I think 32 showings in just a couple of months would be pretty good and would have netted an offer. Your house looks good in the pictures and has nice curb appeal. I can't see anything that keep someone from buying the house so I'm just going to throw a few ideas out. If what I've posted doesn't fit, don't be offended.

By having a flat price listing, does that mean the buyer's agent contacts you? If yes, are you accidentally giving out any negative info about the house or are you difficult to deal with or hard to reach?

What about the neighbors? Do they keep their yards nice and the music down? On weekends, is it hard to navigate the streets? Is there any undesirable industry nearby? Do you have power lines running through the yard or anything similar that isn't showing up in pictures?

You said this neighborhood is desirable. Have you checked the crime statistics? Are there any registered sex offenders in your immediate area.

Do you have any good friends that would tell you the honest truth about what would keep them from buying the house? Maybe they could tour the house as a 'potential buyer' and give an opinion. It's hard to say if not viewing a house in person.

Good luck!

Thanks for the response. The flat fee I mentioned was a set fee to get it listed on the MLS system. If a buyer submits a contract through a buyers agent then it will go through my listing agent to me, but he just passes the information across and that is it. If I get a buyer without an agent it is just them and me.

As far as being hard to reach, I have been very reachable and able to make every requested showing, except one on a saturday when I was out of town, in that case I suggested they come on sunday the next day to my open house.

As far as negative information I have tried very hard to not do that ;-) I even had one agent ask me what was wrong with the house and I could honestly not think of any negatives to tell them.

The neighborhood is great. Residential, near enough to the highway system in Louisville for nice convenience, but far enough away that none of the noise or traffic affect the neighborhood. No power lines or other unsightly things exist in the neighborhood. It is nice and quiet with very little to no crime. I am actually part of a smaller town inside of the Louisville city limits that has its own police force so we get patrols by both cities officers, but they are rarely needed.

Crime stats or sex offenders I do not know that information.

As far as the house, since the most recent updating of paint and carpet I have heard nothing but good to excellent comments on the shape of the house and the colors. It does show very well. The only complaints I hear come from it not having a basement (on a slab), its too small (1155 sq ft), or there being no fireplace. I can do nothing about any of these.

The main people interested are younger people 20s to early thirties, both singles and couples, and older people 50+ looking to downsize or just move into a nice part of town. The houses on my block are a bit smaller than the surrounding area. Most houses withing a quarter to half mile go for $230,000 and up for those with a basement. One just sold a block away and its list price was $225,000 (I believe 1700 sq ft with basement.

Hope that helps!

Are you near a college? Churches? Medical Centers? Contact them as Pastors and Assoc Pastors are always looking for places. As nurses, medical staff? As high school/elementary school personal--is there some way you can make a flyer and send it to these places. many of the people I mentioned just don't take time to look around. Just a thought. Also contact your law enforcement people, parks and rec. etc.

Why are you present at showings? That should be what you are paying the realtors to do with the commission. Back off and give potential buyers some space.

Since I am selling by owner I don't have a supra or any other form of keyless entry, so I have to go to the house to open it up. When the buyers and agents arrive I welcome them and have developed a now standard intro of welcome to the house, everything is open and unlocked and I will be outside if you have any questions. Then I head out to my car where I always try and have a book handy and wait. More often than not they do have questions after looking around, but if they don't, when they are leaving I just thank them, wish them luck and head inside to lock up while they leave.

mariend - That is a good idea, I think I will look into that. I already have a flyer (I have been through about 75 of them in my info box in front of the house already) and positing it probably wouldn't be too hard.

I think your house is beautiful!! Not sure why it is not selling; Dh and I sold a 1100 sq. ft., 2 BR, 2 BA home in '08. It took us 4 months to sell but we were living in the house. Don't know if that makes any difference. One thought I had was; is there any way you could put in a 1/2 bath? Maybe near the laundry area? I know that isn't something you would like to hear but if you could just add a sink and a toilet it might help you get more money AND sell faster. I may be all wrong and the cost may be too much and not worth it but honestly, I don't see any problem with your place.
Good Luck to you!!

twotogo - thanks for the compliments! You sound just like most of my showings, lots of good things to say, just no offers. It is comments like yours that leave me scratching my head when everyone seems to love everything, but nobody wants to buy. I have had a half dozen realtors tell me that I should have no problem selling in this area with this house. The couple of realtors that have been nice enough to chat with me are shocked when i tell them how many showings i have had with no offers. I bought it for 168, and when i did (pre-recession) houses in this area were appreciating in price 3-5% a year. Shoot, Zillow tells me it should sell for $248,000 (i wish).

