SusanScuba,

Wow, I wish you were in this market. I asked our agent at the beginning about an agents open house because I had heard that was the first marketing opportunity. She said "We do not do that anymore". I was surprised and asked why and she said it was because of the hot market - there was no time for that. Well, it turns out that the market in our area, although hot for the last two years, is dead this year - or at least that is what we have heard from her and a few other agents in the city. I think we will take your advice and call her on this and ask her again about her plans. My husband asked her Friday and all she said was that we had to be patient with no indication that she would do anything but sit and wait. She was supposed to follow up with two agents who dealt with offers that had fallen through but were in the process of trying to sort out the difficulties. Because she had done nothing as of the time my husband called her this morning (she had been out of the office since Friday morning and was only back at 11:00 am this morning)he got on the phone and called the other agents and got more information than we had ever got from her. She keeps saying she can't get hold of them but twice now he has picked up the phone and been able to talk right away and candidly with both of them. We really wonder why we have her at this point!! Because both of the agents he spoke to think that their clients problems should be cleared up by the end of the week, we will give it until then but if things don't materialize or she continues to fail to follow through I think she will be history.

This whole experience has left us quite bitter. We have done everything that everyone says you have to do to sell a house - it is magazine quality with new kitchen (dark cherry with built in Europenan appliances) and bathrooms, pool, extensive landscaping and decorated to match the taste of the most discriminating buyer - which is what our listing says, along with the fact it is the best the agent has seen (again words taken from the listing). I know that most of this is fluff but clearly it is more than your average house and much more than what you would see in the area in which we live. So somewhere something is wrong - unfortunately we fear, it is our choice of agent.

Anyway sorry for the rant but it is all very frustrating. Thanks again for your advice. And to those who have commented on financing, I appreciate your thoughts but if you go back in this web to comments by other Canadian agents, things unfortunately do not work the same here as in the U.S.

There may be a few variables working against your right now. With regards to appraisals, in our area we are seeing less homes appraise for the selling price, the appraisal community has been front and center in the news of late and I suspect are being a bit more cautious in what they produce.

Mortgage companies have had a short history of defaults on loans that are just starting to drop. However, I suspect the sting is still there in their approval process.

If your home is considered to be in the range of starter homes in your area, which I haven't seen indicated yet, the buyers agents are probably bringing first time buyers, or marginally pre-approved buyers. With the recent uptick in interest rates, the lower end of the mortgage business is effected greater than the rest. An increase of 1/2 a point is not such a big deal for a high end or middle cost mortgage to swallow, but the lower end of the mortgage business has a hard time swallowing that big of a jump in a mortgage.

Hence, I suspect, along with the other things I've seen mentioned here, you have several potential problems to overcome.

You may want to consider having a clause put into your contract that requires a buyer to provide written proof of a failure of qualifying for a loan so that you will be able to see exactly what the issue is.

Price drop will certainly allow more buyers to qualify, at your expense. The other option is patience, to allow the right buyer to come along.

It sounds like your agent has done a good job of bringing you buyers. I would encourage her to do more of the same and work with her in her efforts.

Best of luck

I had to laugh about not doing opens in a hot market. I'm not sure any market is any hotter than our market right now (DC area). The holy grail for us seems to be getting the days on market to equal 0. ;-)

It's a little stressful at times when you're working with a buyer because you literally have to drop what you are doing to scramble to see the property and write an offer immediately...

I had this happen on Friday; a property went on the market Friday at 3. By 4, I was at the house with my buyer, in the office within the hour writing an offer, which we faxed over within a couple of hours of seeing the house. On Sunday evening, we had a ratified contract, for which we were very grateful as it was a competitive situation.

Anyway, sorry I digress, but the above is to illustrate how our market is moving and WE are still doing Open Houses! LOL

Hopefully you'll get your situation all sorted out, but it does sound as if you are doing all the right things...and your house sounds gorgeous!!!!