Sorry, here's the link in clickable form:

Here is a link that might be useful: our listing

Are you living in the home now? It seems rather sterile.

How about a floral arrangement that is not so tall with some bright colors on the dining room table. Try adding something on the corner of the island in the kitchen with a pop of color.

The area rug in the living room should be moved to just under the couch and add an oval coffee table in front of the couch. Do you have any lamps to place on the side tables next to the couch? I agree about something needed on the walls of the living room, if you don't want to do art on the living room wall, a very, very tall plant on one side and perhaps a tall screen on the other, I am assuming that is a big screen tv in the middle?

A view of the master bedroom or master bath or the back yard in place of the photo looking out the french doors.

Can you lighten up the media room photo just a bit, I realize a media room should be dark, but the details would show a bit more if it was slightly lighter.

Good luck to you, your home is immaculate and beautiful.

You have a great house! But....

I noticed you are listed with a discount agent(we used to live in the ATL and know of that realty)...does the buyers agent receive the full 3%? If not, that maybe something to consider. May be increase it to %3.5 before lowering the price again to encourage traffic....

There are so many homes for sale in your Alph/Ros/Woodstock/etc., maybe your house ranks 2nd or 3rd on peoples list and perhpas the location realtive to the 400, ranking of the schools, ease of exit and entry to subdivision, amenities, cost of HOA is what drives them to another house...try to think of a way to put your house in 1st place...look at your competition in the area what are buyers looking for...maybe you can ask this of agents when they are coming through.

I noticed there were no picutres of the backyard...flat backyards are hard to come in Atlanta so if you have one or even a semblance of one, you should showcase it!

goodluck!

Has anyone ever mentioned how close the trees are to your house? There appears to be a large pine with limbs right on top of the garage. That can't be good, unless its just the way it appears in the photo.

I'm with everyone else, especially regarding the living room. All the furniture seems too small for such an expansive room. The TV, small plants and furniture seem disproportionate in size. You need something on the walls as well as larger plants or big vases.

The kitchen photo is horrible! Sorry. Maybe it's the angle, but the orange backsplash doesn't seem to fit.

All the photos are dark.

Thanks for suggestions. We will followup on as many as possible this weekend.

Related question: This listing service allows only six pictures, but they do offer a virtual tour for which they charge $195. They push it pretty hard, saying that more pics attract buyers... good idea?

To answer some of the comments:
- the kitchen backsplash is actually stained beadboard, pecan I believe. Yes it does look orange, I will try to address. It actually is very attractive, based on several comments from friends and others.
- the tree near the garage is a crepe myrtle, not really large at all. There are pines around, but none within real striking range.
- we have moved to a nearby home which more suited our current lifestyle. Have left behind some of the furniture/furnishings to show the house better. Yes, agree it looks a bit sterile, but this is a hard middle ground to find, between cluttered and empty.

The photos should be sharper, but overall, they give a good impression of the home. Sure, I would like to see more photos, such as the bedroom and bath, but the ones there would be enough for me to call and make an appt if the price and location suited me. Overall, it looks like a nice higher-end house.

I don't disagree with the staging suggestions, but I don't think they would make a difference in this case. Given your situation, I think you made a good decision on furniture and decorations - enough to give the buyers a sense of the rooms.

From your realtor's website: "Rhonda Duffy is the #1 Real Estate Agent in Georgia and the #10 Real Estate Agent in the U.S."

Does anyone else find it odd that someone of this calibre would have such poor quality photos? Maybe it is how they are sized on realtor.com, but if that is the case, you would think she would know how to size them correctly.

Ok, here goes.

Your price point should drop to 499. It's only a thousand bucks to you, but will open up a whole new group of buyers looking for a house less than 500k. Plus, 499 feels way less than 500, it's a pretty common pricing gimmick, but it works.

The picture of the outside of your house is lovely! Be glad you have brick and not stucco, the stucco homes are really languishing on the market right now.

Play up Mountain Park elementary in the listing, it's top 10 in the state according to www.gppf.org. You have a lot of transfers who know nothing about how good that school is. Tell them in the listing.

Kitchen picture is not level and slightly blurry and under-exposed. Hate those bald bulbs on your chandelier, it makes the room look harsh and unfinished and the camera tends to meter on those bright spots rather than the kitchen itself. Kitchen looks sterile, I'd put some fresh flowers on the island that don't stick up too high. Also, I'm betting the kitchen is bigger than it looks, and the picture doesn't reflect that.

