54 showings, no offers...

Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2016 · 17 posts · 7 votes

I listed a flip in April 2018 at a price even with the surrounding neighborhood $224k ($80/sf) in my market. I’ve had 54 showings and not a single offer. I’ve dropped the price $5k/month and I’m getting concerned because we’re going into the winter months. All our feedback says it's a "beautiful house but not right for my client." What should I do?

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Russell BrazilBusiness Member

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Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

The house is a 5 bed/3.5 bath plus an office. Entirely remodeled (kitchen/baths/floors). A couple people have mentioned they didn't like the floorpan. 1 feedback said they don't like how it backs up against a major road. 1 feedback said they didn't like the way the garage smelled lol. The majority of feedback has said "Possibly interested" and "priced right". ~4 realtors said our house was a finalist for their client to offer on.

Your agent should be working to get these people who make it a finalist to make an offer. Getting an offer out of someone is a very specific skill set, one that seems your agent may not have.

Also backs to major road...in my market...thats going to be a $25-$50k less in value than properties that are not backing to the road. Selling these kinds of properties is always going to be hard.

A $5k price adjustment is nothing. If your property is at $225k and you drop it to $220k, thats not getting anyones attention. If someone was going to make an offer at $220k, believe me, theyd have made an offer at $225k. Price drops need to be dramatic to get the consumers attention.

Delisting the property and relisting with a new MLS number, if your MLS allows it will make it look fresh on 3rd party websites. That too is on your agent if he hasnt done that.

Doing a brokers open to get brokers/agents in there to give honest feedback always helps. Also, this goes back on your agent.

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Dustin P.
Realtor · Tempe, AZ · Member since 2017 · 541 posts · 442 votes
8y
Usually I take off 10% for backing a busy road, so you probably should have listed at 199.9k right off the bat. Now that you've been on the market for awhile you have a stigma so no one is likely to offer full price. Also I hate those little mini drops, to me an agent just does those to refresh on people's hot sheets and they are super annoying. If you didn't get the 224k within a month I would have price dropped to 199.9k right away.
3 Reply
Matthew McNeil
Rental Property Investor · Boise/Portland · Member since 2017 · 709 posts · 742 votes
8y
Originally posted by @Brian Pulaski:

Originally posted by @Matthew McNeil:
Originally posted by @Eric C.:

