Author Topic: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home  (Read 5445 times)

Easye418

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Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« on: January 18, 2016, 07:59:57 AM »
All,

So I put my home (North DFW,TX) up two weeks ago and here is what we got so far:

1st week:  6 showings, no offers, all feedback favorable, 1 person mentioned "it is SLIGHTLY high for the neighborhood".

2nd week (this latest weekend): 5 showings, no offers, all feedback favorable, no mention of pricing issues.

My realtor called the realtors who came this weekend.  1 person on Saturday is debating between my house and a new construction.  1 person on Sunday (yesterday) is debating between my house and another home in the area, needed to confer with his wife.

To add another level of complexity, my realtor is working with another family about 4 houses down and their house will be live this Thursday.  They have a smaller home, but not too much smaller, ~400 sq smaller, 1 less bed, 1 less bath.  They will be $25k less than us.   

My realtor said:  "We are getting good showing levels, I think we should hold pricing for another week".  I agree, however, I am hesitant.

My gut feeling is we went in SLIGHTLY high and it is time to normalize it by dropping $5k.  However, I would wait until Thursday to drop it to see if these two people decide to put in an offer. 

By dropping it Thursday, it will draw an even bigger crowd out this weekend since my neighbor's house will also be up.  By dropping it, we will only be $20k difference from them and it *might* spur a multiple bid or single bid for us.

Your feeling is..... [fill in the blank]

Cheers!

humbleMouse

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2016, 10:05:27 AM »
First of all, what is the total asking price?? 5k reduction from 500k is small, but 5k from 100k is a lot more.

Easye418

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2016, 10:07:56 AM »
First of all, what is the total asking price?? 5k reduction from 500k is small, but 5k from 100k is a lot more.

$385k.  I want to drop to $379,999 while my neighbor is coming in at $359,999

Another Reader

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2016, 10:30:55 AM »
What do recent, closed comparable sales in your subdivision/neighborhood say your house is worth?

Easye418

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2016, 10:46:15 AM »
What do recent, closed comparable sales in your subdivision/neighborhood say your house is worth?

$372.5k for a very similiar house closed December.  No one will build a house like mine anymore.  They won't put the floorplan in the last phase and build times are already Fall 2016. 

I think $379,999 is very reasonable given the situation and area. 

To think I only paid $330k for it 2 years ago :) 

The master plan is to sell this house, use the equity + cash we have been saving over the last couple months and finally put down 20% on the house and stop punching our faces with PMI.

Save ~$400 on the mortgage payment, live 50% closer to my work, and be in top public school district in the state.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2016, 10:48:30 AM by Easye418 »

Another Reader

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2016, 11:12:01 AM »
New subdivision means that new builds limit your price, even if your model is not available.  In your shoes, I would probably drop it to $378,900 and be happy with $375,000 to get the deal done.  The appraiser is going to look hard at the $372,500 comp.

In the hot areas of California, the rule of thumb is showings but no offers means you are at least 5 percent above market value.  Not sure what the rule of thumb is in NW Dallas.  Unless your floor plan is unpopular, 11 showings and no offers means you might be a little high.  If the reason your floor plan is not being offered in the current phase is that it is not popular, then you need to look at your price more critically.  Was the December sale of the same model?

Easye418

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2016, 11:13:52 AM »
New subdivision means that new builds limit your price, even if your model is not available.  In your shoes, I would probably drop it to $378,900 and be happy with $375,000 to get the deal done.  The appraiser is going to look hard at the $372,500 comp.

In the hot areas of California, the rule of thumb is showings but no offers means you are at least 5 percent above market value.  Not sure what the rule of thumb is in NW Dallas.  Unless your floor plan is unpopular, 11 showings and no offers means you might be a little high.  If the reason your floor plan is not being offered in the current phase is that it is not popular, then you need to look at your price more critically.  Was the December sale of the same model?

$375k is my bottom number.  Apparently, the $372.5 had a different elevation so slightly different. 

Thanks!

Another Reader

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2016, 11:22:06 AM »
Sellers set price, buyers set value.... 

