Listing agents seldom sell or show the house. Is dual agency legal in your state?

Open Houses sell houses in some areas (mine), and are a waste of time in other areas. Do you ever attend them?
Have you gone to scope out your competition? Have you reviewed recent comps? It is difficult to know if you are over-priced without looking at comps and viewing your competition.

What sort of advertising was in the contract you signed? Were Open Houses promised? I sincerely doubt OH by owners when you have representation by a realtor are common in many areas (if any). Why isn't the agency running it? The idea behind using an agent is that they market for you. Are you advertised on the local mls? Realtor.com with an enhanced listing? Or just the realtor's website? The local newspaper? Do you have a flier box in the front of your house?

How long a contract did you sign?

Let's see..Yes, I have been to open houses in the area.
Yes, I scope out the competition all the time, internet and driving around.
Yes, we have comped the neighborhood home sales which led all of us to agree that the price should come down.
Yes, advertising on mls, realtor.com, a kansas city housing mag. and of course their own web site.
Not sure about the dual agency thing but I think it is , if that is where they can represent buyer and seller then it is legal.
It seems as if they are doing what they can, I guess. We don't have the flier box. Which I have to say I have picked up a few of those in my day.
Six months.
They have done a good job of getting it out there. What do you think? Realtor.comn MLS#1418826

You could ask them for an Open House or two. Get a flier box and keep it filled even if you have to pay for the copies and keep it filled yourself.

As far as looking at the competition, go to a few open houses of your competitors. That is the best way to actually see what you are up against.

You have a lot of pictures up. Unfortunately, your pictures are not so great. The kitchen pictures are very bright, the table cloth is busy and distracting. What is picture #5 a picture of? WTH is that shot of a partition in a hallway doing in your listing? A bathroom picture would be a better use of a photo. The master bedroom pic is very dark - ironic when you consider it is mainly a picture of your ceiling fixture. The picture in your family room should have been taken with one less sofa. It looks small and cramped. What is that board on the steps in the backyard?

You also have a split entry - sometimes these are tough sells. Many people feel they are an efficient use of space, other feel they are noisy. Are the homes in your area predominantly split entries?

Have you checked the current DOM in your area? That will tell you how long a process this may be for you.

Should we expect to speak with them occasionally or does it just sit til it sells and they collect their 3 or 6% whichever? They said open houses are just worthless, does that seem to be true?

Frequency and success of open houses are regional. If open houses lead to sales in your area, insist on one. If they don't, then don't bother. In my old area, they were rare and poorly attended.

Your agent should advertise your house wherever is appropriate. Mine did MLS, her own website, the "Homes and Land" magazine, info box, and networking with other agents. That's the norm for that area.

In my new location, open houses happen a little more often but don't seem to be vital, while virtual tours online and even short TV spots on the local access channel are common.

As for ongoing tasks... Your agent should also follow up with any agents who show your house and get feedback. My agent also ran periodic checks of comps (sales, contracts, etc) and sent summaries. She also even started sending web site access reports but I think that was a little over the top.

If another agent brings a buyer, your agent will be your interface to the buyer/buyer's agent and do whatever is reasonable to make the sale. Then they attend closing and get a big check.

It's possible that a buyer will contact your agent directly and either deal with your agent or another one from that office, adding to your agent's workload, but possibly increasing their commission.

In my case, the buyer saw the house online and contacted my agent directly. We never considered an open house. The fliers disappeared fairly quickly at first, then they just sat; I think neighbors took most of them.

You have more than one picture on realtor.com so in that way you're ahead of most listings. I agree with a lot of the previous comments about the pictures, though. I don't think they hurt so much but some of them don't help, and turning them into a positive is worthwhile.

I do agree about some of the pictures. The family room could have been a totally different angle, and of course we have stored a lot of furniture now. And there are none of the other room we use as an exercise room in the basement or the bathroom down there. My DH almost stroked out when he saw the one of the deck, that is some sort of wood project he was working on , didn't get moved for the pic's. They aren't perfect for sure, but I'm more concerned about where we go from here.. DOM seems to be around 45-60 days. We're only at 25 so I can't worry to much yet. We are moving in a couple of weeks so when the house is empty maybe we will see about an open house, and possibly some new pics!

One week and one showing later( not by them) they called and said okay too high suggest you drop the price.

Did you get any feedback from the showing other than the price was too high? I assume this is why she said it was because of the people that went through.

We are moving in a couple of weeks so when the house is empty maybe we will see about an open house, and possibly some new pics!

That piece of wood is horrible in the photo. I can't believe the agent didn't move it.

The 1st pic, would the house look better taken from the left? I dislike the bush in it and wonder if they tried a different angle, if it would be better?

I wouldn't wait with new pictures. It's more time you will lose. If you have a camera, take your own shots. You can even take their shots, edit them (crop / lighten) and ask that they go up.

