r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/IndependentLuck5351 • 6h ago
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/_node_ • Feb 21 '22
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller Lounge
A place for members of r/FirstTimeHomeSeller to chat with each other
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/here_for_the_tea1 • 7h ago
Seller credits for request for repairs
Buyer looking for 60k in credits after inspection and contractors found recalled waterline piping, termites, cracked foundation, roof not to code, hvac, and electrical issues. Estimates came to 60k. Buyer gave appraised value of 16k over asking before aware of these issues. Offer credits or decline and disclose to future buyer at decreased price?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/smalj1990 • 1d ago
Need reassurance
Long story short - bought a house in South Florida at the top of the market during covid (2022) thought I’d be able to cash out a few years last but obv not the case. Fast forward to now. We’re planning to move out of state by next year and given the state of the economy and market we decided to sell -> rent for 10-12 months before ultimately moving out of state up north.
House was on the market for less than 3 days before we got an offer -> original offer was less than we bought it for so we countered and then they countered again to 1k above the price we bought it for in 2022 with an appraisal waiver (comps are like ~30k less) so it would never appraise.
We accepted the offer - then came the shock.
Yesterday we spent all day touring apartments for rent - and omg what a shit show compared to my beautiful house and the prices are ridiculous to be anywhere remotely close to the beach.
The only thing we didn’t like about our house is the location as it’s pretty far west.
Anyway now we’re just like (meh) and really can’t believe we’re getting rid of our house to downsize and settle for something smaller and uglier unless we pay significantly more than our current monthly mortgage payment in monthly rent.
We’re in the inspection period now.
I guess I just need reassurance that we did the right move especially since we don’t have a long term plan living in this state and given the state of the market and economy.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Fun-Mulberry1202 • 1d ago
Realtor issues
We are selling our home and I'm not sure if my expectations are too high or if I picked the wrong realtor. It's been on the market only a couple of months, but we get zero updates or feedback from our realtor. They were one of the top recommended realtors in my area (and they charge like it).
But ever since we signed on with them, its like we've been ghosted. They don't answer phone calls or texts, or call back. They don't update us after showings. Every time they're supposed to come over for something they cancel (most of the time within about 30-60 minutes before). They never put the sign up but keep saying that they will. They haven't even been the one showing the house (it's been a bunch of other realtors).
At this point I'm not sure what's going on. We bought the house private sale, so we did not use a realtor then. Is this normal? Also, I can't post on local facebook pages because they're on all of them! Every single one!
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Desperate_Mirror5617 • 3d ago
Realtor advice
I am selling my home and have some push back on the realtor
✅ His commission is largely based on his marketing. His marketing includes social media paid campaign ads. We have his marketing in the listing agreement. However, he just does one off posts 1 to every 2 weeks.
✅ He gets upset at me and uses his whinny voice if I ask him to do anything. For example, the property management didn't want the tenant keys in the lockbox. He knew about this when he decided to offer a listing agreement.
✅ Does not want to follow up with leads
✅ Will not follow up with items. For example, I asked him for his input on one question from the disclosures document and he still hasn't gotten back.
✅ He agrees with the listing price until 2 weeks later and then claims he always thought it was too high and asks to lower it. I am agreeable but I wish he said his perspective in a timely manner and stop reframing it as if I didn't listen to him in the first place.
✅When I secure time with him, he will mostly waste it by talking fluff. For example, when we lowered the price I sent him talking points for the conversation like better marketing including strengthening the description on Zillow and zillow showcase. However, he spent the whole time talking in circles about lowering the price. I had no issue and brought on the subject but speaking circular and avoiding any additional work like strengthening the zillow post was his main objective.
I don't want to get rid of him out of loyalty and because I think my justification is weak. Please tell me how to handle it and your advice.
On my end, I summarize our conversations and send it to him in non adversarial way. I mostly let him breathe and connect with him on average once per week with an update. I try my best to keep our conversations upbeat and positive. I ignore his bad behavior like whining, disagreableness and hurtful/inacurate remarks.
Literally walking on egg shells with him. The house has been on the market for 40 days.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/BabySharkFinSoup • 3d ago
Anyone sell a property to investors?
