The best thing I can think of is an attractive price!

we have a site dedicated to our house with a virtual tour and all the statistics of the property

How do you have it set up for buyers to find your site or are you depending on the people that drive by?

Though you have the tour and pictures, have you tried to look at it as a buyer and not someone that owns it?

I go to a few boards and like to google some of the listings or agents that post to see how they advertise, etc. I laugh most times because some of their photos are horrible. Agents are coming off of easy times selling houses and now have to put some thought into it. Their properties have to be the best for the money and if the blurb, photos and tour don't interest someone they might click the back button.

Why not post your MLS number so we can have a look?

FWIW, in the end I had new pictures taken, redid the flier, dropped the price & staged as much as i could afford, even buying baskets for closets. We also offered a $1,000 decorating expense. After 9 months on the market we sold, closed May 2008.

thanks for all of your responses. we have worked very hard to stage our house, price it well, and had a signature from our agents allowing us to have final say as to which photos we will let out into the public (we've seen the awful ones too! lol)

we just need people to come and see the house!

CREATIVE IDEAS accepted!!! :-)

let us know your reaction!

thanks,
diane
:-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Our House

Diane ~

I looked at every picture you had on your site. You have kept your home very clean and that is to your benefit and makes it appear to have more space. It is hard to tell about the actual size of your home but I am thinking it is on the smaller size. Are their more than 2 bedrooms? Do you have a dishwasher in the kitchen?

However, my final impression is that the rooms are a very boring color. It is always hard to find that fine line of being neutral enough and creating warmth. There is also a little too little going on. Do you understand what I mean? It must really be about staging like I see on so many of the shows on HGTV.

Why, in the living room, do you sit on the couch and stare across the room at nothing? There is a smaller picture on the wall. The television set is to the left in front of what seems like a window. Yes, I see the black chair catty-corner but that looks like a lot of wall with nothing to do. Would getting one of those modern plug-in fireplaces be of interest? You could leave it as part of the home sale or not but at least it would give the new home shoppers something to imagine.

Except for the red chair by the front door there is nothing that seems to stand out about your home. I don't know where you live but all of the homes I am able to see from your front door area look very neutral. We are at the end of fall/early winter so plant life is slowing down or hibernating which causes things to look not as appealing.

I don't see anything in your backyard to draw me out. You have some kind of pit (a fire pit perhaps?) but no cozy seating around it. For most potential buyers you have to spell everything out and not leave a lot to their imagination.

My favorite makeover show is on HGTV and is called, "Design to Sell", with Clive Pearse (host) and Lisa LaPorta (designer). They have only $2000 to fix or makeover those things that are stalling the sale. Most of the time they don't really purchase expensive things but it is all about color and creating warmth and charm. Not countryish charm but charm within the style of the home.

Please consider taking a look at that show and let me know what you think. I feel badly if you think I am being harsh but this is my first impression of your home. Very, very clean but not really interesting.

I was able to overlook all the mess, darkness/cave-like and tired style when I bought my home 3 1/2 years (when homes were selling quickly) ago but I got a great deal. Many had been through the home (2 offers that fell through) and it was on the market nearly a year and turned people off. I got it for $35,000 under their asking price of $245,000 and it is a very large home in Kansas City, Missouri in an great private area.

Sadly for homesellers, this is a tough time to sell. Not only the time of year (unless you are in an area where there isn't a big change of seasons) but the whole housing financial mess and made of glut of homes.

Please let me know what you think of my comments. I wasn't trying to be unkind and you did ask for my impression. I do think that with a little more warmth and color and a few tweeking of the staging that you will have more success.

Robyn

I must say, I actively dislike your website. It is annoying, and nothing about it makes me want to see your house. It is slow to load, even with my fast connection, and then there is this swirling around the front door without any obvious way to stop it. Then another swirling camera around a foyer. You can't see a thing! Get rid of that and go with still photos of a few rooms, a standard write up of what people want to know.

Wait! I slipped back to the site and it switched to stills. Much better, but why am I looking at five photos of a bedroom and three of a basement?

