General thoughts on your dilemma:
- If your agent is motivated to keep the house as a rental, then he's not really on your side with the goal being to SELL it.
- Some of the things that made it attractive as a rental might actually be detracting it to home buyers who intend to move in and live in the house (i.e., not renters).
- Any decent real estate agent will have professional photos taken of a house he/she is listing for sale. So if your agent is posting photos with his/her smart phone, then get a new agent.
- Go and look at your rental house from a new point of view. First impressions are a big deal and that means curb appeal and what it looks like when you open the front door. Our awesome agent told us that most people make a decision to buy a house within a few seconds of walking in the front door.
- So, for example, does any of the landscaping look gangly, unkempt, or messy? You need to clean that up and keep it picked up while the house is listed. Same thing for the backyard.
- Don't EVER have ANY personal photos or religious objects on display when listing a house.
- Any weird odors in the house will drive people away. So if it smells like dog, cat, or smells "old" or musty, then it could be an amazing house, but people won't even consider it.
- If any of the rooms are painted non-neutral colors, that will be a detractor, too. Sure, painting a room isn't hard and pretty much anybody can do it. But that yellow bedroom might have been great for a kid but not if the potential buyer is thinking of using it as an office or a neutral guest bedroom.
- Remove any decorative items that make the house look or feel like an old lady lives there.
- Clutter, of course, is a huge negative.
- Our awesome agent also told us that if a house is staged and priced well, you will get an offer and be under contract within 2 weeks of it being listed...and if you're not, then there's something wrong with the house (or the price).
For example:
Friend of mine tried for a year and a half to sell her house. Honestly, the house was ugly. Had zero curb appeal. She made several mistakes with her first agent...
- hired her friend to be her real estate agent.
- pics of the front of the house made it look like front door was hidden. Big no no.
- They should have spruced up the back yard. It looked neglected.
- Every bathroom was a different wild color.
- Every toilet had one of those toilet lid covers that's made out of rug material. And a rug around the toilet, too. Gross.
- master BR had exercise equipment in it. Bedrooms need to have 1 purpose: sleeping or exercise. Not both.
- they had personal family photos up all over the house in the listing pics.
- house had a grandma cottage (in which her grandma did live at one point). All of the grandma's dated 1980s furniture was in it...and also the grandma's creepy doll collection. On display in a glass case and in other spots in the grandma cottage.
- couldn't tell if it had a garage or not
- house was, by far, the most expensive in the neighborhood. They listed it for >$100,000 than the other comps in the development. Huge mistake.
- some bedrooms had way too much furniture in them.
- 1 bedroom had white wicker furniture. Bleh
For over a year, they stuck with that agent. Then they switched. New agent must have given them some tough love because the new listing photos were MUCH better. EVERY room had been repainted. GONE were all of the weird rugs on and around every toilet. Gone were the weird dolls and 80s furniture. Gone were the turquoise walls in one bathroom and bright green in 1 bedroom. They got an offer within 2 weeks and closed on time.