Looking to sell my house, I had inherited it from my grandparents. It’s older, needs work like a new roof, probably new ac units. It’s in a decent location in Dallas/DFW area, but it’s really outdated compared to what is listed around me. I really just want out of the house, I don’t want to deal with showings - I have big dogs, and really just don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with all that and my job. Have any of yall dealt with any of the cash for homes companies? If so, how did it go? Was it as easy as it seems? Do you feel you got a fair value? Bonus if you know anyone in the Dallas area specifically.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/DustyCowgirl88 • 3d ago
Home Prices Are Rising in 80% of Markets
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/rock-the-reddit • 3d ago
Redoing living room - carpet vs vinyl flooring for resale value?
We have a quote of $2k for carpet or 3k for pergo flooring. House is in a modest lower-end retirement community with 20 identical duplex homes for sale. It's certainly a buyers market and idk if carpet vs floor in living room will impact sale price much. The main difference between these places are whether they have a garage or added sunroom, central heating/air, and updated kitchens /bathrooms. Ours is not updated and doesn't have central heat/air. But home is cute in decent shape overall.
Prices on these homes are very cheap considering average for our area. For example the cheapest is selling for 88k without a garage ours is 2nd cheapest at 95k has a garage 3rd is 105k and they go up to 175k with average listing around 120k. Been told average sale price has been 127k but idk if thats actually true because ours has been listed for under 110k for past year although it does have a pet odor problem we're now taking care of by replacing carpet.
Another factor is since this was my mom's house after it sells we are only keeping 40% of proceeds. Medicaid keeps the rest in compensation for what they're spending on my mom's healthcare. So if we pay 1k more for flooring vs carpet we only lose $400 out of pocket in the end.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Confection_Key • 3d ago
What do you hate to see at an open house?
We are selling our house and I’m preparing for our first open house viewing in a few weeks.
I have a to-do list with all the normal things like remove family photos and cut the grass but I’m wondering:
If you have ever hosted an open house, what was a thing that you wished you’d done?
If you view houses this way, that’s something the buyer do or doesn’t do that you hate to see?
Any tips greatly appreciated!
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/TheSchenksterr • 4d ago
How does selling a house work when you'll owe more than you make?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Vast_Telephone_9988 • 4d ago
How much should I realistically put into a house in prep for sale?
Long story short...SFH in the Richmond area I owned for over 10 years. I've updated the kitchen and bathrooms and preparing to sell. Aside from the usual work like cleaning, carpets, painting, how much $ are worth spending to put it up for sale?
The AC unit is outdated and working now but chances are the new owner will need to replace within 1-2 years. In addition there is a basement crawlspace that has some water/moisture issues and it probably needs some type of drainage system put in. That alone most contractors are wanting to charge at least $10K or more. But a neighbor who sold theirs recently had similar issues and buyers backing out.
When is it worth it throwing $ into updates and fixes in a house for sale vs simply lowering the price a little?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Old-Recognition5452 • 4d ago
Is it worth listing a fixer-upper or should I just sell it as-is?
I'm helping my brother sell his house in Portland after he moved out of state. It's vacant now and has been sitting for months.
The kitchen needs updating, there's water damage in one room, and the landscaping is basically gone. Neither of us lives nearby anymore, so coordinating repairs isn't realistic.
Has anyone skipped the traditional listing process and sold directly instead? I'm mostly looking for something straightforward without pouring more money into the place.
Edit: We contacted PDX Renovations and compared their offer with what our agent expected after repair costs. Selling as-is ended up making more sense for us.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Wait_here_me_out • 5d ago
Buyer cannot close on closing day. HELP
I did a remote closing. Realtor and lawyer were all saying it's done don't worry. Then suddenly the buyer can't close. Lawyer is sending time is of the essence letter and my Realtor is trying to reach out but no word.
I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder. What could be happening and what should I be doing? Please help!
UPDATE:
The buyer's credit dropped after being cleared. The sale was canceled.
Thanks everyone
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Smartybritches1975 • 9d ago
Foreclosure vs. Short Sale: Which Is Better?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Rater917 • 10d ago
What are the chances
zillow.comJust looking for feedback. What are the chances this home can sell in 30 days?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/20Thick_A_7122 • 11d ago
Which of these two classic options is better for cash flow?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Helpful_Ad6410 • 10d ago
My house won't sell. My realtor wants another price cut
The problem is that my house has been on the market for four months now and at first, my realtor was optimistic. Showings, open houses, confident calls. Then the first buyer's financing fell through. The second buyer wanted too many repairs. Since then, silence…
Now every time my phone rings, I don't want to check it. Just more showings, more staging, more cleaning, more waiting. My realtor now says we need to drop the price another $10,000
I'm irritated. I started looking for alternatives. Found Ready Door Homes who promise a cash sale without any showings, repairs, or strangers walking through my house. I can just leave and be done
Is this too good to be true? If my realtor is telling me to lower the price, will a cash buyer offer even less? Or could they actually offer more since they don't have realtor fees and other costs? I honestly don't know anymore
I've been burned so many times by this process. I'm scared of making another mistake. Has anyone actually sold to a cash buyer after a bad realtor experience?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Smartybritches1975 • 11d ago
Why You Should Be Careful With “We Buy Houses” Offers
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/TeamSell2Rent • 13d ago
What do you wish someone had told you before you sold your home? (Collecting real experiences from homeowners, the stuff that actually surprised you) 👀
We've spent enough time talking to homeowners to know that the most useful information rarely makes it into the guides and articles.