Sold 4/2013 for $170k and then 1/2018 for $122k and now after some reno listed for $209k. How did the house value actually drop that much between 2013 and 2018? Something is a bit off...
Beautiful house (!) and I concur with Eric here. The history of these numbers would concern me. I'd move forward cautiously if I was a buyer. I suggest you find another agent or tell your existing agent that he/she needs to come up with a better pitch and figure out how to overcome the objections. If he's telling you that he doesn't know what the objections are... well, that's an excuse and not a reason.
Are these comments coming from experience? I had a house, it sold for $168k in 2015. Bank Listed it at $285k, and dropped until I bought it for $110k... I put it on the market for $320k and had a first day full price offer. I have never had anyone question why I bought so cheap and am selling for so high.
In my latest flip I even walked the buyers agent through the old layout (from old listing photos). If a house checks all the buyers wants/needs, for a reasonable price, why would it matter what the seller bought it for?
The house isn't selling most likely due to the price verse location/layout. I can see from photos it has two beds/office on the main floor. It seems the "living" space on the first floor is probably small for such a large SF house. Most people don't need 5 beds with multiple masters, and would prefer a living and a family room verse more bedrooms.
Yes, from experience. Maybe you meant to reply to another poster...
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Jack Ni
Lonoke, AR · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 16 votes
8y
I bet my money on the busy road. I see many listings by the busy road sale below market value.
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Patti RobertsonBusiness Member
Property Manager · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
For a 5 bedroom home, the kitchen looks really small. The master bathroom (which looks fabulous btw) literally looks bigger than your kitchen. People want open kitchens these days. I would have tried to do a different configuration than a galley. It looks like you had plenty of space to do something more creative. That said, if priced right this house is pretty enough to sell. Look on the bright side - you don't have to worry about the 90 day FHA seasoning requirement once you do go under contract!
757-472-2547
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Reggie Greene
Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2017 · 18 posts · 3 votes
8y
@Aaron Hoak Greetings Aaron, from what I can see from the video, the rehab looks great, however, maybe your buyers are looking for more of an open concept on the 1st floor which means more walls would need to be knocked down. In addition, that would have allowed you to expand the kitchen which is a Highly attractive feature for active buyers. Having a big kitchen, with a Big island is always a Great selling feature. Or you can look into other options of holding it (rentals, Airbnb), til the right buyer makes the right offer for you. Im sure you will eventually come out on top. Please keep us posted.
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Jon P.
Rental Property Investor · Beverly, MA · Member since 2013 · 18 posts · 11 votes
8y
at this point would it be beneficial for your sellers to withdraw from the market and rent the property out for a year or two until the property can be re-listed anew?
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Christopher Leon
Realtor · Schaumburg, IL · Member since 2011 · 289 posts · 118 votes
8y
@Aaron Hoak a sale can be boiled down to three major components 1) location 2) condition 3) and price. A buyer can choose any two, the market will choose the third for you. Because location is static here, you either have an issue with price or condition. Price fixes everything - no question about it. To have 54 showings and no offers is not much of an anomaly.
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Account ClosedBusiness Member
Real Estate Broker · Ben Lomond, CA · Member since 2014 · 62 posts · 47 votes
8y
I'm a real estate agent and investor and I live by the 3 rules of real estate. Price. Condition. Location. You cannot change location so that leaves price and condition. Get feedback from other local agents and investors. They know the market best. Good luck.
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Account Closed
Rental Property Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2018 · 133 posts · 171 votes
8y
@Account Closed
You can add my vote to the price is the problem group.
This doesn't seem very complicated to me.....
The size of your home and the bedroom count is much higher than the surrounding neighborhood and area, plus your remodel is for a very specific taste . So my guess is while buyers are willing to look at it, the price is so much higher than the general area (like most past sales in the area are 140's-160's) that unless someone has a large family or loves that style of remodel, the house isn't going to be right at your price almost 60k above the general area. Now, at $180k? Maybe a buyer with a smaller family or someone who is lukewarm about the remodel will step up and make an offer which is still quite a bit higher than the general area. And I am not saying you should lower it to $180, but if you are looking to get it sold and you lowered it to $189 that would probably stimulate a lot of interest.
(I'll add a disclaimer I am a very "time is money" person so rather than take baby step price reductions over weeks or months I would rather just rip the bandaid off and take one big dramatic price reduction and get it sold. However I realize not everyone thinks the same as me).
P.S. I personally love the remodel but it's a bit on the masculine/dark side which is why I love it. Women? Maybe not so much. Staging with color, flowers, etc should help.
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Brandon Miller
Inspector · Powell, OH · Member since 2016 · 22 posts · 7 votes
8y
Very nice house man. Just thought if no one has mentioned this or not but the fact it's on slab ie, no basement could be possibly be holding back some buyers perhaps. It is after all in tornado alley is it not?
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Joey Crampton
Realtor · Auburn, AL · Member since 2018 · 2 posts · 0 votes
8y
