[NJblue]

I don't expect there to be too many lucky people who will be able to answer this poll, but am curious as to how long it took. A secondary question for those who have been successful is, "what percentage decrease from your house's perceived high value did you have to accept in order to sell your house?"

For those who are still trying to sell their house outside TV, how long has it been on the market?

[CTgolfer]

We have been very fortunate. In our area of Connecticut, homes with rear-yard privacy and in excellent condition have been under contract (since the beginning of this year) in less than one month. Price of the houses have declined around 3-5% since we bought in 2005.

[KathieI]

Good question..

Listed my house in Los Angeles in mid-April, sold it in mid-July, for approx 5% less than asking price.

Buyer's first offer was 10% lower and I didn't take it personally, just worked on logical counter offers (5 in all) until we came to an agreement. All in all, can't complain.

[efrahin]

NJBlue: We are in Long Island. Listed since January, Discounted 20% and still no luck. Nothing is moving in this area.

[Sidney Lanier]

We're snowbirds who are not selling, but our son has an exceptional piece of commercial property including a business by downtown New Paltz NY that he tried to sell on his own for six months, then gave it to a broker for six months, and is about to choose another broker. He recently dropped the price by 35%! And it still isn't sold, though he does have a few interested lookers at this point. We thought commercial would be different in terms of investment, like buying quality stocks when they are low, but not so far....

[jojo]

We sold at 2% below asking in 10 days. Surprised us - pleasantly. While the Columbus area is not moving, we lived in Upper Arlington so had the location and school system advantage plus we had a large wooded back yard and custom-built house.

[sschuler1]

We are in Metro Detroit in one of the nicer suburbs. We have been on the market since late March. Our realtor told us that she would have listed our home last year at $305,000 but we started our listing at $294,900. We are currently listed at $278,900 and will be dropping the price again next month until we sell. We have had plenty of lookers, just no buyers.

[SteveFromNY]

We listed our house may 07. My wife and I both had a number in our head based on offers we had received in 2003 when we were considering selling. We estimated that the value from 03 to 07 had risen probably 25% in our local market, and that the beginning of the downturn (as we saw it on May 07) probably took away some. So our internal number was about 20% over the 2003 offers.
Along came a R/E agent, who conned us into listing 50% higher than the 2003 offer. The dollar signs were clouding our vision!!! We listed with him at the price he suggested. 6 months later, our price was lowered considerable and the listing expired. WQe did get a really low offer from this agent after the listing expired, and we were mulling it over when another agent called (in January) with a qualified buyer who really wanted to see our house. Yeah, right I said. But we eventually let this agent and prospective buyer into the house. The rest is history. They offered the number we originally had in our head!!! We took it, and closed in late June. They even had a house to sell which they sold in a week!! It only took so long to close because of the difficulties scheduling contract reviews etc around everyone's schedules (buyers on vacation, lawyers on vacation, me on vacation).
I realize how very lucky we were in this situation!

[benj]

I have been for sale for two years. 2800 sq ft 2800 sq ft basement, all the good stuff, half acre lot, lowered price 90k still no buyers. Colorado is supposed to be doing better than most markets. HA HA

[Mikitv]

We have been on the market five weeks and not one showing. Since we are in the upper house bracket for our area we know we will have fewer people that can afford to even consider our home. It is 4200 square feet with about an acre on the golf course. Three car garage and custom built home. Homes in our area have always been slow to sell so we are set to wait. Our neighborhood has homes from the mid 300,000 to almost 2 million so it will need the right person to buy. Sitting here waiting for our dreamer buyer. Lol

[villages07]

Took >18 months....Sept 06 until June 08 (with 3 months where it was off the market); lowered the price by 20% between initial listing price and final listing price. Offer came in $10K under the final listing price. Having had the house for 10 years it was still adequate profit and no need to be greedy so we took it. Glad to be done with it!!

Lesson learned...price it right to begin with and avoid a number of smaller price decreases. In my zip code, there are approx 100 houses listed for sale and only 3-6 go under contract each month...guess it was my turn.

Best of luck to all you sellers out there.

[ConeyIsBabe]

My property in southern Oregon has been on the market since June 08 and I'm not trying to be greedy and make a killing. I'm a victim of bad timing; when I purchased it 3 years ago I didn't forsee the real estate market tumble. Therefore, I cannot, will not sell for less than what I paid.

Stocking up on madrone for the wood stove and the coming winter :

[Number 6]

We listed our home outside of Elmira, NY and it sold the first weekend. It is a unique piece of property and we listed it at a fair price. Our agent told us that he was not surprised as he is still selling homes. We were still surprised.

[Rozzie]

My mom was super fortunate. Before my stepdad passed, they had seriously considered coming down for the tour last year. This past month out of boredom, she thought "for something to do" she still go down and see TV still. She was out walking her dog, about to leave for a lifestyle preview when her neighbor stopped her, the same neighbor that wanted to buy her house before the downturn. She joked "still wanna buy my house" and he said yes I'll go to the bank this afternoon. While she was down doing lifestyle preview he kept calling and offered a little more than everything else is selling for plus all closing costs. He wanted her house really bad! Granted it was a nice home, on the golf course, custom built with all the bells and whistles--but so is a lot of homes that are not selling. My mom and I both took it as a sign for her to sell, move and start a new life in TV.

So all in all, it sold in less than 5 minutes? Even better she saved on the Realtor fee. I was so happy for her!

[njgranny]

Rozzie - I think you get the prize. I doubt anyone could sell more quickly than that. :-)

We don't have our house on the market yet, but, hopefully, it will sell fairly quickly.