Anyways, i agree that a second bathroom would help, but I think it would be cost prohibitive in this case mainly because the house is on a slab and I have a feeling that would complicate matters a lot when it comes to putting in a second bathroom.

Thanks again for the comments. By the way, I really can't claim anything in there, my wife picked the colors and decorated.

Do the other houses that sold have a basement and a second bath? The lack of either of these would be a deal breaker for me. If the other houses had one or both of these, you probably need to drop your price.

Anne

There were 2 that sold directly across the street from me are very similar in terms of layout and size. One was about 50 square feet more but only has 2 bedrooms instead of 3 and no detached garage, but is on a slab just like mine and only 1 bath just like mine. That one sold for 186,000. The second directly across from mine had a detached garage, but only 2 bedrooms and approximately the same square footage. That one sold for 180,000. So they are, in effect, identical.

My current competition is another on almost directly across the street. It is listed at 159,900, but has a gravel driveway and no detached garage. It has been lived in for almost 40 years by a single woman who raised her kids there and hasn't been updated in most of that time so it is dated inside. Also a new one just went up by owner a few houses down and it has about 100 to 150 more square feet but is also on a slab but no detached garage. The guy there is asking $229,000. His rationale is apparently that he the average price per square foot in the area would price his at the 229 level but his fallback is that his company is moving him and if he can't sell it in a few months then they will buy the house "at a fair market value". So he has an out if (when i think) it won't sell at his listing price.

Is it possible that it is priced too low and that is why they are asking what is wrong with it.

Looks really nice from the pics. Maybe it need some furniture for people to be able to realize the size better. Being that it is small I think it makes it more important to see what can fit and I'm guessing most first time buyers don't have the vision to see that.

lyfia - I have had that thought more than once. I just can't shake the feeling that I will walk away breaking even when I could have had some money in my pocket. However I don't know what to think since that flies in the face of the standard methodology of 'drop the price to make it sell'. I have an open house today, I will try and report in later on how that goes. Wish me luck!

And thanks everyone for your comments!

The two houses across the street that sold for more money - were they listed with real estate agents?

One was, one was for sale by owner that just got a lot of traffic from my house and the realtor-listed one.

Are you on speaking terms with the neighbors who purchased recently? It might be interesting to catch each of them and just have a fifteen minute discussion as to what "sealed the deal" for them in buying their house.

A few things that jump out at me.

The laminate. Is laminate common in your neighborhood? Some people can't get over the sound and feel.

This is delicate, but you've done a lot of work on the home yourself. I've lived in a few "re-muddled" places and if I was told that the current owner had done a lot of the work, that probably be a red flag, not an asset. And depending on the work that had been done, I might have concerns about whether it was up to code.

I would not put any more money in without talking to a realtor.

Can you talk to the new neighbors across the street and try to nicely find out why they picked their new houses over yours? Ask them to be really honest.

I remember a few years ago someone was posting with pictures of their home and wondering why no one was buying. In one of the picture was an ashtray. Several people noticed it and commented that maybe that was part of the problem. Could there be smells in the house that are turning people off?

What do you back up to, could that be a problem?

I would raise the price and buy or rent some furniture to stage the house. Are you going to some open houses in your area to see the inside of the homes for sale?

I just went to Zillow and pulled up the bird's eye view of your house. I couldn't tell which one was yours from looking at the pictures. I'm assuming your house has been updated since these photos. Have the other neighbor's updated also?

The pictures of your house from your website photos give me a different impression of the neighborhood than the Zillow shots do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird's Eye View

adellabedella ~

The house (bird's eye view) is the one to the right of the house with the dark roof. I could tell because one of the last pictures was of a stand alone single-car size garage plus there was a new winter picture added of an enclosed porch.

soccergoof ~

Perhaps you could get a rough estimate from a place like Home Depot as to what a small half bath would cost to put in. I wouldn't think it would be prohibitive price-wise. You could always think about renting furniture for staging but you might need to look into a professional stager to have it done right. I would be more excited to have an extra half-bath since that would make your home stand out from the competition. Not sure if it all might cost the same as a professional stager/furniture. If you put the half-bath off the laundry room area I wouldn't think the cost to plug into the pipes would be too terribly high.

Good luck and let us know what you decide. If you were able to get in the high $170's or low $180's wouldn't that be worth it to you? You stated that you bought the house for $168K. Did you put money down on the house so that you could pull the money out to start building your new home?

Robyn

Staging can make a huge difference. Empty houses feel lonely and non remarkable. They actually feel smaller than without furniture.