@Aaron Hoak If it's indeed priced right according to the respectIve market value there, then the layout of the home may not be as desirable (the design of the home, "split level", overly unique design. Another issue I have seen is stigma in the area. Have you googled the address of the home? You'd be surprised. I have run into two properties in my area (Auburn, AL) just this year that each had horrific murder-suicides inside the home. One home was so horrific the people lay dead inside the master bedroom for days and the blood seeped through the floor to the living room. All the agents would touch it and many potential buyers knew about it. i actIslly sold that one. Another property I showed and almost sold had a murder-suicide from the late 1970s but then another subsequent suicide in the basement recently. Having said all that both properties did in fact sell way below the market value and this is very much a Sellers Market here so even though these homes otherwise should have sold a lot faster and for considerably more, they didn't.
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Janina S.
Contractor · IL · Member since 2018 · 20 posts · 46 votes
8y
A few things,
Your listing looks very monotone. Nothing says "Buy me" like a brown box. This coupled with the fact that you painted over an outdated texture. You should have scrapped the plaster and put up clean drywall.
Your carpet.... looks cheap.
The kitchen is awfully small. I think your master bedroom walk in closet is larger or the same size as your kitchen. a family that needs/wants 5 bedrooms, isn't going to want a kitchen they'd find in a 1 bedroom apartment. This tells the buyer that you either didn't know how to fix the layout, or worse, didn't care to. But you are up-charging them 100k compared to what you bought it for.
The Road is a problem, but with a high fence, and trees, (sound insulated windows would have helped) I don't think that is your biggest problem. It's a nuisance, and if kept into consideration in the price, a buyer will overlook it.
From the area, this listing seems to be on the higher end side, which you tried to compensate by having an elaborate master bath. But the entire house should feel elaborate and high end. The carpet, the color of the paint, and the poor quality of the paint job, or lack of attention to detail, lack of curb appeal.... all tell the buyer that they can get more bang for their buck else where.
You should also keep in mind that we live in the age of information. Before, people didn't necessarily know what you bought the house for. Now they do. If they look at the house and say.... I can pull a "property brothers" and buy a fixer upper and get the house I want and spend LESS than what you are selling..... They won't bother putting in an offer. Much less buy.
You haven't said much, but what is your break even? Maybe take this one as a lesson learned, and let go of the number you "thought" you'd make on this, and just get it to sell, while at least breaking even. By being stubborn you will soon find yourself running negative, if you don't sell, or get people in there to start making money off of it.
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Ron Daugherty
Flipper · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2015 · 61 posts · 51 votes
8y
Add another vote for overpriced. You are probably 30k overpriced for the area. Not sure if your agent advised you of the potential ARV when you bought, or if you came up with it on your own, but looking at recent sales in that area I see no way that house was ever going to bring that kind of money. At a price point above 200k, you are competing against newer homes, when you have negatives like a very basic remodel and a busy street behind, it is going to be hard for your house to compete.
You will probably need to be in the range or lower priced than this house that sold for 178k for a sale. This comp is not only a larger home, but it doesn't have the busy street behind.
https://www.redfin.com/OK/Oklahoma-City/4812-NW-62nd-Ter-73122/home/72023626#property-history
2 Reply
Jacob W Koelbel
Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 3 votes
8y
@Aaron Hoak Drop the house to cost plus a few %, get rid of it and find the house these 54 people prefer and have. Find it fix it and sell it for probably higher profits because it’s more in demand. You have the contact info and the list of people that obviously think you put together a nice house so dump this one and capitalize on the info you have.
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Ian WalshBusiness Member
Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
It's almost always price or condition.
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Lee L.
Member since 2018 · 55 posts · 14 votes
8y
Lots of good feedback here. Not sure what you spent on the remodel and what the cost is for you to keep holding the property, but my opinion is that holding it and spending money every month to do so is not a good idea. I am thinking that you are avoiding doing a big price drop because that would likely eliminate your profit margin completely.
As someone who has made a financial mis step or 2, it is better to cut your losses than to hold and hope.
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Deborah BurianPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 412 votes
7y
At 54 showings and no offers, it's a price problem. Inventory in Oklahoma City is still quite low so there is a mis-match between your expectations and the home buyers' desires. You are above the first-time home buyers price point for our market which decreases your opportunities as well. I agree that $80sf should sell well in Oklahoma City so there is something else going on that we as investors are not seeing. Although I do know two-story's are not considered desirable in Oklahoma for reasons I don't understand.
1 Reply
Account Closed
Real Estate Broker · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2016 · 39 posts · 58 votes
7y
Three big problems: 1) House is on a sloped lot and during rain a lot of water runs through the garage; 2) The addition in the back is of very poor quality and looks especially awful from the outside. The floor is not at all level in back addition; and 3) You have to walk through the Master to get to the back yard or go through the garage. You might as well drop the price to $150,000 and cut your losses.
1 Reply
Shannon Witters
Rental Property Investor · Pleasanton, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 20 votes
7y
@Aaron Hoak your Realtor still has not updated the pictures since you staged in August?
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