The dining room photo is underexposed because the camera metered on the open window. Meter the camera on the walls or ceiling then take the picture. THe window will look blown out but the room will look good. Also, same issue with the dang bare bulbs-gives a sterile look.

You REALLY need to show the bathrooms, especially the master, or people will think you have something to hide.

There is a lot of inventory in your area right now, you need to really be competitive. I have 40 homes that come up in the Mountain Park Elementary School district in the 400-500k range. That's a LOT. Your house is at the top of the list.

Take a look at this guy, he's your competitor and he's in the contingent stage on his house: FMLS#: 3533463. He's only 2k cheaper than your house but somebody bit on it, try to look at it and figure out why, sometimes that helps.

Here's another one at 475, FMLS#: 3318647, I actually like your house better, but it will give you insight into what is selling.

For what it's worth, I, personally, LOVE your house and would put it at the top of my list to go look at because it's brick, it's on a big level lot, and because of the good schools & the cul de sac. I'd probably low ball you, though, and offer you 475 because of the house above.

I'd also call up the fulton county tax commissioner's office online and see what your tax assessed value is and compare it with the two other guys to see what their asking price vs tax value is.

I'd also use that site to see how much and how often stuff is selling in your neighborhood and ask my realtor to provice average DOM for the past 5 years for the subdivision and average selling price. You can't go by just the last two years because of the bubble, I'd go further back to get a better big picture....

Hope this helps.

Thanks again. Blush on the pics - I took them myself. That's part of the flat-fee deal... you get to take your own pics.

The 499 v 500 was something we struggled with, knowing the psychological advantages of the former. On the other side was the belief, espoused by some REAs, that a round figure is better for searches, in that, for example, 500 picks up the 475-500 people as well as the 500-525 folks. I am certainly open to trying 499 and of course the $1K is not a big deal.

Will work on all suggestions as possible; in the meantime pls keep them coming.

Have to agree that the photos are hurting you. I know what a pain it is to take pics, you have to get the lighting just right. Is there a time of day that the sun is better in the rooms? Try to use that to your advantage and I've found that turning off the lights helps.

Dinsey, you provided very good feedback! My guess as to why the rancher has a bid is because it's a rancher. Some people don't want two floors.

Looks like you have a beautiful house. Hopefully you can get photos to show that. You might try looking for a real estate photographer, spending the $100 might be worth it.

Ok, a few more thoughts...

I love the angle you took your picture of the outside of the house at, but can you plant some bright flowering annuals in a few spots? There's no color to draw the eye and look cheery. Maybe some red/white pansies-buy a flat and just stick them in an attractive bunch, don't even plant them, leave them in the boxes and hide them under the mulch-you just need them for the picture. Or go and get two big huge autumn colored mums and place them on the front porch-something to make the pic look friendly.

I'd get rid of the picture of the media room-women won't care that much and guys will be much more impressed if they read about it and want to see it in person, I suspect it's much more impressive in person than it is in the picture.

I would take the plasma off the wall where it looks lost and put it over the fireplace, light a fire in the fireplace, move the sofa so it's centered on the fireplace/plasma screen, turn the plasma screen on to some nature show with beautiful images, wait until evening, and shoot the photo. That room will go from looking bare and a little forlorn to being the most welcoming room you can think of.

A good picture of the backyard is really important; almost everyone who is going to want your house is probably going to have several kids. I can't tell you how sick I got of seeing a listing that said "level back yard", that had no pictures of said back yard, and when I got there it was a freakin' ravine!

So, I'd do these six pictures:
1. Outside with flowers,
2. kitchen with flowers & chandelier covers,
3. family room with lit fireplace & plasma screen,
4. master bedroom (either totally empty or staged)
5. master bath, have fresh white towels and maybe a few lit classy pillar candles by the bath and a simple vase of white flowers.
6. Backyard-you can take the same two pots of flowers from the front and use them to shoot the back. Shoot in the morning or the evening when the yard is sparkly and the light has depth to it, as opposed to mid day when everything looks flat, dried out and harsh.

Once I got smart about my pictures I had a LOT more people come look at the house-my problem was ultimately a bad location but I learned to get a ton of foot traffic in with good photos-people really wanted to see the house!

Good luck-and let me tell you, those people that are looking in the 500 and up range are definitely checking out 475-500, also!

