.

Well, I still think it's just a great house, so don't be discouraged. I'm with beachlily, let me figure out my own landscaping (although I must say your grass looks very green and pretty).

I would never again buy a corner lot. I said I wouldn't buy a house that didn't have the kitchen open to the family room, but we just bought a 1918 California bungalow so.... but we will be opening it up. I love walk-out basements so that wouldn't deter me at all.

Were I to buy your house, I would tear out the desk next to the fireplace, but that might just be me. I don't like that it is white, but that might just be me too. I keep imagining a really dramatic painting in that space.

I had the same questions about the window treatments that were posed by an earlier poster.

I would put a new set of towels & pot holders in the kitchen and maybe put a tray with a decanter & glasses on the island.

At the risk of getting feedback on stuff I am probably not going to change or be able to change, the virtual tour is now on the site. I do appreciate the comments but am putting myself in the camp that says new homeowners will want to paint and change carpet themselves. If they want to rip out stuff or add landscaping we are open to reducing the price due to that.

I heard from ex-neighbors that the house that was purchased for $387 but listed for $415 was low-balled as they did not feel the house was well-maintained. Ours is and also has significantly better mechanicals - better AC, 2 water heaters, more efficient furnace, heated garage, etc. But even if someone low-balled us that would be better than nothing...

Also - I didn't get the cross in the kitchen out before the tour but it is out now, I also added some towels in some of the bathrooms, planted flowers in pots on the back patio, put out some fresh flowers in the kitchen, bottled water in fridge, lifesavers in a bowl on counter...heck, free lifesavers & bottled water, what more could a buyer ask for!!!

As for the finished basement hiding issues - it is not, we actually had the house waterproofed with some DuPont product in 1994. It has never leaked. Many of our neighbors have had leaks.

Thanks all for your comments & wish us luck as we wind down the summer season!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Site - Need to Click on the Tour or Slideshow

This is a nice house! Why are you plagued with such terrible photos and the worst video tour I have ever seen? (Random shots; no conformity; can't tell where in the house we are.)

I love the shot of the front yard taken from in the house. I don't love the shot of the front of the house that showcases your bland garage doors and a whole lotta cement driveway (nice and fresh as it is). Show me your MBR and bath up front. Keep the kitchen shot. Lose the red and blue striped drapes; they detract from a nice window. Too much attention to the basement; one shot is plenty.

The write-up is bland; lacks zip! Your MBR is "nice"? Sellers are "leaving" the appliances? Please! If this reflects the personality of your realtor, I think I've found your problem in marketing this house!

I'll be over this afternoon for some LifeSavers 'n water.

Chisue - thank you. I hardly even have energy to talk with the new realtor about the virtual tour & pics.

Good thoughts on pics. Drapes will stay for now but I will keep your thoughts in back of my mind. Sometimes I think - hey, in this price range people are moving up from first home and they may like to just have something on window even if it is more 90's..and maybe their stuff is 90's too?

Realtor agreed on bland write-up, his idea, said what was out there was 'stock', sort of generated from the fact sheet or something.

Help yourself to the Life Savers! Water is cold too!

You house looks nice. Are you getting showings? If so, what is the feedback? I do not believe an empty house deters buyers. Your house will not sell if it is not being shown to potential buyers. Add a monetary incentive to the selling agent. A bonus! Put it in the multiple listing. Something like " a $1000.00 bonus to the selling agent who brings a ratified contact in before August 20,2007." (and of course house settles for terms in the contract) This bonus is paid at settlement - We have sold 2 properties in slow markets using this bonus spiff. You must have an ending date on the bonus - it is to generate some excitement & get the agents to show your house! Good Luck

I noticed one thing about your house...beyond the use of only white as an exterior color...YOUR FRONT DOOR.

Your front door does not welcome a prospective buyer with an idea of elegance and luxury, which you have tried to pursue with your other improvements.

Check out one of the surplus places near your house. A steel door with beveled and leaded glass, insulated, can cost around 300-400. Add to that a nice Emtek entry handle(Ebay that...they're pricey), and paint it a deep, rich color. There are doors like this that are 1/2 glass(think of the glass area of a kitchen door) or that have the beveled glass treatment the full length of the door.

A door like this will also let in more light, which you already are going for with the sidelights beside your current door...and most of these doors use glass types that are striated, or mottled, so that a visitor cannot see in clearly.

I've been painting my renovations, foyer, living room and common areas (hall) a gold that has a definite hint of brown to it...therefore..not a yellow gold, but a muted shade. I use a Farrell Calhoun eggshell latex called "Safari Tan." While not a 'neutral'...it is complementary with every color I've put it with, and people love it.

