Basement, Shmasement!

In case you didn't read all my posts, or didn't read them thoroughly, I'm trying to sell my house. I live in the middle of the midwest. Actually, I live in the middle of Michigan, which is the middle of the midwest...sort of. Anyway, my house has been on the market since April of this year. I started out trying to sell it on my own, but then tragedy struck and I had no energy for doing anything except for getting up in the morning and reminding myself to keep breathing (my mom died in May) so I decided to hire a realtor and let her do all the work. So far, she's done a fair amount of work. We argued back and forth about how much I should price my house at and she finally won. I reduced my asking price by about 20k and let her list it in the MLS and advertise it in the local real estate magazine.

Under normal circumstances, my house would have sold within 2 weeks of being put on the market. There was a house on my block that went up for sale the same weekend mine did back in April, just a tad smaller then mine, and as far as I'm concerned, not as nice as mine, but it had something my house doesn't have...a basement, and it sold within 2 weeks that it was listed. There was another house put on the market in the beginning of June which also sold within 2 weeks. It too had a basement and was about 300sq ft. smaller then mine. Clearly, if I had a basement, my house would have sold by now.

About 2 years ago I added a master suite on to the house. That's an entire second floor. Prior to that, my house was quite small with only 1 story. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with 1 fireplace. Now its a gigantic 2 story house with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. The master suite has a huge walk-in closet, remote controlled gas fireplace and a very luxurious bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and shower for two with body sprays. I've replaced all the flooring throughout most of the entire house and painted almost all the rooms. The roof is new; so is the airconditioner, the furnace, the water heater and the electrical system. With such luxury and all I can't understand why no one is snatching up my house.

I've had lots of lookers, which means its priced right. But all the feedback I get is that its a great house, its beautiful, and if only it had a basement.

I say basement, shmasement! They're just big rooms full of bugs, mold, mildew and the potential for leaks. Plus, they are places to store junk. I've lived in this house for almost 15 years and never had to worry about these things, including collecting more then I need. If I were living in the Middle of Michigan and looking to buy a really great looking house with lots of new features and a wonderful, luxurious, romantic upstairs get-a-way, I would snatch my house up in a heartbeat. Too bad I'm trying to sell it!