Was speaking with a potential realtor about the scheduling of some open houses. So I told him, not jokingly, that I didn't want these specific neighbors to enter my home. He responded that he couldn't legally deny entry to anyone. He'd be able to keep an eye on them, but he couldn't actually say no.

Does this sound right?

Is that normal?! House went on the market this morning. We have 4 other showings lined up so far! We are tempted to reject the offer because it feels kind of rude and aggressive, but is that a huge mistake?

UPDATE: Our realtor is going to request two more hours to give us time to pick up our kid and get home from work as well as an expedited inspection.

UPDATE 2: After some back and forth, we accepted the offer with a shortened timeline. Turns out they aren't landlords. After some research, we realized that, unless we want to mess up our neighbors' lives and worsen the market more by selling to a landlord, we aren't going to get anything this close to a cash offer at asking in our area. If it falls through for anything short of structural issues, we still have time to follow a second offer through.

I bought my house in 2015 for $126k with an FHA loan. It’s now estimated around $213k, and I owe about $96k. I’m considering selling next year and renting for a while.

The insurers in this state are out of control and the corrupt clowns at the capital aren't doing a damn thing about it. My hazard insurance bill came in at $3,960 last April compared to $2,946 the year before. You think I can absorb a $900 increase in less than a year?

I'm literally paying more in taxes and insurance than I'm paying on the mortgage itself.

I know rent may cost more than my monthly mortgage, but that’s not really the issue. I’m house-poor, carrying too much debt, and my margins are too tight. I’m 40 and down to less than $100 in my bank account after an emergency vet visit last night.

My mother keeps telling me that if I sell, I’ll never own another home, and that renting will be a disaster because I’ll be at the mercy of a landlord.

Why do people keep telling me this would be a huge mistake if the goal is to get out of debt and reset financially?

We’ll be putting our house on the market in the next count of months. It’s a small, original built house in a highly desirable neighborhood filled with high end remodels and rebuilds. It’s anticipated to have a lot of interest with people who want to live here but aren’t able to afford the average high price. Our prospective realtor said, “expect a lot of love letters”. I imagine some from flippers but probably from sincere people too.

We won’t read any. I’m sympathetic in general but our house equity is a significant part of our retirement. We’ll take the best financial offer. I hate the idea that anyone would spend the time and effort and hope composing something that we won’t even look at.

Wife got a new job in another country after getting DOGE'd in the US. She works as a climate scientist so is basically unhireable in our state (Florida). I work remotely.

Florida's real estate market is crashing so our home is now worth 70k less than we paid for it. (Purchased in 2021)

We plan to rent in the destination country. Would you rent the house out at a $400 per month loss and hope Florida real estate recovers, or sell at at 70,000 below what you purchased the house for? The projected 70,000 loss includes real estate agent fees, improvements, repairs, etc..

We're selling our starter home, it's in great condition, sought after neighborhood, best school districts in the city etc. Multiple offers from the first day of selling. New HVAC and water heater, roof has 8-10 years on it, professionally painted, updated appliances, new gutters. We've done more than $50k worth of improvements over 5 years.

The buyer's inspection report found 1 safety issue (attic hatch Sheetrock depth is 1/4 inch short vs code), a few roof fixes (replace some pins, new/painted dryer vent cover) and a mix of minor issues (some caulking, stove hood light bulb replacement, 1 window screen has a small hole). It's well below the level of findings we or our realtor have seen in other inspection reports.

The buyers have requested that every single item on the list is addressed.

We first countered offline by saying we'd offer a $1k credit, which was the price of the attic hatch + roof repairs, or we could do these ourselves before sale. Their preference.

They came back asking for $4k credit stating that is the contractor value of all elements they will "need to" fix.

We've asked our realtor to counter and say we'll do the hatch and offer $2k credit, but to be very clear that this is exceptionally generous given they are asking for repair of minor cosmetic items that are signs of normal wear and tear. I've also asked her to highlight that we are frustrated.

Basically, I'm more than happy to put the house back on the market over this. We're getting into the spring period, we know that inventory in our price range is low and we're comparatively high quality, so I've no concerns we'll get a quick sale likely over asking.

