@Hollysprings- good point. I guess, to me, the wording choices seemed condescending and not contributory to an open discussion. We've actually had both a realtor and an appraiser out. They both came up with the same figure, which was actually a little higher than what I was expecting, so that was nice! However, I'm completely aware that this doesn't mean that it will sell for that.....or that the buyer's appraiser will come up with the same value. We called several realtors up and told them that we were going to attempt FSBO for a few months and would like to see if anyone wanted to help us out with pricing. I got a few calls back, and we finally picked a very successful local realtor. She came out and looked at the house, gave me FSBO advice and sent me my market value when she had it ready. She thought we wouldn't have any problem selling it. If, of course, we can't sell it, we'll be calling her up to employ her services. I don't feel like she was artificially inflating the price just so I would use her (or fail at FSBO). She's one of Dave Ramsey's ELPs, so she has a reputation to protect. And when the appraiser came back with the same figure, I felt confident with the amount. (One was not aware of the other.) I also really enjoy following the local market and take extra notice of what's selling and what's not. I am a little worried about having the sign in the yard too long. But I'm a little worried about LOTS of things! :) I guess I feel like, if we fail, we can just stay put for a few more months and then list it with our realtor. Hopefully by then, there will be a new set of buyers who won't remember our first attempt. And, we're not putting it on the MLS for our FSBO, so it won't show up with a ton of DOM. BUT, I hope even more, we'll sell it quickly and won't have to worry about this scenario!

Staging and adding color to curb appeal would go a long way. It looks like you got the decluttering thing down, but maybe a little too much--some rooms are a little too spartan and thus not very welcoming. My first impression after looking at the photos was: -The kitchen was updated, but the color and style clash with the table and there are no stools at the island. These things tell me that I will need to repaint either the kitchen or the rest of the house right off the bat to make them flow better. The table (while it would be going with you & not staying) gives the wrong feel to the otherwise modern kitchen & the green tablecloth has to go. The absence of stools at the island make me wonder if there is not enough room for the stools and the table in that space. The chandelier & light fixture don't look like they were updated (the pots hanging from the ceiling draw your eye upward so you definitely notice the lights)--check out the big box stores for some affordable, easy to install updates. Love the window treatments and that wonderfully large window! -Living & Dining rooms both feel very spartan and cold in the photos. Pulling the curtains back will help bring in more natural light and make it feel more welcoming & open. Is the dining room table centered in the room or pushed off center toward the window? It seems cramped at the window end which to me says the room is small and family dinners will be elbow to elbow. As mentioned above, too many different paint colors--the yellow doesn't do much for me & the white or pale blue in the living room is very cold. Framed prints on the walls and an area rug would go a long way to warming the rooms up. -Bedrooms need warming up too--more framed prints & an area rug needed. Slide the bed in the master over so its more centered in the room. The way it is now, it appears cramped. It looks like there is a tray ceiling in there too--an off center bed is negatively accentuated in this situation. The green curtains need to go and be replaced with neutral colored ones and again, pull them back to let in natural light to give an open welcoming feel. -Masterbath needs some warm welcoming touches too. Framed prints, some candles, strategically drape a folded towel along the edge of the tub, add a pretty container of bath salts to the tub corner, add a pretty window treatment to the window above the tub vs. the plastic mini-blinds. Warm, fuzzy, yet tasteful bath rugs will help too. The walls need some color. Make it feel like a spa environment-somewhere potential buyers would like to retreat to after a long day at work. Don't forget a handtowel on the towel ring! -Love the family room--maybe an area rug...that's it. -J&J bath--looks good. Add a framed print or two, a window treatment, fuzzy warm yet tasteful bath rug & hang the hand towel up. Choosing a nice neutral color of towel throughout all the baths would help too. Something in a fluffy white or beige to give that spa like feel would be good. -Laundry looks great--open the curtains. -Nursery looks great--maybe a framed print or two. -Exterior: Deck needs new coat of paint. The front looks a little tired. Adding some spots of color will help the curb appeal--a tall fat planter with colorful flowers on both corners of the porch, some colorful flowers planted in the beds, maybe a couple tall plants under the porch lights. another planter or two with plants and flowers on the back deck would help make it seem more welcoming too. It seems like you were working on updating the house and managed to get to the kitchen, family room, laundry, nursery & J&J bath. The rest appears to have not been updated since the house was built. While I love antiques, the furniture in the unupdated rooms with this scenario does not help. The obvious brass fixtures in the master bath scream 1980s and most if not all potential buyers are wondering how hard will it be to update them. You definitely have 3 vastly different styles going on in the house which can cause a major disconnect with potential buyers. If you were to repaint the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, master bath & living room to more neutral colors (similar to family room & J&J bath) + update brass fixtures + add warming touches as outlined above to rooms for staging + exterior color and I think you could probably relist for the $290K in the spring and walk away with around $260-$250K. My BIL is a real estate agent and when we sold our house with him he even said not to tell him the absolute lowest price we were willing to take for the house. I can confidently say that repainted & staged well (including replacing a couple light fixtures, new comforter for DS's room, new bathroom stuff, quick exterior spruceup by adding color) when we sold our house. We listed the house $10K higher than the exact house down the street that sold a couple weeks earlier for a higher than average price for our neighborhood. We had an offer in 2 days and ended up with a bidding war between two potential buyers that ended on day 5 on the market. Trust me, potential buyers need to be able to see themselves living in your home and driving up to your home everyday--your staging makes all the difference. Good luck to you!