As a viewer, I don't like the lack of control over what I am looking at. I want to skip through the multiple shots to see what *I* want to see. I can't figure out how to work the buttons on the site. And if there is any text, such as the price and how to contact you, I'm not seeing it.

I know this sounds terribly harsh, but I would trash that website and start over.

Hello Diane,

How are you? First, Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok,here are my thoughts.

1. Website tour is really bad. This is your chance to WOW your potential buyers and I can assure you it's turning people off big time. Was this the full website you linked here? There's no info, price etc...

2. Photo's are not doing your home any justice. They are poor quality and lacking from there point of view. Many of the photos make no sense!

3. I would not consider this home even being staged. It shows no insight into the home and every window is covered as well. The home looks very dated (70's) and bland.

4. Landscaping & yard. Your home sits in a sub-division with homes that are pretty much on top of each other. Your home has to stand out from the rest of the community and not be just another home.

Depending on what your numbers are and what you have to play with will determine what is more important to get down to get the best value for your home. I would not consider this harsh but just very honest. This is a business transaction and your product is not the quality or presented as it should or could be to the best of it's ability.

Please let me know if this was the full website? I would be more than happy to send you an example of what you should look for. I also can send you examples of how the photos should be taken. How many showing have you had to far?
Also, what was your ad like that you posted in papers? Any examples?

Again, I'd be more than happy to try to point you in the right direction to help you. Whether it's 10 million or a hundred thousand dollar home there are basic steps that need to be all first class.

I agree that the website is horrible. There is nothing about it that would encourage me to look at your home. I don't even know how many bedrooms and baths you have. Or the price!!! The pictures need to be retaken with a wide angle lens and at better angles. A professional stager would be helpful.
But most importantly, are you listed on MLS? That is the number one way to get your home some exposure.

Hey, me again. I think I found your home online at Remax. Is Terry your agent? Brompton Home? Want to make sure it's the right listing. If so, the listing has no photo's of your house and no link to your virtual tour on the website!

Your web site shows me a lot of pictures but I have no idea of the size of your house, the number of bedrooms or bathrooms, the age of the house, the price, ect.

You have too many pictures. You don't need 5 pictures of the same room for example, or so many pictures of basicly the same thing.

Starting with the front of the house. You have an empty barrell sitting in the middle of the front yard. I know it is winter, but you need to put some winter flowers or plants in it. You need to define your driveway with some stones, or bricks lining the sides of it. A couple of pots with small evergreen trees or shrubs at each side of the garage door would be a great touch. How about painting the shutters?

Could not figure out how to work your tour. I saw the front door and foyer and started getting dizzy. Too complicated and no information.

The website would not load for me the first time. It did the second, but it took me awhile to figure out how it worked. If I were on line looking for homes, I may not have been motivated enough to play with it, to be honest. If a person was techy, they'd maybe be OK with it, but you are marketing to homeowners, and not geeks, and if somebody didn't understand how to work that site, you're missing your audience.

I think I know what you were attempting, and that was to show every square foot of it, as if you were there in person. Good idea, but it just went a bit overboard. I think a brief 'teaser' with the photos are more effective. A few still shots of the very best features......something to make me want to see if the rest of the house measures up. Nobody is going to go out in person to look at it if they see one thing they don't like, you've removed the motivation.

I want to see some text. I want to know about location without having to google it. I want to know about taxes, schools, amenities. Price would be nice. Open house dates. How to contact you. A description. Square footage. Did I miss something? I wouldn't even know what town it's in. How does one even know where to find the website if they're in the market. If this is part of a larger site with that information, then you've already got that covered?

The interior is clean and attractive. I don't find issue with that. But, nobody needs to see pictures of hallways. The best of photographs don't do them justice unless there's something exceptional or unique about them. One basement shot is sufficient too, to show that it's clean, large and dry.

You have a tidy exterior, but again, the shots don't show it to its best advantage when it includes nearby homes, because it tells the prospective buyer immediately that the homes are close in to one another. If someone falls in love with the interior at a showing, they may love it enough to have it not be a limiting factor, but you've already turned them off.

