Can you differentiate yourself more from the neighbours?

I don't know your area, but if you go to Redfin and use their home pricing tool for your house, the comps come up in the 525-545 range (eliminating the super low one and the 5 BR one). So maybe your asking is still a little high? But with those showings, you may want to be a bit patient.

It's a small, small world. I previously lived within walking distance of you. Within your neighborhood your house seems to be well priced, but when was the last time your agent did a CMA? In this case you need to look at the entire market area of the town and the neighboring towns. Your thread last year shows some reluctance to do that.

The difficulty is that you have A LOT of competition. The competition not only comes within your neighborhood but within your town. I am fully aware of "what" your neighborhood offers that others don't, but those neighborhood features come at a steep price. In addition to the town you live, there is a lot of competition from the two towns north of you. Although there have been changes since I lived there, those two towns still have a slightly better reputation when it comes to upscale living. More people from outside the area think of those two. BTW--I loved the town you live in and choose it over the other two.

I did just notice that the shortsale and foreclosure were in 2011, not 2010.

Earlier this year I noticed my old house was listed and sold. It sold for only about $10,000 more than the sellers paid about 10 years ago. I have noticed that prices in the area seem to be the same as they were about the time you purchased your home (around the same time we sold). How is your home priced compared to where it was 10-11 years ago? How is it priced compared to the entire area?

Regarding the pics, I would really like to see a more complete kitchen picture. The current pic shows the size, but I cannot see the entire "functioning" area of the kitchen. I'm also not a huge fan of wide angle lens shots. The rooms look distorted and make it difficult to get an accurate idea of size.

Good luck.

It is a small world! And I know there are many towns close by where people are looking. The one advantage to our area is the very close proximity to the toll way, but I know what your saying about the other towns.. many many homes for sale!

Right now our house is priced 15K less than we paid in 2000. Our closing doc's showed 547, but the add on's (abt 50k) were not included in that number. We then did an extra 10K in landscaping and finished the basement. I think we will be lucky to sell for 50K less than we paid 12 years ago, AND out the 50K we put in after that.

Wow, those are some taxes!!! Our house is around the same size and our taxes are $3K/year.

It's amazing how regional RE is.
A house like that in my town would go for 800K plus.
My taxes on a 2500 sqft home are approx 8K. I'm in CT.
I guess I'll have to move when I retire...

OP, Your house is beautiful.

OP - beautiful house. Photo captions would be nice!

Dabunch - houses like that are in the 400-500K range.
Taxes(property & school) on my 2400 sq ft house are $3980.

marciab10 - I guessed without even looking that you're in the Chicago metro area based on the tax comments. I'm in the northern suburbs, my home is 1/2 your sq footage, 70 years older and our taxes are almost 15k. Home owning here is challenging, to say the least. I hope you are able to sell this time around and at least get out from under even if it's not a break even. We are getting our ducks in a row for our plunge into the market.

I know the real estate taxes in the Chicago metro area are absurd compared to other parts of the county.. but it is what it is.. all surrounding cities are comparable.

I have appealed my assessments numerous times! What is really frustrating is in 2007 my house was assessed for abt 740k. My taxes were 16,100. In 2011 I appealed my assessment had it lowered from 640K to 585K, my tax bill 16,7. So even though my home is worth 155 less.. my tax bill is more. crazy.

Almost 70% of our taxes are for schools. I'm just curious in other states with lower taxes where all the school funding comes from? State taxes?? or ?? our State tax was 3% but raised to 5% last year.

I agree with rrah about needing more pictures of the kitchen. I love cooking and that was one of the first things I'd notice when looking at on line listings.

Also, as mentioned, not a fan of the wide angel pictures. Need to get some close up shots of some of the rooms.

I think you need professional photos. The current interior photos seem distorted in size. Things seem short and wide. Looks like doll house furniture and the photos make the ceiling seem very low when you can see the ceiling in the photo. the photos are out of whack as to what the real interior looks like, so it seems.

The exterior photo of the front of home. Probably will come out much nicer if you took on a bright cloudy day. this way no sun shadows. or take just after sunset or after it rained. The rain makes the grass and shrubs greener and the wet driveway and wet roof make the colors vivid and the house really pops when taken after a rain but when still cloudy.

when you see the mansions with the slick photo galleries done by pros...those homes most often are done at sunset or cloudy days and usually all the lights of the house are ON for the photo. Looks very nice.

Also ..the front photo you cannot see the left side of the home because of the tree and this would make the home look larger if you could see that side of the home. Otherwise you see a lot of the garage side of the home which is not always the most pleasing. Want it to look big and grand. That home is very nice looking but better photos would make it stunning.

"Almost 70% of our taxes are for schools. I'm just curious in other states with lower taxes where all the school funding comes from? "

75% of my tax listed is for schools.

I would want to see a shot of each bedroom and bathroom, and I would want more shots of the kitchen. Your house is very attractive and something I would be interested in for sure if I were looking in your area AND your schools are good. In your paragraph blurb, talk about the public schools for your neighborhood if you can brag about them. Are they award winning? Recently built? Do you have state scores on the standardized testing that make them exemplary?

Your pictures seem small and so the details are hard to make out. Great job at de-cluttering. In our area, your house would be priced well over a million dollars.

Wow those taxes are high, ours are about 3K for a similarly sized home, state income tax around 5%, schools are rated about the same as yours and are funded by both state and local taxes.

Beautiful house! I have a condo in St. Charles. Love the area but the condo stood on the market for 10 months completely renovated and lower priced than anything else (barring foreclosures). Those darn foreclosures messing with comps. I didn't want to be a landlord but I did resort to putting a tenant in there about 2 years ago which covers my expenses. My taxes on my little condo are $3,200. Ridculous.