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Is anyone else out there trying to sell a house?

Man, 6 months ago I could have never anticipated selling my house would be so difficult.

Late July/early August last year, HT and I decided to take a huge leap and sell the house, all of its belongings, but a trailer and hit the road. We are very close to being empty nesters and we needed some change after both of losing our moms, me working healthcare during a pandemic, and some other issues I can’t really go into here. We have been so excited. I started selling off things in garage sales, Craigslist, EBay, and OfferUp. We fixed up some things that needed some repair. We went to an RV road show and picked out the trailer we want.

Once we got all of our ducks in a row, it was the first week of November. Interest rates were up, sales were down, and the holidays were here. I think we had maybe 4 showings and had to drop the price of our house twice. In our imaginary timeline, we would have ideally closed in a sale by the end of this month. I have only had 4 more showings since the beginning of the year. No offers in sight. I am at a stand still. I can’t sell anymore stuff until I know I have sold the house because I have to live here. I can’t buy the trailer until the house is sold either. There is literally no more I can do until we get that sale. It’s a waiting game and I am impatient.

I am so eager to start this new chapter. I am obsessed with Redfin and Zillow and watching other houses around me that have been on the market for shorter periods of time being sold. I keep trying to listen what the universe is trying to tell me. Up until this moment me and the universe have been vibing pretty well.

Come on universe! Help this girl out!

I have my mom's house on the market. I've moved her out. I've moved me out. But there's some stuff that my brother wants that's still in the house. It was kind of discombobulated for a while, till we got a stager. She used some of what we had, brought in some rented stuff, and stored the ugly stuff in the garage. No offers yet, but with the holidays, we didn't expect much. But at least now, it looks good. We're getting a few showings each week.

No advice here. Sometimes, it just takes time. Has your realtor given you any suggestions? If so, follow them. Sometimes, it's something simple to fix, that seems fine in your eyes, that just turns off buyers.

Best of luck to you; I hope somebody makes a decent offer soon!

It's a slow time of year for real estate. Things should pick up soon. Sending you house selling mojo!!!

Hi Walking, we went through that during the pandemic, had to drop my old home's price $ 20,000 after the first 2 contracts fell through (largely due to inexperienced home inspectors making mountains out of molehills along with our newby listing agent).

We have been recently getting in to the RV lifestyle, too; it's great for getting away! I hear about so many people who got 'The Fever' and go for broke changing lifestyles; then a few years later, when the novelty has worn off, they want to stop being total nomads and find a new spot to put down more permanent roots.

Just 2 real life examples:

(1) my late brother bought a new fifth wheel and hauler truck in 2005 after his kids all had been launched and he'd sold the 2-story house and land. He wanted to be footloose and see the country, but the costs of travel against his nest egg soon slowed him down to paying for a permanent park rental. Sadly, he never did get to the stage of putting down roots somewhere else.

(2) A SC real estate agent recently told me his parents had sold their home in NY state 7 years ago to do the full-time lifestyle but now they're getting to want to be near one or the other of their kids more permanently.

I'd say "What's the rush?" You put yourself in a one-down position as a seller when you 'GOTTA GO somewhere else or do something else - soon.'

Yea, this is a bad time of the year to be selling real estate given all of the holidays. It's notoriously slow for realtors. While you may have only had less than a dozen showings total, those who are looking at this time of the year, are always very serious buyers, because, who would choose to relocate during the holidays? We did it once and it was a nightmare despite everything going smoothly. As for other houses selling more quickly, your realtor should be providing you with some comps that would explain why.

That being said, interest rates did drop a bit last week (not sure what they'll do this week), and the spring market is around the corner.

Is the house dated? Do you have it staged? How confident do you feel with your realtor? Do you think they gave you an honest assessment of what you can get for your house?

We sold our house ourselves. Then my BFF did the same. We advertised it on the various Facebook groups. My BFF also had an ad on Zillow. We cut down the realtor fee. All we needed was a real estate attorney. If you have a realtor do they have a issue with you posting it and pictures to a Facebook group? I just posted 50 miles north of us, closer to NYC. BFF had it posted all over our state and the other tristate.

I love rv’s and camping. My husband is not confident in driving one. So that isn’t going to be a thing for us. He has been camping one weekend his whole life. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I went tent and even camping my whole life.

Unfortunately the rush has a lot to do with some financial decisions we made in preparation for this next step that are making things uncomfortably tight for us.