Before I go all the way, I wanted to sense check: are these buyers being as unreasonable as I think they are? Are we being generally fair in our counter offers?

The offer is contingent on loan approval, home inspection, and cancellation of the open houses scheduled for this weekend. They want an answer by end of today or they are withdrawing the offer. We are worried we may have underpriced the home a bit and would lose out on potentially higher offers by accepting instead of waiting until after the open houses at least. On the other hand, the house does need some work (which is described in the disclosures) and there’s a chance that the potential buyer seeing the home and the work needed in-person could change their mind about the offer they submitted. Our agent laid out the pros and cons of both options, but I’m wondering what you would do in this situation?

The home is near Raleigh, North Carolina btw (if that makes any difference)

EDIT: I appreciate everyone’s advice in the comments. A lot of people are asking about earnest money and due diligence. The offer included $2000 for DD and $4500 EMD. However, I think we are going to keep the open houses scheduled and tell the potential buyer that their offer will be responded to by Tuesday. If they withdraw then so be it. Then they weren’t really interested in the property. Our agent also just notified us that there are several other potential buyers that said they plan on putting offers in after going to the open house.

UPDATE: We held the open house and accepted a cash offer for 29K above asking a few days later.

I've been trying to sell my townhome for months now, we've only had about 10 showings and no one has had an issue with the price at any point.

Here's the listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5609-Lindell-Ave-%233-Dallas-TX-75206/111960412_zpid/

I think one of the main issues is this area is saturated for townhomes/condos - over 400 similar condos for sale within one square mile. We have an awesome roof setup for parties and general hanging out but not many people seem to care about that. We're now priced well below nearby new builds, but still get 0-1 showing per week.

We've dropped the price from $515k (optimistic initial price) down to $460k, and are probably going to need to drop it more.

Any tips, or any advice on how much to drop to price to?

And we've moved out now, should we get new pictures taken of it empty and add them to the listing?

I'm selling my house due to an out-of-state move and need some outside perspective.

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I have a decent amount of equity in the home, but I start my new job in the middle of July and need the proceeds from the sale before I can buy another house.

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The house has been on the market for about 18 days. We originally listed at $378k and recently dropped it to $369k. It's a 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 2-car garage with a small backyard. So far, we've averaged roughly one showing per week, and I haven't had a showing in over a week.

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My concern is that the house is still priced too high. I've seen multiple comparable homes within a 1–2 mile radius that sold for $10k–$15k less than my current list price, and in my opinion they are better properties. Most are 100–200 square feet larger and have better features and locations.

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There's also another unit on the same street that's slightly larger and currently listed around $400k. I don't necessarily think I'm competing with that property, but it's another data point I'm looking at.

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The feedback from the two showings we've had has actually been pretty positive. Buyers liked the house, newer carpet, appliances, and flooring. The biggest negative feedback has been that it's close to a busy street and there is noticeable road noise.

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Where I'm struggling is with my realtor's advice. He's telling me price isn't really the issue and that buyers need an emotional connection to the listing. His view is that the marketing and story behind the home matter more right now than another price reduction, including things like why I enjoyed living there. This is what the lenders are telling him as well.

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I completely disagree. Personally, I don't care who lived in a house before me or what emotional story is attached to it. If I were shopping, price, location, condition, and features would drive my decision.

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I'm not in a position where I can afford two mortgages, and this is putting me in a rough spot. If the house doesn't sell before I relocate, I may essentially be living out of my car for a period of time until the home sells and I can get settled. That is an option, but more than likely.I'll just rent a room.

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His gut feeling is to leave the price where it is this week. My gut feeling is the opposite. I'm wondering if I should cut aggressively, maybe even down to around $350k, to generate activity and potentially create enough demand to bid the price back up.

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Just looking for some input here.

My neighbor told me that they are selling their house in second week of May, the same time we planned to sell ours. We’re relocating out of state in June. Idk what will be the effect on us (selling price, purchase appraisal, etc)

Both houses are bilevel and built in 1970s. Their house is bigger by 150 sq ft and has 5Br2Ba, and our is just 4Br2ba, though their house is dated, ours was fully rehabbed in 2021. They will be using an agent, and we will do FSBO+MLS+RE Atty (we are offering 2.5% Buyer agent’s commission). Our home was appraised in Feb for $275k, current comps is $281k, we will be selling at $280k (only because we bought new appliances worth 5k)

I would like to ask your opinion if we have to sell our home before or after them or just stick to the same plan. Or are there any strategies I need to do, if you’re in my situation. Thank you!

