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ECIL | Well, for starters, you've learned the first lesson in selling residential real estate: only entertain offers from preapproved potential buyers. With most sales the first buyer to make an offer is often the highest with the offer. It will also save you a lot of headaches. As for the realtor, he probably didn't put too much effort into your property because 1) it is a mobile home, 2) it is a mobile home with acreage, 3) most mobile home buyers can't afford much, especially acreage, and probably don't want to mess with the upkeep of that large of an area. The realtor wasn't going to make much on it so efforts became minimized. The expense of advertising comes from the broker and therefore his commission. My guess since it is a trailer renting it can very quickly turn into a nightmare. Doing a rent with option to buy may be possible, if the buyer understands the terms and has the income and job security to follow through. You can try a different realtor. He may advertise it in a different vein, such as for hunting. Or you could try the area For Sale By Owner site. Start with FSBO.com and go from there. I looked up the demographics on Google for your town and it doesn't look like it is growing much, if at all. Otherwise finding a first home buyer, a retired couple, or a single person resident would be easier.
As for expenses, the heat can be lessened by winterizing the pipes. Electricity can be eliminated by only showing during daylight hours. But the insurance, interest, and depreciation will still be there. Is it possible to seperate the mobile home from the acreage, say a 1/4 acre lot for the home and the rest as a different parcel, possibly for cropland or pasture? Is this in town, on the edge, or a couple miles out? Are you hooked to the city or do you have a well and septic system? Those can be factors as well.
I don't want to sound like I'm coming down hard or overly blunt. Small towns are generally slow in turning real estate. In the town I grew up in if a home sold within 9 months it went fast. Most are on the market for 1 1/2 - 2 years there. | |
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Selling our first house? What would you do?
