Your house looks lovely, I agree, I wouldn't do any real work aside from replacing the hot water heater. Maybe take it off the market & relist Apr 1st at a lower price. Like someone else said... a house is only worth what someone else will pay for it I think the right buyer will definitely come along... a house priced right will always sell.

A realtor will almost always tell you what you'd like to hear. They will often suggest a major "cosmetic" overhaul to make their own job a bit easier.

But truth is this, (and I have a lot of realtor friends and clients ) : When you list too high......you lose nothing but time, and all those " not qualified" in your range. There are only so many in the buying pool at any given time. Some buy and go out of the pool. some come in and start looking.

The realtor, on a shared listing in most cases, suggests the "markdown". Your fifty or 100k is that in loss to you..........and a mere 1500 bucks to 3000 for him or her. The time has been lost in any scenario. Some folks even switch brokers. The markdown is what sells the house, every time. In the meantime, you're paying all the bills associated, not to mention cleaning and polishing and emptying trash cans on a moments notice : )

I really do think more than decor,it is most likely the layout, which you cant do anything about. Most families do not want their kids separated from them like that. I know I wouldnt have liked that, with my kids, when they were little, nor when they were teens. A good price reduction, just might be what would pursuade someone to buy it.

While Jan is right about markdowns meaning little to the realtor, wouldn't it be in her interest to have you sink money in to "updates" rather than put the same money in to a price reduction? Your home is lovely and probably shows beautifully as well. Save yourself the hidden costs associated with more time on the market as well as the cost of pointless "updates" and drop that price to move.

we can sometimes get so hung up on getting a certain price that we undermine our own best interests, even our financial best interests.

I agree with others that it's lovely, and I wouldn't put money into cosmetic updates. That said, I would bring in a stager and tell him/her you're open to whatever he/she thinks is best. Aesthetically it's lovely, but the furnishings may be to dark, heavy, and traditional for some people, and some people can't see past that to the potential beyond. Swapping out rugs, art, lamps, and pillows and putting some furniture in storage could make it feel lighter without the need to paint.

I'd de-list and spend a month or two researching new Realtors and staging cos. A good stager can make a world of difference. Then come back into the market newly staged at a competitive price point. Maybe,maybe some painting to freshen (the room I'd most likely paint is the MB) but absolutely no paint on cabs or major $$ changes.

Is there a bedroom on the main floor which could be used as a master?

If so, stage the third floor and bath so it presents as a great family room.

Add a t v and even an electric fireplace.

If necessary, rent furniture to make it work. There is also some good looking, inexpensive furniture you could by (at much less than the cost of repainting).

Last, but not least, as it oftens seals the deal, offer your home furnished. I have sold my last three houses furnished. I received full price offers. Your area may have a lot of transients and they, often, can’t be bothered to shop for furniture. Think Florida…many houses are sold furnished.

I just bought a new to me house in October, the house was a “by owner” sale so we got to know the owners pretty well. They had just replaced the master bath vanity and were ready to put a new countertop in the kitchen. I told them please not to spend the money, because I was going to redo the kitchen “eventually.” I would have felt terrible tearing out their “brand new” countertop, but their taste and mine are quite different and I redid the kitchen within the first two months. The vanity is nice but not at all what I was you have chosen. I’ll live with it because it’s new, but I wish they had just given me a credit for it, or just left the old one in there.

I live with things a long time once I get them done. Unless it was truly dreadful, I’d never tear out a brand new vanity. Well, maybe I would if I were richer. The point is, don’t remodel anything unless it’s really in bad shape, and maybe not even then. Your house looks very nice and tasteful, but you can bet money that whoever buys it will want to change things. It’s human nature to want to put our own stamp on things.

Well gee. Of course your realtor would prefer you spend $25k (just pulling numbers out of the air here) on updates instead of reducing your price by $25k!! If you reduce your price, she gets less money!!!!

There is two things that kills a sale. Price and/or location. Your price is too high or/and your location is not desirable for the price. Plus now that you have been on the market for so long people start thinking there is something wrong with the house and don't want to even look at it.