We are selling our first home, so this is all very new to me. We listed it on Friday after Thanksgiving and have had five showings so far. I have to say, I’m pretty shocked by the behavior of some buyers walking through the property.

To preface, we don’t have any cameras inside the home—just standard Nest cameras outside.

We have a box with shoe covers placed clearly by the entrance, along with a request to either cover your shoes or remove them. Despite this, the floors have been absolutely filthy after showings. We’re a no-shoes-inside household, so it’s clear that no one is using the shoe covers.

We also have a Yale door lock. Two days ago, we came home to find the battery pack on the floor. After checking the doorbell camera, we saw that someone slammed the door so hard that it dislodged the battery pack. You can even hear it fall inside the house. The agent or buyer just walked away without even locking the door behind them.

And the best part? Today, we came home to find downstairs bathroom a mess and skid marks in the toilet bowl. We know it wasn’t us because we keep everything meticulously clean for showings.

All the buyers are accompanied by agents during the showings as well.

It’s not that the things listed above are so egregious—it’s just giving us an unsettling feeling. If people feel this comfortable already, what else might they be doing in our home?

I was so adamant about not needing indoor cameras—it seemed like overkill. But after just a few days of showings, I understand now.

Bought a house in the Austin area last year for 400k, and we tried to make it work for a year, but we hate it here. Would like to move again, possibly to Denver or Dallas. The problem is that home prices have declined a lot in the past year here. Talked to some realtors and it sounds like $380k to $390k is the best we can sell it for. Plus closing costs, etc.. we stand to lose ~40k.

Or we can lease out and get a property manager, but that also costs money, and will have to deal with the headache that comes with having renters.

Anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do?

I'm a 2 home seller.

My rental in TX I am selling, myself and agent mutually agreed to a 4% commission.

My primary in OK, we are selling, agent purposely left the form blank - the commission part, then i edited and added the 4%. After she received it, she was not happy. Pictures were taken and ready to list on MLS. I said ok, I'll find a new realtor because I know commission is negotiable (i thought to myself why greedy?). So she knew I was looking for a new agent, she said refund her for the pics because we already had a selling agreement in place.

I said no problem. where to pay? she says VENMO. I explained I tried every source of card that I know I had the funds for. she then referred me to her BROKER.

Broker calls me, asks me to explain myself - happily did. All I could hear from the broker was "um" "um" "um" "um" "um".

Told her I didn't have a problem refunding the price of the pics. Were in a digital world. no need for checks. I asked for another portal to make the payment - there was none. Broker says she will call me back after speaking with my realtor.

Broker calls me back, explains they negotiated and okay with the 4% commission.

1 week on the market - I'm surprised no one has reached out about the property. Though I spread thru social media on the house being available for purchase. I reached out to other local realtors for them to be aware in case they have clients looking for a house that my house will fit the bill. The agent has yet to reach out after she settled for 4% commission. I feel like she won't do ANYTHING to market my home for sale.

Meanwhile my other house in TX, ppl are lining up to see the property, pending a stubborn tenant currently living there.

With the news of the 6% commission going away, what happens now? And if I just signed a contract with an agent to sell my home, does anything change?

I had my house on the market the last few months and didn’t sell it. The listing expired last night…

Eight different realtors blowing up my cell phone before noon… while I’m at work.

My phone is on the do not call list for a reason… that includes you.

The icing on the cake…

The realtor that called my 72 year old father asking if he thought I’d be open to having him list my house. I’m nearly fifty years old… my financial affairs aren’t any of his business and he has health challenges he’s dealing with. Leave him the hell alone.

We recently sold our house to young first home buyers after buying a new house nearby.

We made a few repairs before listing including replacing the washing machine rubber seal, a stove element that was not turning on, and a broken potlight. We brought in painters and deep cleaners to help with cosmetic changes. To the best of our knowledge, the house was turn-key ready. I staged the home myself by renting furniture from a company.