A reasonably intelligent handyman can remove your existing door and put one of these prehung units in in a day..you'll need shims and a level to get it just right...should it not hang perfectly...plane the piece of wood that is on your doorknob side, so you end up with a 'cushhhhhhh' sounding closure that has no resistance. Holes are already made in these doors for acceptance of standard entry door hardware.

Just my two cents worth...and worth about two cents.

Don

After seeing your photographs, I noticed one other thing...in homes today that are sold at a premium, there is a use of millwork. I didn't see crown molding at any of the ceilings...actually not much millwork at all. The fireplace that has the desk unit beside it...is it painted the same color as the walls? If so, get yourself some of the same white that the desk unit is painted, and paint it that color. Also, over the fireplace, get some picture frame molding, paint it the same white, and create an area where a buyer could see one of their paintings going.

Another inexpensive upgrade is using chair rail. It breaks up a wall, but is a snap to install. Prepaint it...save yourself headache.

You might employ this picture frame idea in your foyer, creating rectangles which will resemble a wainscoting, and use a chair rail above it.

Myself...I gotta say...and I don't want to hurt any feelings, but the prevalence of beige doesn't do your home justice. I'd find a designer, or go house viewing...all you need is your agent's phone number, and he/she can give you the entry combination if the houses in question are unoccupied. Check out other people's ideas...

And, finally...one of my best tricks when using a rich color in a room is to use just a ceiling white paint, and add a cup of paint at a time to it, mixing it the whole time. You want your ceiling to have a hue of the wall color, and then you'll avoid the stark contrast of rich wall color against stark white ceiling. Don't add too much paint...take your time and work for a soft hue of the wall color you'll paint the ceilings with. Do this ESPECIALLY in your common areas. Looks great.

One other thing...where there is only tile as a veneer for your fireplaces, consider having a tilesetter layer over that with a highly polished granite or marble. Nothing that will scare anyone...but if you do change the color of your rooms, pick one that will add to the overall ambience of the room, not clash with it. Polished limestones come in golds and beiges..and consider using this same material on your hearth.

Consider one of my best ideas that I use in every renovation I do...and I've done 8 in the Memphis market...have an electrician place an electrical receptacle near the ceiling in your dining room. Then have a false beam created, by attaching 1 x 2's to your walls, about a foot down. Nail a 1 x 6 to the underside of the 1 x 2, so that it juts out perpendicularly to the wall. Then use a 1 x 8 screwed to that...Run the boards so that the ends can be attached to the 1 x 2 at at least one end, use an I bar to screw the other ends together, should you not have enough length for your room. Use a trim molding at the top edge of the box, and a molding to cover the intersection of the 1 x 6 with the wall...This will create a false box, in which you will lay rope lighting. Also, use crown molding at the ceiling/wall intersection. The rope lighting will illuminate the crown, and cast a soft glow around the perimeter of your dining room. Put this on a dimmer. Work with a handyman on the actual scale of this..you might have to have the boards ripped to a smaller size, to keep in proportion with your ceiling height, etc. I work strictly with older homes, so the ceilings I employ this on vary in height, from 9 feet to 11'. Just be sure to leave a generous area of wall between the top edge of the false box and the ceiling. If you make that distance too small, your light effect will be much more delineated than you want. Play with a few before you decide on a final decision. If you can have crown molding installed, you might also try putting rope lighting behind the crown, with a lincrusta border above it.

Voila. Elegance people have never seen before.

This one treatment leaves an impression that will not fade from a buyer's mind. Trust me.

Okay, I'm outta here. Hope that your home sells

Thanks Donmay. You are right on. When we built this house it was our first. We had to cut some cosmetic things like wainscoating and chair rails to put money into high end mechanicals. According to DH at least. I always thought in the 12 years we lived there we would add some but we never got to it. The fireplace in the kitchen is natural maple and even though you cannot see it in the picture, contrasts some with the wall color. I like the idea of putting granite or more complementary tile on the fireplace as I never liked what we selected for that...

All in all though I just don't think the little things are hurting the sale of this house. The only feedback we have gotten is that it is a corner lot and not a walk out. Can't change that.

I would think, if I was a buyer, and never have been because we've only built, I would focus on the 'bones' and just lowball my bid so I could add whatever wainscoating, tile, etc. that I wanted, justifying the price I bid based on what I think needs the work. That's the way I think. I have already put about $10k into this and with the market as it is I suspect I will have to eat that. I think lowering the price might be a better strategy than sprucing it up even more...

Also, we do have crown in the office which has 11 ft. ceilings. We could consider adding it to other rooms but FR has large oak cornice over window and I think crown might compete with that.

