I feel your pain. I decided last fall that I wanted to move to a smaller place, so I put my house on the market on Friday. Cue the drums... the whole crash thing happened two days later (the following Monday).

There is so much stress just having a property on the market now. Since I was only planning on moving to another part of town and don't actually need to sell it, I took my house off the market at the end of May. Like you I saw plenty of traffic through the house with no one able to say what was wrong.

I can only imagine trying to keep a house with 3 kids clean enough for showings and dealing with the questions surrounding your move.

Good Luck!

I'm on the other end of the fork. We've had our offer accepted, now just petrified that rates will go through the roof before we can sign the note. We felt very good about the offer and all the numbers and then the next freaking day I get up and read about possible bail-outs for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. C'mon rates, just stay stable for one more week...

Sounds very familiar. I accepted a new position out of town in April of this year. Our house needed some updating, so I put in about 4 weeks of hard labor to finish rennovations in our kitchen and master bathroom, with the hope that it would sell quicker.

I moved down to New Orleans at the end of May, right after putting the house on the market. I got a one-bedroom apartment down here, with the idea that we could ride it out in the apartment until our house sells. The house has had a few showings, but no one seems interested in buying. We've recently dropped the price $5k, but haven't had any showings in the past 2 weeks.

Our realtor has some family issues right now and has been out of town a lot. I don't think she's holding up her end of things, but our contract with her won't expire for another 4 months. I'm about to talk with her to see if there's any way out of the contract. We can't sell the house if no one is coming by to look at it, and it's her job to get people in there, and that's not happening right now.

We're really concerned about having to carry the house for longer than we were planning on. A few more months of rent + house note is going to make things very tough. To top it all off, we're heading into the down season. I'll probably make another price drop soon, and we'll probably end up losing money on the house sale (we'll cover the mortgage amount, but lose some of the money we've put in in rennovations.).

I'm actually with you on this. I don't know what it is, but when buyers see a number of price reductions, they assume that it is a downward trend and pretty soon they'll get the house for free. It is what economists call "sale seeking behavior". I don't know if this will work at all, but try making a minor improvement and actually *raise* the price a bit. It's counterintuitive, but might actually bring a couple extra eyeballs.

Remember your realtor doesn't care what price you get for your house.

They're in the volume business. A seller gets 1-3%. On the high side, 3% is 300$ for each 10,000. On a house selling for 250K, the realtor will get 7500. If it doesn't sell, they don't get 7500. But, should they convince you to drop 40K off, they're still netting 6300. They give up much less than you do. With 1% realtors, their incentive to sell at a lower price is even stronger. Especially since you'll likely get a different one should it not sell.

Don't be afraid to swap when the time is up. We did, and our house sold in 3 weeks with the new one. It was impossible to get a new realtor that was worst than our first.

Hang in there man! When we moved up to Canada, we had to sell out our old condo, and it came right down to the wire. We were absolutely positive that we were going to have to carry two places, but then, three weeks before we were scheduled to move, somebody popped out of the woodwork, bang bang bang and done.

Well, maybe it was little more drawn out than that (stupid repairs), but the point is that it went through. =) It sounds like the best thing you can do is look for a new agent. If yours has so much on her plate that she can't even deal with showing your house, she may be glad to not have to stress about it any more.

I was looking around my area on Zillow.com yesterday (a fun little real estate search if you're not aware of it) and there was a 3 bed, 1.5 bath house that sold in 2006 for just over $200,000 and the asking price today is $350,000. Looking at the pictures of the house, they obviously didn't do any major remodeling (old, ugly kitchen and bathrooms, underwhelming exterior). In a time where the market was almost completely stagnant in this area, you are not going to get almost 200% of what you paid for the house 2 years ago.

I don't know what these people are thinking, especially when there's a nicer house less than 2 blocks away for $100,000 less.

Edit: The other thing that pissed me off was seeing $800,000 to $2,000,000 houses in neighborhoods full of $200,000 to $350,000 houses. Good luck selling that monstrosity now.

hehe! I love this housing market.. but I am a buyer. Good luck on the sell and the move! Could you not call up your realtor and scream at them for breach of contract? Then let her go?

All salesmen are scum of the earth! It is the worst part about purchasing a house is dealing with Realtors.

Any luck today?

I hate to say it but I too agree you should probably back out of the other house. I dont think the market is going to get any better anytime soon.

Let me share my little story....