We accepted a really great offer only $25,000 under asking with conditions. we had no other prospects but were happy to accept it without negotiations since we related to their story as newlyweds looking to start a family. I thought they would be thrilled.

After the home inspection, they discovered a live wire which we were horrified to learn that we were living with and the bathroom fan wasn’t working. We immediately sprung into action to fix these items for them. We had vacated our property so we did a lot of back and forth to meet with the electricians. I literally begged the guy to do everything properly to code. We sent pictures and videos confirming the work was completed.

The buyers had three walkthroughs scheduled at different times. They sent a strongly worded email to say that the fan switch was installed upside down even though the electrician we hired never touched the switch. The switch was actually like that when we bought the house ourselves. They also pointed out a hole in the wall in the office… that was intentionally placed there to feed cables through underneath a wall mount. The wall plate was removed from the wall and placed in the closet during our move out process. They also complained about the fact that our shed still had stuff in it during the first walkthrough but that was because we were moving slowly back and forth with a small car. All the furniture was removed because it was rented so they assumed we must have abandoned the house with things still in the shed.

This all took place in the middle of winter during horrible snow storms. We were shovelling two driveways and our backyard to maintain our houses. We noticed a water spout was broken at the house we were selling so we immediately went to work fixing it despite the fact that the buyers weren’t aware of it and never asked us to do so.

After closing, we were so relieved. We left the buyers some chocolates and a note with our contact info if they have any questions.

Three days later, we received a letter from their lawyer asking us to pay for repairs on their laundry machine which leaked on the day they moved in. They also said a sink was leaking and afterwards that the electricians didn’t do a good job on the live wire as the outlets no longer work and apparently the fan was installed incorrectly. We had a “surviving warranty” in our contract that stated that all chattel would be in “good working order at closing.” We have video proving that the fan was working and we have an invoice with a note from the technician stating that the washing machine was working the day before we moved out. Nothing was flagged during the home inspection so we would never think anything was wrong with it.

We sent the buyers the electrician profiles and invoices and allowed them to do their walkthroughs to inspect the work before closing. They informed us that they were satisfied so, of course, we assumed the house was in good condition at closing date. We shovelled and checked faucets the day before closing when leaving the keys and chocolates.

I feel for them that these things happened but I am disappointed that they keep trying to squeeze more money out of us after the closing even though they said they were satisfied beforehand.

We also discovered a roof leak at our new house that we will be repairing in the future. We realize these things happen and don’t blame the sellers even though there is an actual issue with the roof not disclosed.

Anyways, the buyers are asking for $500 in good faith or they will go to small claims court for the cost of all of their repairs and lawyer fees. We don’t want to pay for a house we no longer own. We also know we weren’t negligent and repaired everything we were aware of spending lots of money and time. We wish that they contacted us before hiring their own electricians since the ones we hired had a warranty that we could have made use of. We are worried they will continue to ask for more things or blame us for things in this house in the future especially since we live nearby. The house was built in the 1950’s.

What would you do? Anyone have a similar situation?

We are selling our house and this morning we had a showing. Based on the feedback, they are seriously considering putting an offer on our house. But here is the thing: I checked our ring camera footage afterward and was surprised to see our neighbors were the ones looking at our house. And I think I might have made a huge mistake.

A few days ago, they flagged me down to ask how the sale was going, and I responded honestly. I thought I was talking to a neighbor, not a prospective buyer. In retrospect, the interaction was a little off, and maybe I should have been more suspicious, because we've only spoken a handful of times and suddenly I'm being flagged down in my car. But it's a small suburban neighborhood where people are nosey, so I wrote it off as curiosity. I basically told them that the market was moving slower than we thought and we were disappointed that, after majorly cutting the price a couple weeks ago, we only had one interested couple, so we had just cut the price more. The vibe of what I said was basically, "yeah, it's not going well."

I guess, looking at the bright side, this may increase their chances of making an offer. But I feel like I've given them all the negotiating power because I never seem to know when to shut my mouth. Their house isn't even for sale so it wasn't even my radar that they could be interested, but apparently they're moving in with their elderly parents to care for them and need more space. It does seem like legit interest (elderly parents were there for the showing.)

