Belt Auction

why is my house not getting showings?

I think the house is priced properly, I started it below avg price / sf for my neighborhood. We live in an awesome community, close to downtown, comm pools, great schools, newer area (10 yrs or less on all houses). the house photos are great, we have 4 br, 3 full ba, study, media room, game room etc... It has been on the mkt for a month and we have had 5 showings. so, what can I do to get people in the door. I cannot sell it if no one comes! My realtor has sent emails to about 500 agents in the area, telling them about the $5K gift card we have offered to the agent that gets us a contract by 20th sept. we are also listed on all the real estate websites, like realtor.com and zillow. we started our asking price BELOW the avg price houses sell for in our community. and, yes, I am comparing apples to apples. I am not kidding myself that my house should go for what the million plus homes go for per sf around here.

Public Comments

1. real estate is a waiting game you have wait
2. Today's market isn't like the old days when houses would sell in 2 months or less. Now there are comparably very few buyers, especially at the higher price levels, and so many choices to consider making it a buyers market. Thus the ones out there looking are often looking for the bargain of the century instead of the competitively priced home. The only thing I could suggest is to have your Realtor do an open house for the public or do an open house/luncheon for the other Realtors.
3. The house sounds like a great property and should sell in a normal market. The bottom line is that you are trying to sell in the slower months. After back to school real estate sales go to a crawl and will remain that way until about March 2011. Therefore, if you want to get your property sold now you will have to go even lower in price. This option may not be what you want to hear and at this point you should seriously consider pulling the house off the market until 2011. If it sits on the MLS for a while buyers start to think the property has issues and may skip over it once sales pick up.
4. Ask your agent about days on the market. That will give you a reasonable expectation for the length of time similar properties have sold in the past 3 to 6 months. It sounds like everything has been done correctly. I don't really think the bonus idea works well since buyers make their own choices even if the agent tries to "steer" them to a specific property. It is better to put that bonus money in the buyer's pocket in the form of closing costs or reduction of price.
5. First, you have had showings - 5 of them. Is this alot? No, but its more then none? I would ask why the first 5 didn't put an offer in. There could be your answer.