There are lots of people in the same boat, so this question is probably way redundant. But here goes! What can we do to sell our house? Is it even possible?!
Our house has been on the market for almost two months. We've only had one showing. Our realtor has hosted two broker open houses, during which only one broker showed up each time.
We did everything recommended: decluttered, cleaned, repainted, shampooed the carpet, fixed absolutely everything that needed fixing, removed anything personal, staged; outside we put down new mulch, keep the grass mowed and edged, the gardens are pruned and neat, and the driveway's just been sealcoated.
The house is only five years old, it's still very nice and new, it's big, it has 4 BR/2.5 bath and a full basement, has a big backyard, is close to the commuter train, stores and expressways, it's on a dead end street in a quiet neighborhood. It's also NOT a short sale or a foreclosure.
But there's so much competition (houses of a similar size & age) in this area, why would anyone even look twice at our house?
The big minus to our house is the school district (East Aurora 131). It's pretty bad, which is why we want to move (why is it "bad"? Low test scores, low graduation rate, little parental involvement, no gifted program, little money, high percentage of low income students, few AP classes, few extracurricular activities, area gang activity, no busing, large class sizes, high percentage of LEP students, etc.). But if someone didn't have kids, or had kids and wanted to send them to private school, this is a really great house in a convenient location.
Anyway, here we are. Stuck in a lovely house in a bad school district. Any tips or advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much!
Thank you everyone for your comments and advice. This gives us a lot to think about.
We've pretty much made up our mind about moving. We're not keen on religious-based schools, can't do homeschooling, and can't afford Montessori / Waldorf type schools. Our district does not have out-of-district school choice. No other districts accept tuition paying out-of-district students. So I'd rather take the large loss on our house and send our children to a good public school that has everything our current district lacks.
In the end, it's either take a loss on the house now, or spend $5000? $7000? a year on private schools until grade 8, then however much more for private high school... In my mind, we're already paying property taxes, much of which goes towards public school; why not make use of it?
That said, we're willing to wait for a buyer. We don't plan to lower our asking price, don't really want the stress of being landlords -- though if the place is still on the market when our oldest starts kindergarden next fall, we might change our tune :) -- so we might be here for a couple years, which wouldn't be the worst thing. We'll make the best of it.
I appreciate all the helpful advice about what we can do to make our house more attractive to prospective buyers, particularly the take-away sheet of improvements (thanks, Denise!). We'll definitely implement some of those ideas!
Have you considered renting? Even if you don't want to deal with it first hand, you can have a management company do all the other work.
Keep in mind that you only need O. buyer. :)
O. thing I've had success with using is a take-away sheet of a list of dates and improvements since we owned the house. It's kind of like letting potential buyers leave with something VERY concrete that lets them know (and see!) that you have kept up with maintenance and repairs/replacements, etc.
And you might throw in a home warranty AND offer to pay for the home inspection for the buyer--their choice of inspectors.
It's a buyer's market. They are very few buyers and lots of houses to choose from. The type of people who are looking to buy a house in today's market are typically looking to downsize.
Note: Just because a school, or many schools in the district are failing NCLB, doesn't mean it's a bad school or district. There are many other factors you need to consider.
Good luck!
I did it, to get into a better school district. It took 7 months to sell. We initially priced it 20k less than what we paid, and then they low balled us, and we went back and forth for a day. In the end we did take 10k to the table with us. It hurt. BUT, we did it for our kids. Tomorrow is the first day for my 1st grader and I couldn't be happier. She is going to be in such a better school!
Good luck!
Oh, I feel your pain! I had my house on the market for almost 6 months before we found a buyer, and we had very few "lookers" in that time. In my case we are moving for a job and my husband had to go on ahead of us so we have been living apart for 5 months and just visiting on weekends when possible. I hope that things will work out for you! Are you sure that you can't send your kids to another school WITHOUT moving? If your district does not allow open enrollment (some do!) you still might be able to get into a better school if the one you are in is "failing," i.e. not making sufficient gains in test scores. Or you might be able to get your kids into a magnet school or charter school, it's never a for sure thing but it might work out. Keep trying to sell, but in the meantime look into other options for school. Good luck!
instead of selling - why not just get your kids to the right schools but asking the school districts?