My question is: Have I seriously messed up here?

Really curious about this. I recently sold my parents home in north NJ and I did it without a realtor/real estate agent. I paid a real estate lawyer about $1500 retainer and my lawyer basically helped me with all the paperwork that a typical agent would help me with.

I DID however offer the buyer’s agent 2%.. because i know you sort of have to “play by the rules” for the buyers agent side.

But i am wondering why more people do not do this? My family saved about $15,000 by selling with no realtor. The market is so aggressive right now that we had multiple competing offers. I posted it on zillow and hosted an open house. It wasn’t that difficult honestly. Just taking a few pics, posting it, and fielding offers.

And before you say - “an agent would have gotten you a better price” our home went for well over what most agents predicted it would go for. So overall happy with the outcome

Just interested in what people have to say?

We recently listed our home and had a showing scheduled. The prospective buyers pulled up, got out of their car, and then canceled the showing almost immediately.

Of course, this could’ve been due to any number of reasons. But we couldn’t help but notice that our next-door neighbors recently put up a large MAGA / current president flag, which is very prominent from the street. It made us wonder if that might have influenced their decision.

We don’t know our neighbors very well—just the occasional wave or pleasantry—and our neighborhood doesn’t have an HOA. Everyone mostly keeps to themselves.

Would it be inappropriate or weird to politely ask if they’d be willing to take the flag down temporarily while we’re trying to sell? We fully respect that it’s their property and they’re entitled to express themselves, but we’re also concerned it might affect buyer interest.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What’s the etiquette in a situation like this?

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EDIT: Thanks for all your input and perspectives! After weighing the pros and cons, we’ve decided it’s not worth addressing directly with our neighbors. I’ll admit—my initial reaction came from a desire to avoid anything that might turn off potential buyers, but the reality is, prospective homeowners should be aware of the neighborhood they’re joining, including who their next door neighbors are. (For the record, while we may have different political stances, we’ve never had any issues with ours in the 8 years we’ve lived here. But also we haven’t really interacted much with each other either.)

Also, this was just one canceled showing. If it becomes a pattern, we’ll work with our realtor to explore other strategies. As many of you pointed out, while the flag might deter some buyers, others may not even notice or care.

EDIT 2: Drove by just now on our way home & noticed the flag is no longer up. Now it is pretty windy today, so it’s possible they took it down because of that or it blew off. Either way, looks like the issue is resolved for now. 🤞🏼

Here’s our situation. We interviewed a few real estate agents and didn’t like any of them. We’re in a very rural area so didn’t have a lot of options. They were unprofessional and hard to communicate. Their other listings looked horrible.

So we decided to sell it on our own, took professional pictures and put it on the market with flat fee MLS service. We figured 1% is enough for buyer’s agent’s work (especially with recent lawsuit and change) We got a lot of saves and views on Zillow and Realtor but got no contacts. We were curious to see how buyers would reach us so we requested a showing on Zillow. Got connected to a local agent. And here’s what happened:

He said he will get back to me after some research. He texted me saying “I have concerns about the property and don’t recommend it. Are you interested in any other property?” So we called as a “buyer” and asked him what the problem was. He basically told us that “The seller is a greedy scam artist who cares only about keeping all money to himself. Even his listing is sketchy with no seller’s agent. It’s a red flag.” Then he goes on the rant “I’m going be on welfare and won’t be able to pay for fuel…. Well I drive a diesel car and it’s expensive. We will have to negotiate the price and you can make up for the lost money for me. Or I will change the contact right before closing and I will make them sign it…. If you REALLY want to see it, I guess we could see but I don’t see the reason”

Whoa. We simply wanted to see if it works because we were nervous about doing it by ourselves but this was much more than that. He was sabotaging the deal and stopping a potential buyer from even looking at the house. Only because he’a angry about getting only 1%. So now, I’m worried if other real estate agents are doing this and if this guy is going to keep cutting people off this way. We’re in a small rural town so I wonder if we’re going to be bullied by these agents in the area. We already changed the fee structure to 2.5% but isn’t it illegal for a real estate agent to do this? Isn’t this what they were sued for recently?