You have a beautiful home. I agree with the previous suggestions. I would rearrange the furniture in the family room into small groupings if possible to get it from against the walls. I have a large room like that, and when I rearranged the furniture it made a huge difference. That rug is way too small where it is positioned.

Good luck!

I agree that it is a beautiful house, but the photos screamed "sterile." I'd do as others suggested and arrange furniture in groupings, bring in more natural light (your lighting, combined with the bright colors, hurt my eyes).

The new pictures popped up on my listing search engine-great job! Good luck, it's a lovely house...

disneyrsh, hi and thanks. Can I trouble you to tell me how this works? In other words, do you get a sort of notice because the listing underwent some sort of significant change (such as the pics?). I'd be curious to know (and would like the fact if true) if it comes to the attention of the real estate community in a fresh way.

Can you ask your realtor to replace the "DUFFY Buyers Get CASH Back" tagline on realtor.com with something that actually relates to your house specifically, like "Must-See Cul-De-Sac Home!"? I think having an advertisement for the realtor's business above the pic of the house detracts from the listing.

Hi herus, remember how on the other thread the guy accused me of being a Jenny Pruitt realtor? Well, I'm not (I'm an editor-who is procrastinating right now :D), but their website is AWESOME for tracking individual house and market changes.

I currently have 35 properties (yours is one) that I'm watching. JP will send me email if the property price changes, more pictures are added, if it goes under contract, etc.

Go to www.jennypruitt.com, go to "My homepage", register with them, then start saving properties. It will prompt you as to what you'd like to be notified of. Yours popped up again with an email to me when you put the new photos in. Whoever created that website really knew what people who were serious house hunters were looking for-it lets you search by subdivision, by school, etc.

We used Duffy to buy our last house, got 4k back from them. They were adequate, but that's basically all I needed-a warm body to let me in the house, we had our own RE attorney and HI and handled the mortgage company directly. And they had to share their commission with me because I only looked at 4 houses before I bought, whee!

Gorgeous house! I think the interior is wonderful - I do agree some of the painting and accessories could be larger/ more dramatic to fit the scale of the rooms but as a buyer that would not deter me at all. The only thing that catches my eye is the backyard (to my eye in the photos) looks quite sloped - is it? The photos from the top floor down to the backyard out the window scare me a bit - it may be just the angle. I am in the NE and I like sun, so as a buyer I might want to see how flat it is (and if not could it be leveled a bit more in the back by adding a little soil) and I would want to take down a few trees especially around the swingset area. How big is your backyard? Looks like it is quite large. Is there a fence anywhere or could one be put in?

I think your house is gorgeous - as a buyer my questions regarding the house would be pertaining more to the backyard and the potential there with your lot. I would not worry about the decorating / accessories etc - your home is lovely and looks immaculate and spacious.

Re the pictures - you guys in GA must have good photographers - I think the pictures are nice - but I am used to seeing the lousy NJ pictures on realtor.com!

If you click on the featured tour there are lots of pictures of the house and the yards. I think it looks very nice overall. I would much rather look at a house with less furniture then a house with too much.

The deck could use a few chairs and flowers to look more inviting. Pansies would look nice and would grow in the winter. It would be nice to have some grass in the backyard but that might be hard to do this time of year.

I think I know why herus hasn't posted much here lately-looks like his house went under contract! Woo hoo for them! It's a nice house. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: herus's house

That's right... we closed just before Christmas. Have been too busy with too many things to revisit here till now.

A brief account of how it happened... the buyer was unrepresented and came in off Realtor.com, which meant no seller commish. He knew what he wanted, which included a very good price. In return he took the home as is (but that is not as bad as it sounds, as I had already been over it a dozen times and believe it to be 99% flawless - reserving the 1% for something I may not have caught). He also closed within two weeks of contract.

In return he got a solid discount, closing costs, and some items that were already in the house but which do not normally transfer. The value of those items was lower to me than to him, so I guess everyone was happy.

Huge relief to put it behind us. No more visiting the home twice a week to vacuum, flush, no more phone calls, and of course no more bills!

Thanks to all for the advice offered here. BTW and in return, and I have no way of proving this, but as the offer came in within two weeks of the Virtual Tour going up, perhaps an argument can be made in favor of that approach. We got the distinct impression that they wanted the house even before they set foot in the door. There were no surprises during the first (or any) visit, and I think the fact that they were familiar with the details (and already liked them) helped them to visualize themselves in the home. In this case, the detailed VT definitely worked and was NOT "too much information" as some have suggested.
IMO the best $200 we ever spent.