I've been looking to buy and working with a realtor since March, before that I had been poking around on the various online listings. Rent increase was the straw that broke the camels back.

Hi,
I am both selling and looking to buy, along with my fiance, who lives five doors away from me. After having his house on the market for the past six months, and only having three showings - no offers, we are now going to try to sell mine, beginning Oct. 1.

We are also looking for a house at the same time. Our reasons are that we want to move from the city to the county; and we want a rancher (together) instead of what we currently have - (seperate) duplex homes.

One of the big advantages of buying a house now is the low interest rate, but that only applies if you can get a loan!

We are fortunate in that we own our houses now and plan to pay cash for all or most of our new house, but of course how much cash we will have is dependent on selling our houses, so it's not easy to predict.

If I could offer any advice to sellers, and I'm especially aiming this toward men, it is to pay attention to how your house is going to "feel" to potential buyers when they walk through the door. Before listing, ask for an honest opinion from a woman who has a house you admire and feel comfortable in. Having it clean, uncluttered and without any funky smells will put you at an advantage. You may think your new windows or your bar in the basement is a big wow factor, but the truth is, if I don't like how I feel when I walk in, I'm not interested beyond that!

Women seem to get this concept more easily than men do. Out of the last six houses I looked at, only one of them gave me the feeling I wanted - like I could be very comfortable living there.

So to people trying to sell, watch some of the HGTV shows and take their advice - get a storage locker and move everything you don't need out. Clean everything top to bottom and paint with neutral colors. Get rid of clutter. If you have pets, try to have them out of the house when potential buyers are there - it's very hard to look around when there is a distressed, barking dog in a cage 5 ft. away from you. You don't have to strip your walls bare, but try to minimize the amount of family photos, excessive number of paintings, pictures, etc. Buyers want to envision themselves there, so take away the distractions. That goes for furniture, too. And take down the 100 magnets on your refrigerator! :)

Lastly, be realistic about your asking price. We all want what we think it's worth, but being unrealistic will hurt your chances of even getting an offer, because buyers might not include your house in their search in the first place.

I wish everyone luck on both ends!

Thanks, guys! Interesting. I'll try to connect with you via email the next time I'm working on a housing-market story, assuming you wouldn't mind being interviewed.

I have been been working with a realtor for over a year, viewing houses, checking daily "new to the market" listings, price changes, and open houses. I am looking in the Towson area for a SFD in a good school district, under $300K. My experience has been that sellers are over-optimistic on their list prices, and there are homes that I don't even bother to go look at because the list price is out of range with current market conditions and economic reality.

That said, houses that I have looked at have varied widely in their touted amenities (a new water line? really? sorry you had to incur that expense, but it does not increase the value of the house by the cost...) and condition. I am interested in the energy efficiency of major appliances, insulation, weather proofing, and sound structural conditions. That said, "eye candy" such as updated baths or kitchen can be appealing, but are not the reason I would pay too much money for a house-be realistic in your list price.

Listing brokers/realtors/sellers certainly have a right to ask for what they want in their list price, but with cash in hand, I can keep looking. If you are trying to sell and you don't get an offer within 2 weeks, lower your price by $10,000, and keep doing every 2 weeks that until you sell. We buyers are out here, but are not fooled by sellers attempts to perpetuate the unrealistic and false "gains" of the previous decade.

I agree with earlier commenter about clearing clutter and "personalization" from the house before showing.