I am looking for ideas on how we might attract potential buyers. Ideas out of the traditional agent techniques. We have a great house in like new shape in excellent neigborhood, but don't seem to be attracting buyers. Thinking of something very proactive not passive in nature.

Any help would be very appreciated.

Is it listed? Is it priced competitively? How's the inventory in the neighborhood?

Its listed, priced slightly under similar homes, lots of inventory around, but many are run of mill homes in lessor neigborhoods, builder new homes incentives cutting in to re-sales here. The house is very clean, we have had great feedback from open houses but we seem to be missing something, the MLS#60003313

Thanks for your reply.

When you say you want ideas out of the traditional agent relm are you looking for unusual ideas or what we usually do?
I looked at the mls listing and there appears to be plenty of photos but I would change the order of them. The living room or sitting room is painted very nicely and colorful but could be a turnoff to some buyers. Some people just cannot visual their things in such a colorful home. I would not have this multi colored wall photo as the first one. It is often your best bet to go with neutral tones.
How long has it been on the market? Are you the agent or the owner?

I am the owner, I have not seen the realtors MLS listing, so I am not aware of a photo order. I believe with our market the agents "usual" is not good enough. I have spoken to several agents who have previewed the home, they all loved the style, same with open house viewers, about 95% positive. I have asked the agents about what I should change and they all say nothing. Regardless, I have instructed our agent that I can easily bring any wall back to original if a potential buyer requests. So it seems the style is not it, getting the word out beyond MLS usual listing is what I am after. Pro-active selling.

I went and took a look at the listing also. House shows great, staged well, colors are fine in my book. Are you offering out any incentives to the buyers? You might want to sit down with your Realtor and talk out what kind of incentives you could offer out to encourage buyers. Good luck

Currently, we are offering $1000 RC Willey (furniture/electronics etc) gift card, lawn maintenance until December. And we are completely flexible to close when the buyer would like.

Thank you for your reply!

retro I also love the colors and decor but some buyers are funny. I am having difficulties thinking of something out of the norm but will work on it. What does your agent say?
Craigslist is good. Have your agent place on every internet site he/she can think of and do Reverse prospecting. He can set up a search that automatically emails your listing to agents that are looking for a property similar to yours.
How long has it been listed? Our area has picked up quite a bit in the last week. The wind rain and snow slowed things down for quite a while up here in the foothills. I am sure weather in Reno has been similar. I bet things will pick up for you soon.
The most out of the norm I can think of right now is that I have a friend who sometimes seriously underprices listings and ends up with hundreds of offers. I have always been a little leary of this but it works for him.

Yep it's a good strategy to underprice the home.Why?Because most price at market value or higher which doesn't help there property to stand out.If there are ten homes in the neighborhood people won't buy the nicest,they will almost always all put an offer on the one that has the most value,the best quality for the best price,not the nicest house for an ok price.

Once multiple offers come in the buyers get emotionally attatched to the property and then they don't want to LOSE out on the property.You drive up the price until you get an acceptable price and the sell.Part of negotiating warfare is too get someone pyscholoigically involved in the deal,when they have put alot of time and emotion into it they don't want to see the deal die and will almost do anything to save it.Use this to your advantage to get the most money for your home.

It has been listed for over 100 days, the vast majority of that was bad weather, we are into about our third week of nice weather. I have tried Craigslist, but there is no way of classifing a house, it is just a long list that you get tired of looking through. Besides that is still just plain advertising not anything pro-active. We had thought about the low price idea, however that seems to depend on multiple offers, what happens when you don't get multiple offers? In our area that does not seem to be too likely now.

Thnaks for your replies.

If 100 days on the market your property has now become stigmatized(buyers and agents wonder there must be something wrong with it cause it hasn't already sold)

Call your agent and if they can get them to recast the listing.This means take it off the market,have the agent take new pictures of the home from different angles ,then put it back in the mls as a new listing with the lower price.

If it is priced right you will recieve multiple offers on the property,the key is being priced 5 to 10 percent under market to bring the people in.Remember buyers are shoppers to, the lowe price is what will bring the offers in and then they will be competing with other buyers,PEOPLE ARE COMPETITORS by nature and always want to win.This is why investors overbid at foreclosure auctions and overpay for the property.As always if you don't get your price you don't have to accept the offer so there is no risk.You would be better off to relist as new than take a price reduction,even if they do not know how long your property has been on the market,it screams "motivated seller,desperate,will take low ball offer!"

good luck

Super realtor has hit the nail on the head. Lower the price and if you get mulitple offers but none of them are high enough, just say no.
Cliff

How exactly does this work?? Can you still get a price that you would like with this effort??

Sure i thought i explained how it worked.

Everyone wants a deal and doesn't want to pay full price.

Buyers will not get excited about sellers listing there home at full market.

If the price is low buyers will want to jump on the deal assuming it's not a dog property that needs alot of work.This will result in multiple offers,then the buyers become emotionally attatched to the deal,it becomes less about the property and more about beating out the others buyers on a deal.

Ok, I understand that part. But do they get so caught up that they may end up paying more than the lower price that you listed it at? So essentially you could actually end up getting what you wanted out of it to begin with??

And what happens when the first offer is full asking (listed)price?

What are the possible ways that a seller can get burnt with this method?

Thanks for your info!

A