I bought my first home FSBO, a long time ago, and it was a very good experience and we became good friends of the seller. When we sold that house, we sold it FSBO. The buyers were out looking with their realtor and saw our sign. That house was on the market about 30 days. Our next house (one we built) was on the market, off and on, for 5 years, due to the very high interest rates. We tried to sell it ourselves and had interested buyers who would have bought if we had an assumable lower-rate mortgage. Our next house we bought through our realtor who sold the second house. When we sold it (the third house), we had to fire our realtor (a different one from the one who represented us in buying it, who was fixated on a buyer we had no interest in selling to - he lowballed us, was "going by the book" and we just knew he would walk for some reason as he showed no real "love" of the house) and advertised it ourselves and sold it four days later (to a couple who "loved" it). Our first realtor represented the buyers as a buyer's agent. Our next house we bought, out of state, through a realtor. But we sold it ourselves, in 45 minutes to the first couple that looked at it. If it's a good house, in a desireable neighborhood and priced right, and you feel comfortable doing all the work (but be sure to get a real estate attorney to look over all your paperwork before signing), go ahead. We are going to sell our present home, which we love, to build a smaller home and be mortgage free. One huge difference from before - the internet. But, we are going to go with a flat-rate site and pay a buyer's agent commission, if necessary. We have talked to realtors and have one picked out if our house doesn't sell in 30 days. A very similar house a few blocks away just sold a couple of months ago so we have a real good comparable. I've had negative experiences with realtors. One that we bought a vacation home through was almost a crook. We made an offer (we didn't have a buyer's agent - he wouldn't deal with them), told him it was our top offer, and he called us and said, "wouldn't you know, someone else who looked at the place earlier has offered more than you." We said, "fine, guess your seller will be selling to them." Twenty minutes later he called and said we had the condo. We sold that condo a few years later to friends of some neighbors without a realtor. That sleazy realtor owned one of the vacation condos and had most of the owners snookered into thinking he was the best realtor to list it as it was near a wilderness area and not near any urban areas. He would just put a sign on the highway and never marketed it to people in Seattle (about 100 miles away) and, when the Canadian dollar feel (most buyers were Canadians), the prices of the condos tanked because it became more expensive for Canadians to buy. In all of the cases (4 out of 5 sales) when we sold FSBO, we were able to save realtors' fees and were able to price the house accordingly so it would sell quickly.

Chisue, thanks for the clarification. I just mentioned it because that is exactly what they have been doing - buying, then renting it out until they are ready to build. I know that's weird, but that is what I'm seeing. The house across the street has renters and a 'notice to build' sign went in the yard last week. (That's for anyone who wants to go to City Hall and complain about it ;) So far, the time from the 'notice' sign to demo has been about 6 months - some longer. Prior to that, some of these homes have been owned by the speculator for 3 or 4 years. It is a very desirable area, and despite the market, there are always families who want to live here because of the location and school district. Maybe they are sitting on these houses until the normal market picks up. The homes they are building range from $470K - $600K. eandhl, I can ask my realtor to do that, but there is a real estate section on the St. Louis County website that gives you all the info: Owner & owner's address if different from the house address, lot size, # rooms, property sketch, condition, assessment amounts, taxes, sales dates and amounts, and more. It's really pretty amazing how much info the average person can get. On another note, I went to show the house I want to a friend, and the for sale sign was gone. I had my realtor call, and the owner is changing realtors. According to the neighbors, the house has been empty for 2 years and on the market since 9/07. The bad part is that the owner is 'emotionally attached' to the property according to the listing agent, and turned down a 95% offer at some point. Although she had dropped the price by $21K before that offer came in.