Hellobee Boards

I think it all depends where you are. When we were looking where we currently live, our realtors said that most houses are on the market about 90 days.
Selling our house was terrible, but it was a relocation and our relocation company screwed up our first offer, affected the price of our house (even though we had offers higher than what they wanted us to list it as) and for whatever reason the sale from the second offer fell through. We, legally, no longer own that house, but it is on it's third buyer! We put it on the market in early January, and with all the buyers falling through, is still on the market today (I think. I'm not sure if/when the next buyers will close).

I sold a condo, it took 2 days. But I live in a sellers market and it was extremely desireable location.

I'm curious about the same things as the pp. also, are there a lot of properties for sale in your area?

I sold my home earlier in the year when there wasn't much inventory. Of all the houses listed at the time, ours was by far the nicest and priced to sell. We had some deficiencies (tiny kitchen and backyard was close to a busy street) but our house reflected those things. It was in a desirable neighbourhood as well.

We had an offer on our third day of showing the place. 10-15 showings doesn't seem like a lot in a months time. We had 15 showings in one weekend and no open house.

Do you know if houses sell quickly in your neighbourhood? Good luck - I know it can be stressful!

Ours took about a month and we were lucky because there were others for sale in our area with a more desirable feature: an ensuite bathroom, which we didn't know was so popular. I think we had two open houses with maybe one person coming to each and then at least 8-10 individual showings before getting an offer. The person who bought had already sold their home so I think that's why the process happened so quickly.

I do remember getting my hopes up every time we cleaned the house and had to leave for a showing and then being disappointed when nothing happened. The month felt like an eternity and then we ended up only having a month to find a new house and move when we did sell so it was kind of crazy.

Hope you get an offer that works for you soon!

@photojane: what about just renting?

We have only sold one house...we sold it to the first person who came to see it (on the first day on the market) but we did end up with two offers that day, both over asking. It was a decent market but a very desirable neighbourhood with very limited options for buyers.

There is a house in our current neighbourhood that sat on the market for 90 days with no buyers (really strange for Toronto, but it was a *terrible* lot and house), then the agents convinced the sellers to invest $1800 in staging and it sold for 60k over asking in 3 days! Perhaps if you are really keen to sell, talking to a stager might not hurt? Get their professional opinion and do what you can to bring it to its absolute best?

Selling can be so stressful, but it will be so great once you do!

Our house sold in less than 2 weeks with multiple offers despite being in really poor condition. We staged it really well though, cleaned every nook and cranny, and our realtor worked her tail off for us. I think that was our biggest factor.

We learned a lot during the selling process that the realtors work hand in hand often so we chose a realtor who was well known. She was busy making phone calls for us while she was on vacation in Cancun so I know she had our best interests (and her commission) at heart and she was a marketing whiz. Consequently we got people into our home who were wanting our kind of property, quirks and all, and the showings we received were ones that were serious.

Yeah, I'd look into the job your agent is doing. My house just sold immediately after listing, and I credit our agent totally for that.

@hellobeeboston: that is a good point too and something we worked around when selling our house!

Our house took 4 months to sell and I blame our crappy agent! We hardly had any potential buyers that were serious and we had over 100 showings. Sometimes 5 a day. It was painful, especially since DD and DS were so young and messy. The price was right, the inventory was low but I don't think my agent did enough to put my house out there.

I would also make sure it's staged correctly, the photos are decent and that there's curb appeal (even fresh flowers and some new beauty bark).

What are the specs of the house...2 bed, 1.5 bath?

I've not ever sold a home, but I can tell you that when we were looking to buy, I noticed that houses with certain configurations moved faster than others.

3 days with multiple offers above asking price. We went on a short trip while we first put it on the market so we wouldn't have to deal with leaving for all the showings. We announced ahead of time that we would not review any offers until we got back. Then we had 4-5 offers to pick from when we got home from our trip.
I think for us what made the difference was a professional decorator/stager. She was worth her weight in gold. She was able to make the house appealing for everyone, not just families with children. We also got a storage unit and put around 30% of our stuff in it so the house did not have any baby or kid clutter. It was a lot of work up front, but saved us from having the stress of having showings for weeks/months.

Don't be afraid to change relators - way back in 2006 we hired a realtor to sell our house and he sucked!!! After 30 days we fired him and got a new agent - house sold within a week!

I'm the marketing coordinator for a real estate company. If you want to wall me the listing I'd be happy to take a look and offer some suggestions as to how you can freshen up the listing online (and in print ads)?

What about closets? I would empty closets and almost "stage" them to show that for example, the linen closet is big enough for towels, and sheets, and a few cleaning products.

I haven't sold a home but am thinking about it in the near future. As a buyer, I never looked in closets but I noticed if the rooms looked big enough for my things or if the kitchen was in a good layout for my needs. I've seen your pics on FB and it looks really nice and bright. Good luck selling!