I agree with much that has been said above. I hate the spinning effect. There is no link to make it just still photos that I can find. I know I can stop the spinning, but it doesn't look right. And no info on sf, #rooms, price, and umm...the address!

I agree -- the video sort of made me dizzy. Images moved too fast, but whole thing took too long to watch. Other than exterior images, gained no real insight into floor plan for the home -- or square footage, number of bedrooms, baths, price, real estate taxes, etc. Would much prefer to see still photos -- a couple of views of major rooms, but only one of bedrooms, baths, garage.

How many bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet etc.

Your home video tour is just odd. I was trying to get to the kitchen. I dragged and zoomed and saw a a close up of your dirty carpet, zoomed out and you had a camera on the ceiling or something.

You are not really selling are you?

My guess is this is spam to get free feedback on the worst home marketing ploy I have ever seen.

graywings: I must say, I actively dislike your website. It is annoying, and nothing about it makes me want to see your house. It is slow to load, even with my fast connection, and then there is this swirling around the front door without any obvious way to stop it. Then another swirling camera around a foyer. You can't see a thing! Get rid of that and go with still photos of a few rooms, a standard write up of what people want to know.

I could not agree more! I have a fios connection and had to wait for the site to load! I loathe, loathe, loathe virtual tours, especially ones done as badly as yours! Just when I think it couldn't get worse, I clicked on the pics.

Normally I'd spend a lot of time dissecting every pic and telling you what to do to make the most of each room. Quite honestly it would take hours in your case... your pictures are that bad.

Best advice? Hire a professional stager (and I seldom recommend that!) and professional photographer. Unless your market is really hot or your price is really cheap (where is that little detail BTW?) you are going to be on the market a loooooong time.

Best Hope? Grammyt is correct and this is just a bad spam attempt.

My guess is this is spam to get free feedback on the worst home marketing ploy I have ever seen.

Oh, no, that's not true. The OP has been around Gardenweb since 2001.

Hmmm...it would be helpful if your agent would include some photos of, and more details about, your home on the real estate company's Website.

Have you discussed this with your listing agent?

Hopefully you did not pay someone for that mess...

You say in the first post
"we have a site dedicated to our house with a virtual tour and all the statistics of the property"

Where ARE those statistics?

Maybe they didn't want the statistics on this site and only posted their virtual tour. I notice the OP hasn't been back, perhaps he/she is out of town but I hope we haven't upset them. Several of us, maybe me included, have been a little harsh.

If I was too harsh, I'm sorry. I do think your house comes across as very neat and decluttered.

We may be harsh, but think about what buyers are going to think of the site. The OP needs to know that it is not helping to sell the house. I can't believe that the listing agent has no pictures on the company's site.

hello everyone ..

a belated happy thanksgiving to you all. i forgot that i would be leaving for the holiday when i last posted my note. thanks for all the imput i hadnt exactly realized i would be hearing! i hadnt realized that i should send the mls listing of the house, i had only thought to share the virtual tour in an effort to show where we were at.

we will be meeting with our agent later this week where i will bring up all of your observations.

golfguy .. you were right that terry is our agent.

i do want to thank each of you for sharing all of your ideas and reactions.

diane
:-)

Your home needs some staging. A few quick ideas: add some color with throw pillows for living room, towels in bathroom, placemats/ settings/flowers in kitchen, comforters on the beds. Open the window panels to let some light in, unless the view is hideous. Even then, a photo can be taken with a short depth of field, only the inside is in focus. The fountain? in the backyard needs some sprucing up. This could be a nice selling point if the rocks are rearranged over the black edges, some water plants are added. How about putting those two red chairs around the fountain? (Just for the picture, they look great on the front porch.)
I agree there are too many pictures. Stick to a couple of the kitchen, to show both areas, one each of bedrooms, living rooms, bath, basement, backyard, fountain, front view. Definately lose those straight on front view house that emphasize the "snout house" prominent garage construction.