I think it IS possible to see the home...it has to be priced right...now it's just a matter of timing...right now? people ARE researching school districts and if they don't like the one your home feeds into - you might be SOL...
Instead of selling - try renting it out...so you can move back to your dream home once the kids are out of school! :)
There are options out there...i don't know all of your requirements so it's hard to say one way or another...I would first start by talking to the school districts and see if you can get them in your preferred district...you never know until you try!!
I am not sure why people think renting is so much work. It really isn't that hard. We have a three unit apartment building that is old and we still probably only get about 4 calls a year total about a tenant needing something. We go months without hearing from anyone - we just cash their rent checks. It really takes up very little time. To rent the apartment - we usually just list it on Craigslist and do open house style type showings (set up a block of time and let a lot of people come look at once). There are lots of tools on the internet to make sure you pick the right tenant. We use mysmartmove.com. It ranks a perspective tenant based on their income, credit scores and expenses to let you know if they will be likely to pay on time. We also do not allow pets to minimize possible damage. I personally do not think a rental company is worth it unless you land up moving far away from the property. Just my opinion but if you can get a rent close enough to cover the homes morgage, plus insurance plus taxes - you may want to consider it.
We had a signed contract in 1 1/2 weeks after listing. You have to be agressive in pricing. We were competing with 2 short sales in our neighborhood.
Look at the math when princing. It is all about the spread. If you want to compare with what you purchased, look at the houses you are interested in and see what the "going" rate was back when you bought. Now look what they are asking (e.g. If you paid 300,000 in 2000 and the house you want to buy was valued at 400,000 but they are asking 300,000...they came down 25% so your asking price should be 225,000). Your position will be the same except for the real estate taxes.... lol :)
You'll have to price your home significantly lower than all the others. In the end, that's what sells a house in this market and with that school district.
Im on the other end here.. my husband and I want to buy a home desperately. The problem is, the mortgage companies are so stringent on who theyre giving loans out to because of all the foreclosures and the economy. You have to have a excellent credit score and have a very good job too. We did get approved for a set mortgage but it was a lot less than we expected to be approved for. Our mortgage consultant told us that even if you have a great job and a great credit score, odds are youre not going to get as big a loan as youd like. It sucks really, because we can afford so much more, but the banks wont go that far.
Youll have to either wait....or lower your price.
since you said your house is new construction there may be one way for you to have your house stick out - plant trees!! If there are 4 houses for sale in your neighborhood and only one has trees that one will sell faster.
Also the grade schools in Aurora are not that terrible, so if you have to stick around till the oldest is ready for 4th or 5th grade you will be ok. You can supplement in the younger grades easily and lots of kids in those grades do well no matter where they are if the parents care and are involved.
Hope that helps!
Just wanted to let you know... we have a similar situation, great house, not so great schools and my children go to Catholic school. While we are Catholic- (well my husband is, I was raised Lutheran) there are many families that are not at our school. There are Methodist, Lutheran and non-denominational families at our school. As long as you don't mind that your children will receive religious instruction, Catholic and Lutheran schools are for all children. We find it a warm, nuturing environment with great academics.
It is a renter's market so it will be easy to find a renter. The only issue if they don't pay the rent or trash your place. Just do your research with the renters and ask for a large security deposit to be covered. We are in the same boat as you and lost 120k! It sucks and we are saving like crazy and paying down our mortgage. We are still upside down! We bought at same time as you at the very peak of the market! I know it's bad for the economoy but we aren't spending so that we can get outselves out of this mess. We think in 2 more years we should have this 120k loss paid off and be able to move. So much money wasted!!
