Hi Sheila,

How are the properties priced in comparison to other properties in the area? Have you had any showings? If so, have you had feedback from those showings? From now on, if you do not do this already, call those agents back who show the homes and ask them what they thought of the property and what the prospective homebuyers thought. Ask questions that would help you determine where the problem it.

Lee made a good point that pricing is important. Maybe you can offer a FREE home warranty (it's worth the $300-$450 for a sale, no?). Try to get creative with the way to market the property and offer incentives. An open house may not be a bad idea, even with the short sales.
Go all over craigslist.com, kijiji.com, backpage.com and so on and POST POST POST....lots of pictures, links to your websites...
Best of Luck,
Carlos V. Herrera

Sheila,

Selling property is always about price, terms and time.

As far as terms go, short sale terms suck. Lets start with terms.

If a short sale is not priced attractively, it will not attract offers. The seller must understand that top dollar is not his privilege. The seller must understand that they do not control anything other than getting real with themselves and their bank as quickly as is possible. The Listing Agent sets Terms, expectations and communication clarity upfront...or else, busy people like Joshua Jarvis will prejudge the situation, and YOUR EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SHORT SALE LISTING will just be just another dime a dozen listing.

So, Priced under market with "roll out the red carpet and come by me" easy terms.

Time is relative to how YOU manage the pricing and the terms, up front.

If you want more exposure to the interested consumers out there, and if your listings are Intown then the always insightful Lisa Crowder's virtual tour sensation, http://www.showing247.com is the ticket.

If you just want to reduce the drama in your life, fire all 5 listings and go find others that suit you.

Most agents are afraid of short sales, why? Well, the banks take forever to approve an offer and if the listing agent do not know how to package that offer, that makes thing even more complicated. Most agents or buyers can not wait 3 to 6 months before getting a response on an offer. Some banks respond faster than other. What I do with short sales is continue to reduce the price every 3 weeks until I receive an offer. Then once you receive an offer, show the bank your pricing history along with everything else that need to be submitted. Short sales can be alot of work and in the end, the bank reject all of your offers For the home that is paid off, you need to continue to reduce the price until you get an offer. Educate your client as what type of market we are experiencing right now. We know that want top dollar, but top dollar in todays market is not what it used to be. Good Luck!

What neighborhood are your listings in, and how desirable are the homes? Buyers have so many options to choose from it's hard to get them through the door much less get them to write an offer. Are you getting traffic but no offers? Or are you just getting no traffic. With more listings than buyers a lot of properties are effectively unsaleable right now. How do you rate these listings in terms of desirability?

Short sales could be SCARING agents away. I know I'm fed up with them, especially the ones where I'm dealing with agents that don't know what they are doing. You might try in the description to say "approved" if you know it is approved.

Your question isn't clear, because you say one is paid off. Is one of your listings paid off? Then you need to understand the market, a price reduction may be in order, especially on that one.