Diane - I know a lot of realtors really poo poo open houses but as a buyer I really like them. I'm one of those people who just doesn't like dragging around a realtor unless I'm practically sure I'm going to buy it. Of course realtors are always saying they show people things that the people said they wouldn't be interested in and then the people buy something they said they wouldn't. So why wouldn't a looky loo fall in love at an open house?
I think more people may be in "my boat" now with the economy. Maybe they were thinking of buying but now have decided to wait. So they don't want a realtor but they do want to look and see what's out there. Since they aren't spending all their time at the mall maybe they have more time for open houses? Who knows maybe I'm wrong but what does it hurt? A little money for advertising, signs, balloons. Pick your weekends and times carefully - not during any big regional football games or other large community events. If church is big in your area, maybe right after? You might ask your realtor if you can do some yourself if you feel comfortable with that - or maybe he/she has a junior apprentice that can fill in.
Price aggressively, advertise your open house well, if you've priced aggressively state that first thing in your open house ad - people are looking for good deals.

i cant even imagine a more intelligent forum that this one turns out to be. one really has the sense that people take their responses very seriously, putting into their notes plenty of their own personal experiences so you get tons of real life info through reading.

thanks again for everything
diane
:-)

My three yr old computer says I have to update flash-player in order to see your website. I didn't bother, I just go somewhere else. Having the latest and greatest tech stuff means that only the latest and greatest see your site.

You should update your Flash for security reasons.

Mary, I'm reading more and more people are going to opens because they don't want to commit to an agent to let them in; their frustrated at not finding something, etc..

The pick your time wisely.. My last agent did an open house starting at 10:30 until 2:30 IIRC, instead of the 12-5. An agent from his office that does OH's said he had a lot of luck with that time and that he'd catch people on the way to other ones, and that after 2ish, it pretty much dried up.

I know a lot of realtors really poo poo open houses but as a buyer I really like them. I'm one of those people who just doesn't like dragging around a realtor unless I'm practically sure I'm going to buy it. Of course realtors are always saying they show people things that the people said they wouldn't be interested in and then the people buy something they said they wouldn't. So why wouldn't a looky loo fall in love at an open house?
I think more people may be in "my boat" now with the economy. Maybe they were thinking of buying but now have decided to wait. So they don't want a realtor but they do want to look and see what's out there. Since they aren't spending all their time at the mall maybe they have more time for open houses? Who knows maybe I'm wrong but what does it hurt? A little money for advertising, signs, balloons. Pick your weekends and times carefully - not during any big regional football games or other large community events. If church is big in your area, maybe right after? You might ask your realtor if you can do some yourself if you feel comfortable with that - or maybe he/she has a junior apprentice that can fill in.
Price aggressively, advertise your open house well, if you've priced aggressively state that first thing in your open house ad - people are looking for good deals.

Mary, I'm reading more and more people are going to opens because they don't want to commit to an agent to let them in; their frustrated at not finding something, etc..

The pick your time wisely.. My last agent did an open house starting at 10:30 until 2:30 IIRC, instead of the 12-5. An agent from his office that does OH's said he had a lot of luck with that time and that he'd catch people on the way to other ones, and that after 2ish, it pretty much dried up.

I know a lot of realtors really poo poo open houses but as a buyer I really like them. I'm one of those people who just doesn't like dragging around a realtor unless I'm practically sure I'm going to buy it. Of course realtors are always saying they show people things that the people said they wouldn't be interested in and then the people buy something they said they wouldn't. So why wouldn't a looky loo fall in love at an open house?
I think more people may be in "my boat" now with the economy. Maybe they were thinking of buying but now have decided to wait. So they don't want a realtor but they do want to look and see what's out there. Since they aren't spending all their time at the mall maybe they have more time for open houses? Who knows maybe I'm wrong but what does it hurt? A little money for advertising, signs, balloons. Pick your weekends and times carefully - not during any big regional football games or other large community events. If church is big in your area, maybe right after? You might ask your realtor if you can do some yourself if you feel comfortable with that - or maybe he/she has a junior apprentice that can fill in.
Price aggressively, advertise your open house well, if you've priced aggressively state that first thing in your open house ad - people are looking for good deals.