Reduce or wait???
 

Opinions needed...House up in VA has been for sale 2 months..Lots of lookers, no offers yet...Realtor thinks its priced too high...Those of you who recently sold up north to move to TV, did you have to take a large reduction in price? Dilemma, do we wait it out hoping the market gets better...or Reduce now and just get out and to our place in TV??? Hard decisions...On the one hand you dont want to "give your house away"...but on the other, keep paying those monthly mortgage payments for another year as you wait??? hmmmm

In the summer of 2008, my husband also said he "didn't want to give the house away" when we recieved an offer after having our house on the market for 8 months. Somehow I, along with our wise agent, convinced him to accept it and we are thanking the dear Lord every day that we did! We closed on Sept. 30th, right before the Oct., 2008 market crash.

The other houses in our neighborhood that were for sale at the same time as ours, are STILL for sale at greatly reduced prices.

Price your house to sell in a down market and get down here asap to start enjoying the rest of your life!!!

what is the feedback from the folks who have looked at the house - are there any reasons other than price that keep people from making an offer? might be that some other issue[s] need to be addressed.

have you checked the comparables within a ten mile radius of your location? is there an independent resource where you can look-up such public records? i never like to rely solely on a realtor...they might claim to work for me - but they are looking to collect their commission, too!

i love the idea i read here a while back - the seller raised the price of the house and used the add'l $$ to pay an added incentive to the realtor who brought in the buyer contract! was much like where i grew up - if the house didn't sell, raise the price - and make sure the agents know the date of the price increase!

good luck with your quest!

Reduce

Get outa Dodge.


.

It's easy to tell someone to sell. One has to look at the comps. in your immediate area. Is your home clutter free? All family photos put away? Have you staged your home for the next buyer? I have always said that once my home is on the mkt. it is no longer mine. Price your home to sell. Does it mean give it away? No. Your realtor should be telling you what to do.

Much luck to you! You live in a beautiful area.

P.S. Remember curb appeal.

It took me 18 months to sell in 06-08; I kept reducing my price, chasing the downward spiral in the housing market. I finally asked my agent.... what price should I set that will get this house sold. We set that value (about 18% less than where I started but still a tidy profit on a 10 yr old house) and we had a viable offer and contract within 2 months.

Everything will sell for a price and only you know what you can bear. As many have said on this board, these years are precious and the sooner you are here to enjoy this lifestyle, the happier you'll be.

Selling your home at market value is not "giving your house away". If you are getting lots of showings but no offers, then your house is overpriced.

I assume your agent has provided a Comparative Market Analysis showing similar homes and their sale prices. You have two choices, either reduce your price or improve your home to bring the price higher. I'm sure your agent has stressed:

No clutter - put anything personal away in boxes
Clean and tidy inside and out
Kitchen and bathrooms bright and shiny
Classical music playing in the background
Cookies baking in the oven, or cinnamon simmering on the stove
Open the blinds and let the sun shine in

Your agent has probably suggested some good ideas .. take down wall paper. Paint brightly coloured rooms a neutral colour.

If you've followed all the suggestions and your home isn't selling, you could try an additional bonus to the selling agent (not the listing agent). But probably the best idea is to reduce the price so that your house is the best deal around.

Then pack your bags and move to TV. I'll betcha in a year you'll be telling people what a great decision you made.

When we put our house on the market in Georgia, at $250K, our agency had an open house for agents only. Their combined response was that we were priced too high. Recommendation was to reduce the price to $199,000. We sold in 2 months for $242,500, no seller closing costs, not repairs or changes wanted. Keep in mind that comps are a reflection of what agents convinced the sellers in your area to market their house at. It has nothing to do with value. If a home does not sell the Agent does not make any money. Now if you are lucky enough to find that one out of fifty agents that is in fact honest, take the advice, but you are more qualified to price your own house if you do proper research. Yes, use comps, but take them lightly. We had two offers at or near $190,000 within weeks, by Rental Investors from Atlanta.