I think that you would have a GREAT chance to rent it out if you use a property management firm. Your house is pretty darn new, and that is something that is still tough for renters to find. If we had the $ to fix up our house to the point where we could rent it out, we would, and have a management co oversee it. I think it is a great option for you.
Have you determined which school district you DO want to be in? (I ask because we will be looking for a home in the next 5-7 years, and I am not from around here, so I don't really know the districts either.)
we are buying a house and got it for 30,000 lower than the listed price. A great time to buy.....a terrible time to sell. Thats just where we are as a nation at the moment. Why not stick it out a while longer and hold to the price you want or duck below the others in your area and take a huge loss!?
I was reading about your school district. Looks like you are there for awhile unless your house gets sold, so I thought I would mention something. For one you mentioned all the negatives about schools...you said no parental involvement, well then you are a parent eventually you should be involved. Low graduation rate, but some graduate-correct? And why could your children not be in that line with some discipline and hard work?
Two, I went to private schools, all my life. I went to exceptional, highschool, very good college and however, sent my own children to public schools. Neither was outstanding academically but they were very involved with extra curricular activities. And despite our notsogood school district, my son has since gone on to get an engineering degree and the other one is in college. You see sometimes it isn't about the lousy school district, I have also worked in schools, currently work in a very good school district and yet there are children who have flunked out not because of the district but because of other factors. Since you have a nice house and there are no signs of getting out, I encourage you to look at the positives and the way you can get involved to change it.
I think a lot of it is luck. Our house sold after being on the market for two weeks, and we made money on the sale. We had a lot of help- our realtor was excellent. The pictures of the house were done by a professional and were beautiful. They posted on a ton of sites. They had a lot of connections. While they were great, we also did a lot of work too. We put our house out there on Facebook. I went into zillow and posted comments describing the wonderful neighborhood and what makes our house unique. I edited our zillow entry and actually upped the value of the home on there due to some improvements we had recently done. I posted fliers around work and at a local university. My next step was to post it on craigslist, but we got an offer before I had the chance to do so. So yes it can sell in this market. Just make sure you do your part to put it out there!
Good luck.
I would lower the price and sell even if at a loss. Good luck.
i can totally relate!! we bought our home in 2006 at the peak of the housing market! fast forward 5 years and bam! house is now worth $100k less than what we got our loan for... we could buy 5 cars for what the house is worth now, and not very expensive cars either!! SO we rented it out for 2 yeard, but you never know who you will get as tenants, and within the nexr year are planning on moving back into it... but the school district is horrible as well! high teen pregnancy rate, low mcas scores, so on and so on... so we are going to school choice hopefully 3 towns over! rediculous! so just know someone is in the same boat with you!! GL
Rentals are up in Chicagoland because of the problems you just outlined. Unless you take more of a loss and reduce your price, you may be sitting there for a while. Yet others have suggested the religious schools and stay where you are. I don't think that's a bad idea at all! Since you are already at a 50,000 loss, my suggestion as a retired Realtor would be just that. Get the kids into a good religious school, stay in your dream home and enjoy it!
Or rent it out! Best of luck to you!!!
If there is a a good religious school nearby, and you really love your home and neighborhood, I would reconsider. We send our son to a Catholic school, and we are not Catholic - in fact, I am Jewish. No other private options were affordable, and we were not happy with our public school. We are not the only non-Catholic family, and it is negotiable. It might be easier than trying to sell in this market, especially if that is the only reason you want to move.
it will be tough to sell, especially without taking a loss.
are against all religious schools or just catholic? here is a lutheran school in your town:
I just wanted to give you support on your quest!
My sister just put her 100+ year old home on the market downtown Aurora and I'm worried (she's building new right behind my house). We'll see how that goes. Then there's the house across the street from me that's been on the market for 5-6 months and all the nibbles my neighbor's gotten have all hinged on the school district...needless to say, her house is still on the market. However, in the last year or so, there used to be 8-10 homes for sale in my neighborhood (not including the one across the street) and ALL of them have sold within the last 6 months or so!! So, YES, it's possible!