Anyway - THANKS! I hope it sells too, just glad I can afford to carry 2 payments for awhile and not trapped!!

Whenicit, you have a beautiful house, and even with the terrible photos I can see that~I have terrible photos in my listing, also.

If I may, I would like to make a suggestion for a new listing, should you decide to take the house off the market and re-list in the spring, or earlier.

Here in CA a concept of using a low to high range is used~it's called a Market Range Value or referred to as MRV. I'm listing my condo for $399,900-$445,900, hoping to realize closer to the larger number. With the lower number, interest is generated and it's at least a start. If someone were to offer me $389, I wouldn't accept, but would counter, as that buyer knows his limits, and I know how low i'm willing to go. It's a unique way to get people questioning if they can afford your home, and if so, will make some sort of offer.

I'm sure in IA, people would be intriqued enough to at least get agents to call and ask, 'what the hey'. Might be worth a try. ;o)

What drives people to your high end price?
Thanks for your feedback & advice!

Whenicit, you do have a beautiful home! I agree that the pictures are not the greatest. The picture of the front extior of the home doesn't show enough- can you back up and get the whole house with the landscaping in one picture? So many people begin their search online, its really important that the pics "wow" them so they come and see your home!

I do think some neautral, earthy paint tones would help. Its probably the least expensive thing to do as this point, especially if you are up for painting it yourself!

Also, the house you mentioned that sold down the street sold for $123 per sq. ft. You are asking $134 per sq. ft. so you may want to come down a little bit, especially considering it is a buyer's market?

I agree with most, I think as long as its clean it doesn't need to be staged. It looks bigger empty, I think! Best of luck- keep us posted!

Whenicit, here's a link that better explains the concept. Novahomesick was kind enough to post it on one of the threads I started. ;o)

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20051219_valuerange.htm

I really don't see how value range pricing helps in a buyer's market. I don't see why anyone would offer towards the top end. I don't think that the MLS in my area is even set up to accept this type of pricing. Rather than come up with a list price I could see MLS systems allowing homes to be listed in pre-selected ranges, such as $200 - $225, $225 - $250, etc. I don't think most people would go for it though, because everyone wants to know what the price per square foot is.

We had open house today, we'll see if more people came than last time, which was 2. I'll ask my realtor if he has heard of value pricing. Again, still not sure why anyone would pay more than the bottom range, in fact I might negotiate less than the lower end thinking the range was still too high?

I prefer empty houses, don't want to worry about defects I can't see under or behind furniture. I don't like open floor plans and I hate virtual tours. V tours always have blurry pics. You could go larger on your pics and that would help. I like that I can see trees outside the windows. I wouldn't leave notes around, I would write up an entire sheet about the house. Agents give no information!

Thanks mumbles. We did write up a 2 page sheet with all of the features, we have lots of mechanical upgrades like 2 water heaters, hi-eff furnace, etc. that many people would not necessarily notice. We have lowered price to $349,900. We have so far had one nibble. It is discouraging. Would like to see nibble amount to something as people have seen the house 5 times. DH says pretty soon he'll start charging them rent! LOL!

We are now at $127/sq. ft.

But it makes me feel better to have a lowball offer. We countered and I hope they counter back but sounds like they cannot afford our asking, their offer was about $45k less than asking...good for them but we are not desperate (just yet)...

Just wanted to wish you well with this. Hope you all can negotiate from that first offer. Buying & selling are so stressful!

I really don't see how value range pricing helps in a buyer's market. I don't see why anyone would offer towards the top end. I don't think that the MLS in my area is even set up to accept this type of pricing. Rather than come up with a list price I could see MLS systems allowing homes to be listed in pre-selected ranges, such as $200 - $225, $225 - $250, etc. I don't think most people would go for it though, because everyone wants to know what the price per square foot is.

If I could VRP our house, I might have an offer. This will allow me to show the low end and get people in as it would be a new price search category. I wouldn't price it as low as we'd go, which would give us room for negotiating.

Thanks mumbles. We did write up a 2 page sheet with all of the features, we have lots of mechanical upgrades like 2 water heaters, hi-eff furnace, etc. that many people would not necessarily notice. We have lowered price to $349,900. We have so far had one nibble. It is discouraging. Would like to see nibble amount to something as people have seen the house 5 times. DH says pretty soon he'll start charging them rent! LOL!

The one thing I see on your listing is double photos. You need to look through them, tell your agent to clean it up.

I also disliked the slide viewer, the photos are so small. It would also be nice if they could label each photo.

But it makes me feel better to have a lowball offer. We countered and I hope they counter back but sounds like they cannot afford our asking, their offer was about $45k less than asking...good for them but we are not desperate (just yet)...

Good luck.