<p>Thanks…</p>
<p>So…did the buyer who asked for utility records make a bid?</p>
<p>Anybody else?</p>
<p>good luck 1moremom!</p>
<p>buyers who asked me for utility records made bids</p>
<p>interestingly they all assumed they could spend less than I did, because they would turn down thermostat, etc. I don’t know where they got the idea I wasn’t already turning it way down. I think if someone wants the house they use those records to support their decision and if they don’t want it… as in when spouses disagree … it is used in the “discussion” :)</p>
<p>veryhappy: hope your husband is doing better</p>
<p>alh, let them make that assumption. They’re talking themselves into buying your house.</p>
<p>Thanks for your good wishes. He is doing much, much better.</p>
<p>1moremom, that’s a very positive note from the realtor! She may have other clients who she thinks might be interested and, if not, she will definitely remember your home for any future clients who may fit the bill. The other positive, as someone else mentioned, is that real estate agents buy houses, too, sometimes as investments. When we were looking for a second home last year in South Carolina, many of the homes we looked at were owned by real estate agents, a fact that is required to be noted on the listing. </p>
<p>anxiousmom, I see that you live in Texas. I had a friend who moved there several years ago from the northeast and she was in heaven with the amount of house she could get (and the low taxes) compared to what they had in their old town. Texas, in many ways, is an anomoly in that regard. $6000/yr. in property taxes is very low in this neck of the woods. Ours are multiples of that amount, and it’s been a similar situation everywhere we’ve lived in the northeastern U.S., as well as Toronto.</p>
<p>We just sent along some other info to the buyer’s agent (the sellers’ disclosure) and have been told the buyer is out of the country right now. I guess he isn’t worried about losing the house.</p>
<p>The other agent emailed me, " I can’t imagine ever living in a cookie cutter scenario. Too bad I was not the Buyer - your home would be “under contract” today. As much as my Buyer admired the home, they just could not see themselves living there. I tried so hard. My sincere appreciation for the opportunity to show your home. Your furnishings certainly show it off quite well. I will certainly keep it in mind for another prospect." </p>
<p>This was not surprising, our house is unusual (we call it Prairie Eclectic). We need to find just the right person, which could take a while.</p>
<p>VH, so happy to hear about your DH. :)</p>
<p>I have no idea what Prarie Eclectic is…</p>
<p>A bunch of cactus and dust in the air…? Spurs on the ground?</p>
<p>^^remodeled Frank Lloyd Wright?</p>
<p>mid-century house without “period” furnishings?</p>
<p>really, tell us, please :)</p>
<p>It is in many respects like FLW’s Prairie Style with hipped roofs, four foot eaves, and an open floor plan (except, of course for the kitchen, since it was built in 1961 :(). Brick floors throughout most of the downstairs and walls of windows that open to brick patios, creating an effect similar to the slate floors/patios at Fallingwater. The eclectic part comes in because the architect incorporated a lot of hand-carved woodwork (coffered ceilings, doors, balcony railings) that were salvaged from a mansion in Pittsburgh that had been taken down. It also has an indoor pool which is not, shall we say, everyone’s cup of tea.</p>
<p>^^sounds gorgeous! and close to a university? (am I remembering correctly?) it would seem to me exactly the non-cookie-cutter house academics prefer??</p>
<p>a truly unique house, a conversation starter…</p>
<p>maybe the academics can’t afford it? :(</p>
<p>Actually, it’s less than a mile from town and campus, which is a selling point. Unfortunately, the governor has budgeted a 50% reduction in the allocation to our university. Salaries are frozen and there may be a hiring freeze. Not a great time to be selling a house.</p>
<p>^^good luck! sold our house in fall of '09 in a similar scenario. No new hires, who would have been the traditional buyers. Guess who finally bought? a local realtor! :)</p>
<p>who knows?? start looking to see if she puts her own house up for sale ;)</p>
<p>1moremom…sounds like a great house…</p>
<p>I hope we have your luck. Unfortunately, this realtor’s husband is an architect and he designed their home. (To further complicate matters, we interviewed him when we were choosing an architect for our new place and hired someone else.)</p>
<p>Yet…the realtor still likes your house…</p>
<p>I know, I hope she has a few more clients she can bring through. Meanwhile, another house just came on the market a couple blocks down. I think it will be “good competition”. (Smaller lot, a little dated, almost the same price.)</p>
<p>Well…if the other seller…has a dated house, and a smaller lot…and prices it similarly to yours…there really won’t be much competition…;)</p>
<p>1moremom your house sounds lovely. But I’m surprised by one thing - you said the buyers’ agent emailed you? Do you have your own agent too? In my area, we never hear directly from the buyers’ agent, everything has to go through the listing agent. There’s sort of a firewall between the seller and the buyers/buyers’ agents that doesn’t get crossed.</p>
<p>There was a long discussion on Active Rain about the value of feedback. Most buyers’ agents claimed that giving feedback to the seller on a house was a no-no. Positive feedback hurt their buyers’ negotiating position, and negative feedback (unless it was something serious like a broken pipe or an insect problem) wasn’t useful either.</p>
<p>Active Rain is an interesting look into the minds of Realtors. You can google it and read the public forums.</p>
<p>1moremom – If they have an open house, wander through. It’s always a good idea to get a look at the competition. </p>
<p>I hate to say this, because I think your house is probably an utter gem, but how hard would it be to open the kitchen to the rest of the house? A matter of knocking out a wall? or a complete reshuffle of the cabinets etc? </p>
<p>Personally I loathe the open floor plan – I have one here and it drives me nuts that a) you can hear every sound from the kitchen, b) you can see everything that goes on – no shortcuts, c) dishes must be done or you look like a sloven, and d) makes it far too easy for everyone to congregate there and kibitz when you are trying to finish making dinner. I miss my nice closed-off kitchen in the old house. </p>
<p>However, people seem to like the open plan enough that it can count against you if you don’t have it when people are looking at your home. </p>
<p>As for the realtor with the architect husband, if he favors a clean-line white modern esthetic and she likes wood and charm, she may live in the house he designed but really love yours. Somebody else will love it too.</p>
<p>vballmom, We are using a non-traditional listing agent. She charges a flat fee to put the listing in the MLS and all other services are offered a la carte. At this point, we are dealing directly with the buyers’ agents (who we will pay the going rate). Right now we are just setting up showings and answering questions; this is our third house and we feel comfortable doing that. (It also saves a lot of time and phone calling.) When we get an offer I expect we will bring the agent in. I will head right over to Active Rain and check it out. Thanks!</p>
<p>Novelisto, When we bought the house our intention was to take that wall down as soon as we got the kids through college. We’re almost at that point, but now our plans have changed. Interestingly, this house is built with I beam construction; there are no supporting interior walls and we actually have poured concrete floors upstairs (as well as down). However, there is extensive cabinetry on both sides of the wall between the kitchen and family room and a fridge in the kitchen. I think this house deserves a thoughtful makeover, with an architect’s guidance, and we don’t think it makes sense for us to do that now. (If we could have done a quick and dirty reno, I would have taken a sledgehammer to that wall myself.)</p>
<p>I am also not crazy about a totally open concept. Our new house will have a kitchen that’s adjacent and open to the dining/living area, but not so open that you can’t ignore last night’s dishes if you are at the dining room table with coffee and the paper.</p>
<p>I hope they have an open house; I love to look at others’ houses. I looked at the listing and when there are no bathroom photos I always assume no updates, but one never knows!</p>
<p>1moremom thanks for the explanation - it makes perfect sense. Good luck with your sale :)</p>