You have a cute house. If you take care of those few things that were mentioned you may get more traffic.

Claimsgirl why would you wait? Where you go from here is taking better pictures, even if it means doing it yourself with hundreds of shots and choosing the best 5-6 or hiring a professional, better advertising, a better understanding of who your competitors are and what they are offering in your price range, and a possible price adjustment.

Another advantage to doing it now - you have furniture in the house. Most people would rather see the furniture in the photo so that they know what room they are looking at.

xamsx, appreciate the help but as I said we haven't done this before just looking for some advice. We're aren't stupid just inexperienced. All good points that we can definitely start working towards.

Am I missing it? Does it say how many sq ft the house is? Are you providing any info/history on the home for buyers when they walk in the door? Agents seem to know nothing, how can you sell something you know nothing about? Think what you would want to know about a house you are looking to buy and type up a sheet for buyers. They can see what it looks like, no need to talk about cosmetic things like beautiful landscaping. Talk about the bones of the house, things people can't see. Provide information nobody else does and it will make a buyer feel more comfortable.

What should you expect from your realtor?

Well...lucky for us, I read everything I could find on this forum and a couple of others, and had a list of questions prepared and when we interviewed her, I wrote down all of her answers.

One of the questions was how often she would be in touch with us regarding our home. I had read about people signing up with an agent, and never hearing from them or talking to them until, basically, it was time to collect their commission.

She told me a couple of times a week, at least, and she has more than lived up to her promise. I talk to her at least once a day....plus her assistant emails me with an update any time any activity happens with the house.

We signed up last Monday evening and have had 2 showings (both with the same family), and we were supposed to have another one today, but some sort of emergency happened, and the family was called home.

I did SO much research before we put the home on the market, such as what to expect from a realtor, how a home shows best, renting storage, marketing...I took most of my own pics and sent them to my rea, I wrote copy, I made this my job, and in turn, my agent knows how seriously we take this, and that we will do what it takes to get the job done.

I would talk to them first, and let them know what you expect from someone who is supposed to be marketing your house, (communication is very important btw...) and, if they don't do it, talk to their broker, and tell him/her you don't think they are doing the job you hired them to do. And next time, be very careful with who you hire, just because someone is nice, doesn't mean they have what it takes to do the job.

Good luck to you!

~Christina

Christina,
Thank you so much. Again, having never done this before I have no idea what to expect or what do if I think things aren't going as well as they should. I do think they have done okay at getting the house out there. But, the only communication I'm getting is, lower the price! And that through e-mail. I guess I just expected a little more personal attention.

clamsgirl - I would sit down with your listing sheet and really scrutinize it as if you were a buyer. Then I would think about all the good qualities and facts that dont' fit on that sheet and write it up to leave in the house during showings.
Not all agents are brilliant. Not all are terrible. Most are somewhere in the middle - reasonably competent. Its up to you insist on things you'd like done to a higher standard (within some modicum of reason)
As for getting showings, do they have signs up at cross streets? I guess in this market, seeing how you've obligingly lowered your price I would counter with -well I want to trying every marketing trick out there - ask for flyers, cable spots whatever.
Personally I think - JMO- people might be taking more time to buy these days with so much inventory to look at. I'm in a, not sure whether I want to buy, maybe if the right thing comes along, have some time, situation. I don't want to waste a realtors time having them show me lots of stuff - I look for houses on the MLS then drive by. I also search for Open Houses of houses I might be interested in. That way I get to see them without wasting a REA's agents time. That's just me. I don't like feeling obligated. (That feeling of well they've shown me 20 houses and I guess I have to buy something now).
So I would ask for an open house but only if they are going to plan and advertise it well - if they do it relunctantly and don't then its a self-fulfilling prophcey(sp) of open houses not working. Try not to time it so every in town is at some other big event. My realtor said Open Houses didn't typically sell houses in my old area but everyone did them anyway and so did she (not sure why considering her thoughts on the matter) and of the 12-15 people that actually set foot throught the door 75% came during an open house. The buyer initially saw it at an open house.
FWIW

Have they given you (relevant)comps to compare your house's price to others?

You can go to realtor dot com and find some yourself, btw...

Around here, open houses only help build up the agent's contact list, and does NOT sell houses. Also, print ads, such as newspaper, and house magazines seem v passe'. Internet with lots of pics seem to do well here.

I also listed my ads (myself) on vflyer dot com, and on postlets dot com. Both of those sites will list your home on multiple sites after filling out one form.

Also, when I'm out looking for a home, the fliers in the yard are very important to me. A lot of Rea say they don't do fliers because they want people to have to call them for info, but, as a buyer, I want the information NOW! I don't want to have to write down a number, and answer a bunch of questions in order to get basic information. (btw, a broker friend told me that reas don't like to do the fliers because it's money out of pocket....

This is my first time selling/buying a home as well, so, you can find the information you need. You just need to do your homework first.

Good luck!

~Christina