Also, if you haven’t already, post a floor plan with your listing photos. That way people for whom the floor plan will be ideal can see that, and those for whom it’s a deal-breaker will know, as well, and won’t waste everyone’s time.

^^I do not agree with Kristin S’s rec. You want as much traffic as possible of people coming in to see your home. The worst thing is for people to dismiss it out of hand from a website because the floor plan isn‘t exactly what they want, but they haven’t seen the high ceilings, windows, light, floors, attractive front door, etc.

This is soooo easy and we all agree!!

#1 take it off the market

#2 find a HUNGRY realtor.

#3 PRICE IT PROPERLY.

#4 relist.

That is all you need to do. None of the things you are talking about will fix the fact that a young family wants three bedrooms all on the same floor. Your home with its current foot print is just not worth as much to anyone as three bedrooms all together. SOOOO price it accordingly. Homes in your area aren't selling that means you are all too high. It is a bummer for sure but that is just the way it is. Spending any money out of pocket at this point is money flushed. Most new buyers will choose things like new paint etc. Let them. LOWER YOUR PRICE. Your 7% was not worth the time it took to do that paper work. Your realtor is a hack.

Is there a bedroom on the main floor which could be used as a master?

If so, stage the third floor and bath so it presents as a great family room.

Add a t v and even an electric fireplace.

If necessary, rent furniture to make it work.

This is what I would suggest.

I'd also suggest fuzzing out your house number and/or changing your user name to something less identifiable.

Your home is lovely. It will be perfect for someone.

I was in a similar situation during the recession. My home was in a subdivision of 600 very similar homes, so at any given time a dozen or more were for sale. Buyers would typically look at all of them and choose based on the lot, condition and price. I cleaned the house within an inch of it's life and did a bit of strategic staging. Then I priced my house below every other house in the subdivision. It sold very quickly while others with higher price tags lingered on the market for months.

The moral of the story is in a declining or stagnant market, take a hard look at your competition and make yours the best value available. Probably means a substantial price drop. In my experience small price drops don't bring new buyers, but big drops do. Good luck with your sale.

Surprised your having a hard time in Texas. I sold my house in the DFW area in 1 day a year ago. Then, finding a new one was super hard, homes were getting snapped up hours after listing sight unseen for over asking! Your home is great!

The interior is very nice.
It might be a "Curb Appeal" problem.

Very pretty from the outside, but what is that disproportiantely large structure to the right? That might be an issue.

We saw a listing for a super cute and good house when we were on the hunt, but decided to check it out on Google street view... there was a hideous 8-story apartment block from the 70s right next door. The blank bricks in this case just looks like a bigger row house that's not following the same setback, so not nearly as bad, but I could see it being off-putting.

And yeah, price is the other thing. Probably the main thing. We bought our house after it had languished on the market for six months. It was a vacant fixer upper (seller had moved for a job, was too cheap to stage, but luckily I didn't care), but was priced too high to be attractive to flippers and was not updated enough to be attractive to most turnkey buyers. We swooped in right after a SUBSTANTIAL price drop that was finally enough to make the house the right price for what it was.

beckysharp agrees with me on making the third floor look like something, anything other than a master bedroom. IMO, that is the problem. Whether you are new parents, parents of teenagers, older buyers who do not want to do stairs…a third floor bedroom is a deal breaker. Everything else,interior paint, landscaping is all to the whim of the buyer. What can’t be changed, unless you stage it is:

No third floor bedroom.

I'm also curious about the large structure on the right...?

ETA - Valerie, I just saw your answer regarding the structure. Just curious what the distance between it and your home is. Could be a big issue for some people, BUT I agree the interior looks lovely.

I think hiring a stager would be a waste of money. Your home is lovely and clearly you have excellent taste. You're also in a very desirable location in Houston being near the Medical Center where lots of high income medical professionals work. In some cases, the third floor bedroom would be a bonus - someone working odd shifts and hours would be secluded from the rest of the household hubbub so they could sleep. Start with price and see what happens.

First impressions...

The monster next door. (What is that building?)

