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Q: What do you think of a Realtor who told me in the beginning of the listing that my house shows well but now says I should pack up my clutter and get it out of the house?

I've had my house on the market for five months and haven't had an offer. She also told me the house I live in is the most-sold house in my area. Two couples came through the house and didn't like the floor plan. I feel that she lied to me. What do you think?

A: I think that we're in the worst housing market in more than 30 years. There are way more houses listed for sale than there are buyers to purchase them. I don't know where you live, but in many markets, existing-home sales have slowed dramatically.

Five months ago, your agent might have thought your house showed well and was priced competitively with other homes on the market. But with a tough market, it's possible that while your home shows well it doesn't show as well as some of the other homes for sale in your neighborhood. If you want to sell, your house has to look the best and be priced lower than comparable homes in the area.

It may also be true that your house style has sold better than others in your subdivision. Just because two couples came through and didn't like the floor plan doesn't mean that your agent is lying to you. That could be a fluke, or, in fact, it's possible that your decorating has detracted from the way your house flows. Perhaps this is why your agent has suggested you pack up most of your stuff and move it out of the property.

It's never easy to hear that you aren't a world-class decorator, or that your home doesn't look good enough to sell. Telling sellers they need to pack up and move stuff out of the house is one of the worst parts of an agent's job. Staging your house is one thing that has been shown to help sellers make their property look the best it can be.

But the simple truth is that you'll only sell in a tough market if you stage your house so that it looks like a developer's model home, and then price it lower than just about everything else in your neighborhood. And be prepared to wait -- because there are fewer buyers going through more homes for sale. (If you don't know how to stage your house, please take a look at some of my staging videos at www.expertrealestatetips.net.)

As for your agent, she seems to be doing her job and trying to work with you to make sure your home sells. Sometimes agents come back and try to change things a bit to get homes sold. In some cases, they might suggest cleaning out a house to make it look more spacious. In other instances, they might want a homeowner to take better care of the exterior of the home and landscaping.

In an evolving market, a good broker will try a bunch different things to get a home sold. A savvy seller will listen and try to follow as many of the suggestions as possible, in order to get his or her home to look better than competing homes that are for sale.

Q: My mother, my brother and I are listed on the deed to my mother's house. In the event of her death, my brother and I will be the remaining owners of her property.

Mom now wants to sell the property and has asked both my brother and I to hand over our deeds so that she can be the only one listed on the deed. I have handed over my deed, but my brother refuses to. My mother cannot sell the property until he does so.

What legal recourse does she have to get him to hand over the deed so that she can move forward?

A: Unfortunately, your mother may not be able to force your brother to give her back his share of the house. If she gave a gift freely, and he accepted the gift, she can't take it back any time she wants. This is another example of why parents should not go about quitclaiming their property over to their children without taking the time to think through potential worst-case scenarios.

If your mother wants to sell the property, she may have to agree to share the money from the sale of the home with your brother. If he owns a third interest in the home, he might end up with a third of the money from the sale. If he takes the cash, she should then consider his actions and the money he received from the sale in determining what, if anything, he should receive when she dies. She would need to execute a will that that distributes the rest of her estate as she sees fit, taking into account the money he received from the sale of the home.

Please talk to an estate attorney for more details and perhaps some additional legal options you may have if there are other circumstances that affect your arrangement.

In some families, quitclaim deeds are never delivered to the kids, and in many cases are never recorded. If your mom is still listed as the sole owner of the home on the county record's office and the quitclaim deeds were never recorded, this information along with any other specific information she may have may assist her and her attorney in determining what course of action she should take in trying to sell the home.

To get even more valuable advice from Ilyce, visit her Personal Finance and Real Estate Center.