Selling your house with an agent is no guarantee of a fast sale, any more than selling fsbo is.  My next door neighbor listed her house in November of 2007 and my new neighbors just moved in, almost two years later. Watching her try to sell her house was getting an education in  “what not to do”  if you want to sell your house.  Since the entire family is deeply embedded in the real estate industry, I kept my mouth shut and watched her do everything wrong.

You might have a house or two like this in your neighborhood. Pay attention and notice why you think the house won’t sell.  Make sure you don’t repeat any of the same mistakes!

Here is how not to sell your house:
• She used her sister, a part-time “dabbler”, as her agent.
• She let her two small, adorable dogs bark non-stop when potential buyers were there.
• There were times agents let themselves in and found “doggie deposits” on the white living room carpet. Horrors!
• She listed it the week before Thanksgiving in a bad market.
• Her sister/agent did no proactive marketing, held no open houses, put up a sign you could barely read, and seriously overpriced the house.
• The listing pictures were taken in the fall and stayed up all year long. They made the house look dark and gloomy.    There was one shot of the back yard totally covered with dead leaves!
• Her bushes had overgrown so you could barely see the front of the house, screaming “project”.
• Her kitchen appliances didn’t match, another immediate, obvious project for the buyers.

I could go on, but you get the idea!

I hope she never reads this. If you ever meet her, please don’t tell her, OK?  Let that be our little secret.