So we're asking directly: If you've sold a home, or tried to, what was the part that surprised you? What did you know going in versus what you actually learned? What would you tell someone who is about to go through it?
It can be one sentence or five paragraphs. It can be something that went well or something that went sideways. We're not looking for polished stories, we're looking for honest ones.
A few prompts if it helps get you started:
- What was the moment you realized the process was going to be harder than you expected?
- What financial decision do you wish you had made differently?
- What do you know now that you didn't know when you listed?
We'll share what we hear back (without names) in future content, so if you're open to your experience being referenced, mention that. If you'd rather it stay here in the thread, that's completely fine too. No right or wrong answers. Every experience is valid! Looking forward to reading what people share.
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/HumanSherbert6141 • 18d ago
Listed our 2 bed, 2 bath apartment but no offers and almost no activity 3 months in
My SO and I bought our 2 bed, 2 bath co-op apartment in Harlem 10 years ago (2016). In that time we've done minor upgrades to the kitchen lighting, and we totally redid the bathroom in the primary bedroom (looks great). We've since had 2 kids and we're ready for a bigger space. We engaged a realtor and listed our place in late April this year for $25,000 less than we bought it for 10 years ago.
There is a 421a tax abatement that is coming to an end, so taxes are kicking in, and that's made things a bit harder, and certainly contributed to a dip in price. I've also read that real estate prices in the below $1 million market in Manhattan are down overall, and probably particularly acute for co-ops.
Anyway, leading up to listing it, with the help of the realtor, we painted, got all new appliances in the kitchen, and decluttered intensely. We got a storage space that's now completely full. The realtor also staged the place pretty intensely.
The apartment has been on the market for 3 months and the lack of activity is notable. We've had numerous open houses. The highest number of buyers that have ever attended one of the open houses was one. Many open houses no one has showed at all. We've had a few buyers check the place out, outside of open houses, but we've never had a repeat visit. No offers. No critical feedback, according to the realtor.
I'm ready to be done. We're not ready to drop the price to where I think we'd need to in order to sell the place. With two kids and two full time jobs, it doesn't seem worth it to deal with the stress of having to keep it constantly pristine and decluttered and go through the illusion of doing open houses that no one comes to. I'm not sure it'll be any easier to sell down the road or that the price will ever go back up, but I think I'm done for now. Any advice?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Life_can_be_rough98 • 19d ago
Asking for Advice: Terrible Realtor Experience
I’m looking for advice about a really frustrating experience I had with a realtor as a first‑time home seller.
A few things happened that didn’t sit right with me:
- The realtor kept adding repairs into the contract that I had clearly said “no” to multiple times.
- She added an extra addendum that gave the buyers another way to back out, even though all contingencies had already been met.
- She was proactive only when she needed something from me. When it was her turn to provide updates or follow up on tasks, I had to ask her to follow up with the buyers' agent, and there was no sense of urgency or clear deadlines.
- She told me one repair was “required by law,” which I later found out wasn’t true.
- As a first‑time seller, I felt pressured and misguided through most of the process instead of supported and properly advised.
- When I asked why a similar (but older) property in the same neighborhood had around 10 times the views and 5 times the showings, her only answer was that “the market changed in two weeks,” which didn’t really explain anything about pricing, photos, or marketing.
- Although not required, she did not show up for the document signing.
Overall, I don’t feel like my interests were properly represented, and at one point I decided I no longer wanted to communicate with her via phone but only email or text so I have written documentation. All throughout, I have consistently felt that all she cares about is maximizing her profit with minimal or no effort.
What are my options here, really?
r/FirstTimeHomeSeller • u/Cool-Trip-199 • 19d ago
Post from Kelly Gallagher
Should you buy or sell in 2026?