The garage door needs to be painted.

Then there is the problem with the third floor master once a potential gets past the other two things.

Personally, at this presumed price level, I would be turned off by the OTR microwave (would expect a proper hood and an upscale range) and would want a single bowl sink.

Paint the garage door and cut price.

The master suite is on the third floor, secondary bedrooms on the first floor and living area on the second floor.

Valerie, I'd set up one of the first floor bedrooms as the master and the other one as a dressing room. I'd set up the third floor master suite as a game room or man cave or whatever is popular in your area. This might be where a staging company could be helpful.

Agree the garage door color should change, but it would be a minor issue for me as a buyer.

Just wanted to add I know nothing about Houston. Perhaps the closeness of other structures is common in your area and a non-issue with property sales. Goodness knows we have it here in parts of Southern CA. Beach homes worth millions are on top of each other.

This might be my personal bias here, but I think a perspective buyer is more than capable of figuring out they could use one of the first floor bedrooms as the Master. And why would you hire a stager to actually REDUCE the number of bedrooms? It makes no sense.

Personally, I think this whole staging industry is out of control. Your house is already beautiful and carefully curated and edited. What value for your property is a stager going to provide - a different decorating style? Change it from Traditional to Mid Century Modern? To what end? If your decor was the problem, JAN MOYER would have let you know.

I do agree that painting the garage door is worth pursuing, But the color of your garage door is not the reason that your house hasn't sold.

I suggested a stager to help with some furniture to outfit a first floor dressing room, and a third floor game room, unless Valerie has those on hand, which I didn't notice in any of the listing photos.

I've found that most people, especially prospective buyers, have very little imagination and need a good boost. I think staging can get out of hand easily, but if one has a house that's not getting any interest with the current/usual layout, a stager can be helpful with some additional pieces to suggest other uses. YMMV, of course.

I think there are some houses where paying for professional staging makes sense. This isn't one of those. It's already decluttered, clean and beautifully staged.

I concede that the layout would be a deterrent for me, but unless the house is being marketed to cranky old ladies with arthritis issues, I don't see why it would deter younger folks, with or without kids, if the location is right.

I will admit I didn't read through everyone's posts, but one of yours really says it all:

"There are lots of homes in my area for sale including lots of new construction, some of which has been sitting on the market for months. :( "

I don't think any of the things have any major play in why the house is not selling. If it is a flooded market, you almost have to just wait your turn.

I do agree about the staging with the bedroom situation if one of the lower level rooms is big enough to appear as a master - otherwise that could be a flop .

Don't do anything remodeling - pull it of the market - stage it and reprice VERY aggressively to sell . Everyone wants to make a lot of money on their home, but if you really need to get out or are already gone, you may have to take a hit. Otherwise rent it out until the market changes. I have known people to be successful doing that .

Best of luck to you!

@ Greenfish

Who stands to gain here? All any broker is attempting , is to keep the contract. She/he cares not a whit how much YOU have to spend to make an update.

I recently had a client of mine relocate. Former house sat on market for nearly a year at 1.9 mill. A new "Genius" comes along, stages it by EMPTYING IT, ( big fee to do it, btw, obliterating all charm and rendering it an oversized bleak...) ...... not kidding), reduces it by 500k !!! . Whoo ha. Sold in two days. Gimme a break.

Remember the line " It's the economy, stupid" ? uhhhhhh you know the word to sub for economy: ) ? Yes, you do.

.

Jan I think you misunderstood me. I was agreeing that the realtor doesn't lose a ton when the price drops but also saying that they would still prefer to have the seller drop cash on a "total renovation " before dropping the price.

also.......UNRELATED

Houzz??? Get ride of this pop up "What are your interests" GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and do it ASAP.

as others have stated, I would not repaint or do anything else with the kitchen (I suppose you could drop 30K and redo the kitchen, but why? ) The house looks fine. I suspect the problem is your list price.

What is the feedback from buyers?

The house is over-priced, plain and simple. Take it off the market and let it cool.

find another agent and price it accordingly.

@Jan ??

A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay you the day you want to sell it.

