One problem with google searches is that you don't know how accurate the information you come up with is going to be. You're inevitably going to get a mixed bag of commercial sites offering information skewed to generate profit for themselves, sites and blogs of self-professed experts who aren't nearly as knowledgeable as they think they are, highly opinionated diatribes that only offer one point of view, technical sites that go way over the heads of gardening newbies, and yes, some sites that are complete, accurate, and helpful. While these sites are easy to tell apart if you already know what you're doing, it's easy to forget that a less experienced gardener isn't always going to be able to tell which information is accurate and which isn't. Even an extension office website isn't always what it's cracked up to be; the articles are only as impartial as the gardener who wrote them, and I have seen articles on these sites that were very opinionated (for example, I saw one recently that went on at length about the superiority of hybrid tomatoes, and suggested that attempting OP or heirloom varieties was never worth the effort). In a forum like this one, however, inaccurate information will rarely go uncorrected by other posters. Biased opinions are almost always going to be balanced with other points of view. If an answer is too technical, one can ask for, and will usually receive, clarification. Personally, when I have a question the first thing I do is search the forum archives to see if it's been asked before. Usually, I find the subject has been covered before, and I highly recommend that people take this approach. If it hasn't been, I go ahead and ask. I do google things sometimes, but I consider the forums -the- best, fairest, and most accurate source of information, not Google. Denna

If it's not I don't want to socialize with you thing, then it's just general laziness and lack of social graces. I have a similar thing with my family. I have a couple of cousins that I was close with growing up and that now live 2 hours away. I send them Christmas cards every year, graduation announcements, party invites and I never hear boo from them. 6 months ago, I get an invite to a baby shower for the daughter of my cousin. Didn't even know she was pregnant, hoped she hadn't gotten married and I didn't get an invite! Turns out she wasn't married but was having a baby. So, I decided to drive up the two hours that Sunday and attend - mostly just to see everyone and hear what's new. They were all thrilled to see me and we had a great visit. I took a number of pictures of the mother to be and my cousin and other family members at the shower. Plus some of her opening gifts etc. I sent copies of all the photos to my cousin. Never got a thank you for my gift, an acknowledgement of sending the photos. No baby announcement. Nada. I know they like me, they like me coming to their events on the rare occasions they have them, but have no interest in making the drive to attend any of my events or interact with my kids or hubby. So it is what it is. I accept them, as they are, but definitely don't invite them to events anymore other than those that I consider life milestones like graduation parties or weddings my kids will have in the future. They probably won't come, but at least I invited them!

@DLM: Here's my How Much Land Is Enough parable- When we were first married we lived on a "small" property of about three acres, in an outer, semi-rural suburb of a modest-sized upstate NY city. It was largely open ground so we had neighbors we could see from our house. For fun (as we had no money nor plans to move) we used to play the game of how much acreage would be "enough". We started out at 10 acres which works out to roughly a lot about 645 feet on a side. Walking the perimeter just once would be (almost) a half-mile hike! Who would ever want more? Well, of course 10 acres eventually became 25 and then 50 and each time the number seemed so large as to be unimmaginably more than sufficient. We finally started looking seriously at up to 50-acre properties, but in the end bought one much larger, although that was not our primary goal. I remember that once during the time we were under contract and waiting anxiously to see if we could manage to stretch our finances enough to close the deal, I said to my DH, at least now we'll have enough land so we never have to lust after more land, ever again. Well, hardly had I finished getting familiar with the new farm (which, in fairness, did take a lot of daily walking) when one evening I said to my DH, "Once we get some more money saved, perhaps we should consider making an offer on that "little" 75-acre woodlot the XX's are thinking of selling." He thought I had lost my mind. Although our house is smack in the middle of our farm, so we technically have no neighbors to speak of, and hence near-total privacy, I can still occasionally hear them. And I can hear traffic on the interstate highway at night - and it's more than 25 miles away. Moral of the story: there is no such thing as "enough" land for total privacy, you'll always want more! Your comment about why you're curious about acreage was very helpful for me. I had always (incorrectly) interpreted the question to mean something that felt like (to me) "who do you think you are claiming ownership to so much of such a scarce, sought-after, resource?" Since I value land so highly (actual legal possession of it, less so) it plays right into my insecurities to think that I have the audacity - and the extremely good fortune - to own such a large chunk of it. Your explanation had the salutary result of reminding me, it's not all about me and my issues. I will from now on try to approach that question from your point of view in the future. It will make my response to it more authentic and thoughtful. Thank you! L.

I think you've gotten some good advice regarding the photos. Yours are much better than your agent's, and you could touch them up just a bit to reduce the glare (very fast & easy to fix in Picasa, which you can download for free). Your MLS photos are what are going to bring most buyers to see your house. Get your agent to showcase your house! (I hope there are exterior photos as well, or else it looks like you're hiding something) Surprisingly nobody has mentioned price here. I hate to say this, but it is a good possibility that your house is priced incorrectly for the market. If barely any houses in your neighborhood are selling, it might just be that the market is just dead and you'll have to seriously underprice the house if you really need to get it sold. (Case in point: my neighborhood, two houses similar to mine have sold in the past 6 months; 4 in the past 12 months. That's dead. Everybody else expired or withdrew. Most of the sold houses were estates, where the heirs just kept dropping the price until it sold, because they have no equity to lose, therefore dropping everyone else's property values even further.) I don't know where you are located, but I'm assuming that you don't live where houses sell seasonally (i.e. mountain homes don't sell during the winter much). If your market is moving, and your house isn't showing, then something is wrong. Check your MLS listing to ensure everything is correct - #BR, #BA, #garage, etc. - because it seems like your current agent isn't a stickler for details (flier address wrong? yikes!) and perhaps your MLS doesn't auto-fill from public records, or public records are wrong. Have your agent do another CMA for you and compare to the current listing price. Hopefully he/she will pay more attention to details when choosing comps. Around here (Florida), practically everyone is dropping their listing prices monthly to keep up with the dropping values. It's awful. (My most recent appraiser subtracted 5% per month from each sale over the past year to arrive at "current value".) Think about the type of search a buyer will do. What I mean is, dropping a listing price from $325K to $310K isn't going to pick up on any new searches, even with a shocking $15K reduction. You'll have to drop to $299K to get the buyers who are searching in the "$250-300K" range. Hope this makes sense. I'm only putting this out there for consideration - I hope you won't have to do anything this drastic. But these are the type of things that your agent should be thinking about. Your agent is a professional. You should be able to express your concerns and get good answers. It takes more than "marketing" to sell a home. A good agent doesn't just send out postcards and place ads and sit back and wait for buyers to come to the door. You can do that yourself. You are paying good money for expertise, and if you're not getting it, talk to your agent's broker (boss), and if you're still not happy, you can break your agreement for lack of performance. A professional will not take it personally. Some customers are not a good match. Move on. Disclaimer: I am a Realtor.