We have all at one time or another seen a listing online where the photos of the home are terrible and there is no description. Here is the letter that I wish that I could write to those sellers:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Seller,
I hope that this letter finds you well. I see that your home has been on the market now for 103 days with XXX Realty. You have had three price reductions and I have no doubt that your agent has had many open houses on your home during this time period. I hope that your move is still going as planned and that your family does not have to live apart or pay for two residences during this time. Since the photos of your home are still showing snow on the ground, and it is June, I am not sure if you are still living there or not.
I am sure that when you signed your listing contract, you expected great things from your agent. I am sure that they showed you the available comparable properties that were on the market at the time and also any homes that may have sold 60-90 days prior to your home coming on the market. In addition to the winter photo and very dark photos of your home, there is only a two line description, so between the poor photos and the non descript remarks, my buyer has chosen to not consider your home. Even more frustrating, on Realtor.com there are only 4 photos of your home and all of them are winter photos of the exterior. The agent does not pay extra to have all the interior photos or a custom description on there either. The company website has the same old photos. Since there are no photos to see, the buyers have determined that it must be poorly maintained on the inside and have decided to look at two others in your neighborhood that are lower priced with fabulous photos and lots of descriptions of all of the updates that they have done since they have owned the home.
I can see on the assessor's site that you have been busy. You put on a new roof three years ago, updated the furnace and air 2 years ago, added a deck and fencing, and there is an electrical and plumbing permit too so I can assume that you updated or added a bath or finished space in the lower level. There are no photos of any of that, so I can only guess. Especially since the description does not tell me anything. There is also no property disclosure attached to the MLS, so I cannot see if you had any water problems after all of the rain that we got two years ago around the time of the flood.
I wish that I could convince my buyers to at least take a look, but there are so many properties on the market, that they ruled it out for lack of information. I hope that you are able to sell and get on to your next location with your family. Looks like there are at least 7 homes in your immediate area that have come on the market in the last couple of weeks and there are 3 that are already sale pending after only few days on the market. They were priced less than you and they have 1 more bedroom too! At this point, I am sure that you are starting to feel that you are helping everyone else sell their homes, and you are. By being overpriced and without any sign of the condition of your home, buyers are comparison shopping and they cannot see what you have to offer.
Again, I cannot imagine that you have not looked at the online marketing of your home, but please take a look and decide if you were a buyer, would YOU look at YOUR home given the current competition?
Signed a concerned REALTOR in the neighborhood,
Karen Feltman
But alas, I cannot tell the seller what is going on in front of their nose. There is a Code of Ethics for REALTORS that gives protection to the listing agent during their listing contract. But once that listing has expired, that will be the first thing that they will see when they call to interview the next agent to market their home. You see, there are many different companies and even more REALTORS in the Cedar Rapids area. Sometimes you get what you pay for, such as in a reduced service where you pay for just the MLS and you as a seller hold your own open houses. Then there are the "full service" brokers, they may say that they "do" the same things, but can you see that some do not? Please ask your next agent how your home will be showcased, you cannot waste any more time!