FACTS: According to agents
When you sell, the improvements on your home don't represent value.
When you buy, the same improvements are worth big bucks.

When you buy a house with a pool, it is worth 30K more dollars.
When you sell a house with a pool, it eliminates many buyers.


TRUE FACTS:
Staging is very very important.
Pack away everything that makes the house yours like Pictures/souvenirs.
Less furniture makes the rooms look bigger.
Paint that Red room back to a neutral color.

You just basically have to ask yourself how bad you want to be in TV!... simple as that!

Before our move to TV, a neighbor had their house listed for 599K. Although it took a 38% reduction and 13 months to sell our home, I just noticed in the newspaper, from our previous residence, that the neighbor finally sold their house for 432.5K. About a 28% reduction. Tic tok tic tok

We will be facing a similar dilemna soon and in your area (we are in Providence Forge VA). While we have not yet listed the house (target is September) , we have met with an agent we trust from previous experience and her input is that the market has dropped about $50K in the last 2years in our sell price range. So our approach is that we have figured out what our "minimum" sell price for this house is to get what we want in the Villages, and that value is well within the comps for our house. I do agree with many of the other posts that real estate agents do not always consider the potential market value of a property, but rely way too much on comp prices which may or may not be actual comparable properties. We don't feel comfortable unless we do some checking ourselves, in order to have a solid base to make a decision. But, we know it's not worth what it was, and we have already moved past that point. Our objective is to move to TV, not to sell our house for the absolute most money we can get for it. We are very fortunate not to be in a position to have to do that financially. Good luck with your sale. We might meet in TV sometime and we can compare notes over an adult beverage of choice! We are leaving for a TV visit Friday and will be there most of next week looking at properties, meeting with friends already there, and drinking more Kool-Aid!

Bill and Sue

We sold in CA in 2006, just as the price of housing had dropped. Our agent gave us a realistic price to sell the house for. I wasn't thrilled at first, but realized that my friend had still not sold her house and it had been on the market for a bit. We decluttered, repainted, spruced up the landscaping and the very first people who looked at the house, bought, and at the price we listed it for. Our agent told us we could ask more, but we might just have to wait for a while to get a buyer. House prices were dropping rapidly at that point and waiting might not improve our chances of getting a higher price. Did we want to let a few thousand dollars slow down our opportunity to move forward? Neighbors who lived across the street from us put their house on the market about a year after we moved and they have still not sold that house. The market changed and they were caught in the downward spiral. We still made a great profit, we owned the house for over 30 years. You will have to decide and determine how much you need to get in order to move without too much financial stress. Just remember though, if you don't sell, you still have expenses to deal with and that can diminish some of the "profit" you might get by waiting.

We here are waiting your arrival. Drive safely on your way down.

We have sold properties for a good profit and some for a loss. We are happy we sold each property, and two that were sold at a loss, well, we call that the best money we have ever lost! And we lost real money, not just on paper. Looking back, selling was what we wanted to do, and getting on with life is wonderful. In this market today, I think it is a good thing to sell and move on. IMHO and worth what you paid for the advice. :)

Now, to confuse things, I have heard talk of the home buyers credit coming back. But, do you want to sell now, or wait for something that might not happen to sell your home?

Good luck! Hope to see you soon in TV!

Pat

Thanks to all TVR'S who responded
 

Thanks for all the great advice/opinions, suggestions, was all great...Our agent prepared the feedback sheet from every showing..All of the feedback about the house was great..( Shows beautifully, great house, love the floor plan...) The only negative was the price...sigh...so we will have to reduce. The house is staged, our faimily pics gone, shows well, just needs a price adjustment..We are going to reduce but one worry...Was talking to an appraiser friend and he said they are all SO scared with all their new rules that they tend to appraise most houses low.....ugh***Wouldn'nt it be great if we all had that crystal ball and knew when the market would turn? Sad part is I dont think a lot of folks will ever get back what they have put into their homes .....