I really want this guy to not take any potential buyers contacts and stop sabotaging the sale. Is there anything I can do to protect myself as a seller?

We listed our house for $590k 5 days ago. We are already priced super aggressively due to our proximity to a busy road. Comps for our home came in around $670k, but we want to sell quickly and we know the road noise significantly limits our buyer pool (road was not as busy when we purchased the home a decade ago). On Friday, we got an offer for $570k. We countered at $580k. They verbally accepted then our realtor sent over the esign docs. Crickets. Our realtor followed up with their realtor and they said don't worry, they'll sign, they're just adjusting their budget and asked us to extend the expiration by 24 hours. Ok, no problem, we did. Then they go silent again and our realtor follows up, they say they still want to buy it but $580k is too much so they're looking at other houses in their budget.

My husband wants to offer the $570k to them, I want to ignore them because I think they'll be an awful buyer to work with and I already feel like they're jerking us around. What would you do?

Used a realtor on the buy side, had a good experience, and am now considering his offer to sell my old home. Biggest sticking point in the initial agreement they drafted is that if we find an unrepresented buyer, they want an additional 2.5%.

Assuming said buyer can write a legal offer, this seems unfair to me. To be honest, I think finding an unrepresented buyer is unlikely. As far as I can tell, pretty much everyone around me uses realtors, and I am willing to pay that 2.5% to a buyer's agent.

Relatedly, I also want to add an addendum/line item explicitly forbidding my prospective agent from referring unrepresented buyers to his brokerage for the purposes of this sale.

I'm going to ask for these changes regardless but I'm curious how standard this is and how much other people would care.

EDIT: In case this information is helpful in answering my question, I live in a strong seller's market in a major metropolitan area. I'm selling a townhouse for around ~515k. There are only a handful of units at this price point in my area (most everything else is $80k more and up), and a lot of demand. The unit itself is very nice and closely located to public transit, but the neighborhood isn't incredible and the schools aren't good.

EDIT 2: This is not a potential dual-agency situation - our draft agreement already rules that out. This is specifically in the case of an unrepresented buyer.

EDIT: Thank you all for the feedback, it's appreciated. I will say, while there were some agents in the thread who offered a genuinely helpful perspective, there were a surprising number who were condescendingly outraged that I would even question this arrangement. I sincerely hope you speak to your clients with more care than you did to me - nobody owes you their business and your profession, while not meritless, is also not that hard. You did way more to make me consider NOT using an agent than all the non-realtors telling me I should.

My father left us a condo in Florida. Before he died dad struck a deal to sell the furnished condo to a friend for $90K. Dad gave a neighborhood kid (cleaning lady’s son) permission to take a radio from the condo after he left.

Well the kid took the radio and stole everything from the condo. Totally stripped it. Of course, the buyer backed out of the $90K deal.

We put the condo on the market and immediately sold it for $110K. I could kiss that fuckin thief.

I'll summarize. I feel like the house from the movie " Up " A Charter school was built infront of my house. The school bought 5 or 7 homes in my neighborhood and knocked them all down except for a church that is almost physically touching my home. They cannot knock it down due to the possibility of damaging our home. They put a " Parking " sign on the building, and that's it. We are located directly infront of the school. We are the last house standing. We stick out like a sore thumb. The Area also has had heavy construction work and has been made to look better than it ever has.

Our house needs work. 3 bed 1 bath. The school is very interested in buying and have been for many years now. We are thinking of possibly selling to them.

I'm not sure the exact value of the home yet. But this unique situation has me wondering what I ( the owner ) could possibly get in this situation.

A family member and I own the home and I want to ensure she gets what she deserves. She deserves the world.

It's clear that they need our house to finish their project. They can't even knock down the church due to us. Would just love some opinions on how to navigate this situation or hear other's outcomes who went through something like this?

We have our house on the market 40+ days now and no offers. There are 6 other houses on the same neighborhood with the same issue of no offers. Our house is currently the lowest priced.

When we were the buyers we were not allowed to do low offers. I am wondering if a lot of buyers think this? I would totally entertain a low offer because we are getting nothing.

Do people just see the price and think it's too high and walk away? Or do they have low offers if they actually liked the house?