Dec 06

After finally getting out of a horrible financial hole we had been in for nearly 5 years I finally pay off the last of my debt. At the same time I decide that now is the time to buy a house. Since I hate city living I decide that I can handle a hour and :15 communte one way every day. At first it seems like a good idea. I can get much more house for less money and pay much less in taxes. I find a 100 year old home that has eye poping wood work all through the home. Its is in stunning physical shape but needs some basic work to make it back into a house. (A DR was using it as his practice). The negotations go well and I end up walking into the home with 20K in equity. Plus I ended up paying about 50% less than I would have had I purchased in the city.

Jan 07

My wifes business collapses (although I wont know it for sure for another 10 months), My wife finds out she is pregant. My Heating bill is averaging 250-450 a month, my orginial budget was only for 150. Average power bill is 175 which is 50 over budget. All told my bills are 300 overbudget. (which wipes out all my available income)

June 07

The city has my home listed incorecctly and it doubles my taxes. This wont be resolved until 2008. I am informed by my insurance agent that since my credit score has lowered they are now doubling my insurance. Gas prices are now about twice what I had orginally budgeted when we had started to plan on moving. I get a new boss at work who is tasked with reducing costs, our first meeting doesnt go well.

Sept 07

My first child is born, at the same time my employer has decided that 8 years is enough time for me and begins to pressure me to quit. I am under so much stress that the birth of my child is hard to enjoy for both me and my wife. At this point its becoming very clear my wifes business has failed and we are going to have to close it. Now I am down to one income and that job is doing everything to get me to quit. We are now spending 500-1000 overbudget and my savings is dissapearing faster than you can say charge card.

Oct 07

Now unable to make ends meet I am now choosing wheither or not I pay for formula\food or pay the mortgage. A good friend decides to help out and moves in and pays rent to help with our nightmare. At this point I am operating at -450 a month in my budget, my savings are completly gone and I am living on the kindness of my inlaws. Since I only watch 3 shows total we decide to remove TV completly to reduce the budget. This gets me a little closer to even.

Dec 07
Not a very merry christmas, but thanks to the kindess of others we are warm and still in our home. My employer is still doing all it can to get me to quit, and my stress is effecting my health. At my annual review they dont even bother to tell me I am not getting a raise, I find out when I get my next check. I have spent time in the hospital and frankly spent more than a few days just wishing I had never been born.

Jan 08

Finally things begin to turn around, The city adjusts my taxes (after they had refused earlier) and cut them in half. We recive a tax return that helps me keep the house another couple of months. Money just seems to be finding me, I get checks in the mail for things I have forgotten about or in some cases dont know about at all. No doubt someone is watching over me.

Feb 08

I cant stand it any longer, after securing a temp job I walk out of the employer I had worked for for 8 years with no notice. Both me and my former employer are happy as larks. It was the first week of vacation I had in goodness knows how long. The new job is a dream come true and promises to bring me on full time in a couple of months. My stress levels finally come down and I begin to enjoy life again. Other bills get more in control and my utl bills are more managable now. All told I am now getting closer to break even again. I am able to find some ways to reduce even further our bills and bring down my budget further. I cant say enough about my new job, its first class all the way.

June 08

New job hires me at a better rate than I made before, also I love the job. Gas prices are still increasing now at 4.00 a gallion. When we first budgeted for Gas I had put down 1.95 as the price. (Man I miss those days) Current gas prices being what they are cause me to go below budget again, but I have been told I can do a 4 day work week which will cut my gas bills by 80 a month.

Today

Things are looking up, my mortgage which is set to "reset" in January told me they will extend it 5 years. Also my friend is still boarding with us so as of today we are just about even.

It sounds like its for the best. Being the buyer means you have the power on that end at least. You also might want to check out another agent. You might find a better agent more able to handle the sale.

Nah its not about being worse or better, some times these things just go way wrong. Mostly I told the story so you would know your not the only one and its not just you. Frankly my story isnt that bad. I didnt lose the house, my marriage is rock solid and my child is healthy and so full of joy he nearly bursts. Frankly i feel blessed. I have heard of some real heart braking stories of folks that lost everthing.

You're smart to have had that clause in your buying contract, and to let it expire. We watch a lot of real estate shows, and cringe every time we see a homeowner who bought a new house because they thought that their old house would sell quickly. Two mortgages = 2 foreclosures in short order for people without a ton of savings. It's just not worth the risk.

Unless the asking price is unrealistically high (and yours must be very solid if your agent isn't recommending lowering it), it definitely pays to stick to your guns and keep your house until you can get a decent price for it. More than once we've seen a buyer swoop in out of the blue six months after the house was listed and decide it's the most perfect place ever. Good luck!