I'm in the same school district as you (if you're on the west side), but I do send my kids to private school. I'm worried about when they get to high school because I absolutely cannot stand West Aurora for all the reasons you outlined, but putting kids through one of the private high schools in the area is twice as much as we're paying for K-8 now! Maybe they'll build a new one before my kids get to that age...HA! That being said, my kid's scores at his private school in Batavia are well above the Batavia School District (which is already better than Aurora)--and the school, on average, scores better, too. So, I know the education he's receiving is WAAAAAAY better than anything he'd get at the local public schools. Whether you're not Lutheran or Catholic really has no bearing on whether your kids could succeed in a private school (and our school does not require that you or your children actually BE Lutheran to attend). It's just up to you whether or not you'd want your children to be exposed to the religious teachings during religion class.
If you're going to be stuck in the home (or take a major loss, which hardly seems worth it!), you could consider making the best of it and enrolling your kids in a private school where they have a better chance at succeeding and setting them up to be able to keep up with wherever you end up longer-term.
Let me know if you want to know more about where my kid(s) go.
Good luck!!
All I can say is that we just went through this and ended up getting a contract on our home. It can be done, but just takes a lot more time than it used to. We got lucky and the people that bought our house were good friends with our neighbor down the street, so they were thrilled to be moving closer to them. We didn't have many showings either and the market is totally flooded with homes. It was a super frustrating process, but it did end up working out for us. Two months isn't long in this market, so try to be patient (SO much easier said than done, I know!). It sounds like you have done all you can do. Make sure your realtor is marketing your home in all possible places. Ours was listed on MLS, ALL of the real estate websites (Trulia, Realtor.com, REMax, Zillow, etc.) and my agent uses Facebook as well. Also, try to remember, that it only takes ONE person! I wish you the best. I know how frustrating that whole process is (we just moved into our new house 2 weeks ago) and it really is no fun. Hang in there!
We bought a home in 2006 during a construction boom in the area we were living. We thought we were there to stay. But with the economy going south, we ended up leaving for a new job and having to sell the home. We were only one of lots of similar houses (a lot of them in our same neighborhood), and I can totally relate to the feeling that it's impossible to stand out. It took us a year to sell our home, and while some of it was luck, some of it was in our control.
I can't stress enough the importance of an excellent realtor. Never mind bad realtors...even a mediocre one who just sits on things, doesn't have any ideas on how to market your home and reach potential buyers, etc. can add months to the time it takes to sell. That was our first mistake. Once we had a worthwhile realtor, it took three months to get a decent offer (and that was in the winter months). Our great realtor was able to make good suggestions on making our home attractive to buyers. While it sounds like you took care of most of the cosmetics, perhaps you might look into making your home stand out now. We ended up investing about $1500 to have custom shelves built in our home which increased storage space, looked nice, and made our house stand out from all the other ones that were pretty much just cleaned up versions of the homes they were when they were built. I'm not saying that's the route to go with your home, but anything that makes the home more useable while also making it look nice and unique might give you a good edge.
Are you offering closing costs? One realtor told us that is a big selling feature. Also, don't feel discouraged, even when the market was good, it took my sister 11 months to sell her condo, which was new and really nice. Sometimes it takes a while. You could consider lowering your asking price too. When we sell, we're going to sell to pay off our loan, even though our house is worth more. We want out of this house so we can buy our dream house...so we're willing to do quite a bit to get this house gone!
And, we're going to offer closing costs. We will probably offer some upgrade money (for the carpets, which are fine, but we would replace them soon if we were to stay here. instead of replacing them ourselves, we'll offer money for them so the buyer can choose what they want). We haven't sold our home yet, so I can't say how it works, but it sounds like it should make it more appealing according to those we've talked to.
Houses have been selling in our area. We have a good school system, so I can't say how to deal with that. But all the houses have taken a good six months or more to sell that i've seen! Good luck!