Your house does not need more decorating, or staging. It's a lovely, beautifully furnished house.

You have three problems. One is that it is, as you say, a "buyer's market". That means that there is a lot of housing stock out there and buyers can be very choosy.

Second, those who have seen the house speak of the layout. You cannot change this, but it means that it makes your house less desirable to a potential buyer. The only way to make it MORE desirable is to lower the price. If it's low enough, someone will compromise on the layout.

Sometimes agents just don't work very hard to sell a house. My son, against my advice, stayed with the same realtor for 9 months. He finally insisted on changing realtors (this was a house sale due to divorce), and the new agent sold it in 2 months...at a greatly reduced price.

DO NOT PUT MORE MONEY into this property! Reduce the price, sell it and be done. Or you can be like my hairdresser whose house has been on the market now for nearly 3 years and still hasn't sold. It has issues and those and a high price, mean it's still sitting there. He finally had to rent it to keep it insured. He doesn't need the money, he's just stubborn.

Veering off, but I'd remove any info here that identifies your address.

@irol - Not to hijack so I'll be brief. Realtors often set unrealistically high prices because they want to get the listing. They know the price is unrealistic but if they don't list at the unrealistic price, another agent will. The listing agent assumes that the homeowner will agree to a price drop after there hasn't been a realistic offer - or any action - for a month or so.

@Helen And this practice just wastes everyone's time. One more reason I don't hold the real estate profession in high esteem.

irol96--- a new home on the market with zero showing for 2 weeks is a real negative for the realtor. That is really poor. I am glad you are now getting offers (but I would most definitely not recommend the realtor).

IMO you need a new realtor sometimes thats all it takes to get a sale, I speak from experience.

Just my experience...

We listed my father's house (a nicely sized 5 acre home) in October. All the comps pointed to our listing price. We had a 10% less offer right off the bat and turned it down because of the comps. And then it sat for the next couple months. I kept checking all the homes in our county that were within a 75K price range, NONE of them were selling. As pointed out earlier, timing is everything. We went back to the original 10% off offer and took it. We are now 6 weeks past that and will soon close on the sale. Still to this date, of the 75+ homes in the price range, only a handful have sold. This is the winter time(people don't like changing schools!) and your buyers are few. You will have to reduce to get the job done or wait until May when the market gets hot again. Just my 2 cents.

There is a really good realtor that had a blog I followed during the last RE market bust. His favorite phrase was: "There is no defect that price can't cure".

The house looks very nice, but with lots of inventory and competition, your price needs to come down. Do you really want to sell or are you willing to wait things out?

If you do decide to paint the kitchen, I wouldn't go gray. Perhaps too much yellow is not what people want -- my house is yellow, but lots of people hate that. Mind, I haven't looked at your listing, just the first couple of pictures in your original post, but from those I think people might respond more favorably to whiter or cream walls and a few more pops of bright color here and there.

Also, can you install a large trellis and put in some large honeysuckle vines to soften the neighbor's huge wall?

I'm in my 30s with two little kids and another on the way. I typically despise most light wood cabinets - often see them with the raised panels and they just look kind of cheap - but yours are actually really cool and I don't mind them at all. I wouldn't want to see your cabinets painted, and I'm normally totally in favor of painting wood cabinets! Please don't waste any money on painting them.

Your house looks very beige to me, particularly the bathroom. I don't think painting things gray will help because I think it won't look great with all the tan beigey stuff. So "de-beige-ing" the house might help if you can find the right shade to tone it down. I don't mind your sofas, but not a fan of the brown rug in the living room. The house looks clean and nice, however.

The layout issue would be a huge turnoff for me. I have friends who have purchased homes with similar layouts (master bedroom on a separate floor from kids' bedrooms) and they just used a regular bedroom as their master and the other bedroom became a playroom or guest room. If you're looking to market to families, then making the top floor a playroom could work. I don't know what the rest of the property is like (yard, etc) or what the neighborhood is like, but staging a better layout could certainly help. If you're looking at comps for your home, but these homes don't have the layout issue, then they're not good comps.