I think I can objectively say that my house is in good shape and not dated. We also have a lot of new(ish) big ticket items like roof, AC units (one is about 6 years old and one is just over a year old), gutters, double hung windows put in last year, and new carpet.

We live in a desirable neighborhood. The upside to that is that the homes are a higher value. The downside to that is that similar homes 5-10 miles away will go for less.

Our comps are good. Everyone who has given feedback on the house has all been positive including the price. All of the houses in our area all look so similar and that can be part of the problem too.

I am trying to keep positive. I know it will happen at some point. I just get tired of cleaning a clean house every single day, lol. No better place to vent than here!

Sending positive thoughts that the timing of the sale works out perfectly!

Your house sounds lovely!!

Sending mojo.

MOJO WoeZ..... but winter is typically slow for real estate. Springtime it should pick up. I hope that you are able to wait that long ((((WoeZ))))

The market is very slow right now.

Some of it is normal during the holidays and early winter. It's worse this year than normal. The housing boom has inflated housing costs. That edges some buyers out of the market. Add to that the higher interest rates and another group falls out of being able to buy or even upgrade to a bigger house if they are currently sitting at a nice low interest rate.

People are holding and/or just unable to afford right now.

You're in a good spot in that you can wait. Hope the spring brings you good news!

Don’t get me started, my mother listed her house in June, moved to a retirement community. It’s in the DFW area and hasn’t had a showing since August.

This house is 3k square feet, 3 A/C units, 2 garage doors and half an acre, guess who the maintenance man is for all this house?

As the saying goes if you want something done ask a busy person.

I wish you the best on getting your’s sold.

Yikes Tanner! That is worrisome.

I guess I should be grateful for the handful of showings I am getting.

It will happen. I know I need to just be patient.

Thanks for the mojo!

My first house sold in 6 hours back in 2001 which I loved as I had already closed on a bridge loan for the new one. My second house was my ex wife's dream home not my wife's and we are planning on selling it this in a few months. We have a potential buyer lined up, Mom and daughter own the two houses on flag lots behind us, son and GF want to buy ours. With two large dogs, one of which is dog reactive so doesn't board well, the timing has to be perfect.
TLDR; I'm already stressing and we aren't even on the market yet.

I don’t have much experience in selling houses, but years ago I was trying to sell my apartment in a very old house but didn’t get any offers. What I did was list the "problems" – the issues that potential buyers would see as issues – and then attack the easiest one to fix.
In my instance the electrical wiring was extremely old and shady and with the assistance and guidance of an electrician friend I rewired the whole condo. Since I got the material wholesale and the work mainly mine (a sixpack for the friend too) this cost me about a fifth of what I would reasonably have had to lower the price to compensate.
Another issue was with the condition of plumbing. I had a company check the sewage and got a VHS cassette (this is how long ago this was!) as well as a certificate stating the plumbing was in good order. Cost me considerably less than the real estate agent had suggested I lower the price by.
Somehow removing these two factors gave potential buyers more confidence and eventually a sale.

I'll vouch that the house isn't dated...could use a pool though . I agree with the others WOES - it's just a slow time for real estate. Interest rates haven't helped, but in a couple of months as it gets closer to the end of the school year (when most families like to move) the environment may be a lot more favorable. Too bad your plan is contingent on the house sale or I'd suggest trying to rent it out, but that doesn't sound like an option. Best to you guys, I want to see you in that RV!

When we go through your neck of the woods, we will be sure to look you up Tred!

We have another showing today. I will be cleaning like crazy and doing all of the things (I light candles in the fire place, play easy listening guitar music on the surround sound wired for outside, the front part of the house, living room kitchen, and primary suite, I take the cover off the pool table, and make sure the lighting looks good for the time of day) I will also get my big smelly dog out of the house.

Wish me luck!

Fingers crossed! Another good trick is to throw "take and bake" bread or frozen croissants in the oven half an hour before the showing so that the kitchen smells homey. Leave the baked goods in a basket on the counter with a vase of fresh flowers (no lilies or anything else with a lot of pollen or strong perfume).

Too late to be useful today, but a tip for when they come back for a second showing!

Good luck WoeZ and HT !!!

My Mom’s house is under contract!!!! It’s about $15k under asking but it’s sat since June. My sister balked about it being under market value. I had to explain to her (a CPA) that market value is what someone is willing to pay for it.

WOES sending those selling vibes your way.