If buyers won't pay what you want, you will continue to own the house.  You don't have to jump at the first offer, but you will benefit by being flexible and responding to what the market tells you.  Did the seller make financing concessions in the December transaction?  Those can factor in as well.

Don't let your agent use your listing to sell the other house. 

Fishindude

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2016, 11:25:13 AM »
Leave the price alone for a while, it's only been a couple weeks.
If somebody is interested, $5,000 on that amount won't make a difference, they will make you an offer.

You might be better served to do little things to improve it's ability to sell.
Talk to your realtor.  Maybe that same amount applied towards, paint, landscape, flooring, etc. would be better than adjusting price already?


Easye418

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2016, 11:40:00 AM »
Sellers set price, buyers set value.... 

If buyers won't pay what you want, you will continue to own the house.  You don't have to jump at the first offer, but you will benefit by being flexible and responding to what the market tells you.  Did the seller make financing concessions in the December transaction?  Those can factor in as well.

Don't let your agent use your listing to sell the other house.

Thanks. 

Leave the price alone for a while, it's only been a couple weeks.
If somebody is interested, $5,000 on that amount won't make a difference, they will make you an offer.

You might be better served to do little things to improve it's ability to sell.
Talk to your realtor.  Maybe that same amount applied towards, paint, landscape, flooring, etc. would be better than adjusting price already?



House is pretty much brand new.  There is nothing that needs to be re-done.

The price drop is because we were idiots and thought we could "go high and expect our middle number" when we should have just set it at the middle number and expected list the entire time.  By going up into the $380's, we may have lost everyone whose budget is max in the $370s.  I think $379k is a very reasonable price for the neighborhood, especially for parents wanting to get in for the new school that is a hop away from my house.  I still will "profit" from the sale.

Another Reader

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2016, 12:09:17 PM »
Are there other comparable sales?  Those would need to be considered as well, along with adjustments for location, finishes, and financing.

Buyers are reluctant to pay more than what the closed sales indicate as long as sufficient inventory is out there and buyers don't dramatically outnumber sellers.  They don't want to overpay, and buyers' agents will remind their clients that the house has to appraise for the deal to close.

What you do not want to do is have your listing go stale.  No idea what that time period is in NW Dallas, but you want to avoid that label.  Out here, anything on the market for 30 days is grossly overpriced, a total dog, or the seller is completely unreasonable.  Agents quit showing those properties and steer their clients to newer listings.

marty998

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2016, 01:27:40 PM »
If you listed it over here at $380k a bidding war will probably mean you end up getting $450k.

I wish our market was "meh" like yours. People go stupid in Sydney over houses.

At that price point here an extra bedroom and bathroom adds $75k. SO I don't see you being $20k over as unreasonable, but hey, different markets right?

BlueHouse

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2016, 04:39:48 PM »
Why is your model unpopular?  My sister and I bought a home together years ago.  It was perfect for us, so we couldn't really understand it when it didn't sell, especially because there were so few other models like it.  Well, the reason there were so few other models was because it is not a popular house-type for regular families.  For a roommate situation, great.  But for a family with little kids, which was what a lot of the neighborhood was, not so good.  It took a while, but the right family finally came along -- empty nesters with live-in In-Laws. 

If your model house is not popular with the types of people who want to live in your neighborhood, just wait it out.  No amount of discount was going to win in our case.  It just took time to find the right buyer. 

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2016, 08:08:24 AM »
The rule of thumb I heard was this:
1) no showings -> price is too high
2) lots of showings but no offers -> the home doesn't show well.

A couple weeks isn't that bad--I'd wait another week or so.  One thing to keep in mind is that people generally set their price limits in $25k increments.  There may be a lot of buyers out there looking to stay under $375k.

YTProphet

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2016, 09:39:09 AM »
You're clearly priced too high, regardless of what the realtor says. If the price is right, you will get offers. Real estate is as simple as that.

If you're gonna drop the price, you need to drop by at least $10k. $5k doesn't move the needle for most buyers.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2016, 09:42:59 AM »
It's possible that your realtor is pricing your house and your neighbor's house too high.

Altons Bobs

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Re: Real Estate Staches needed: selling my home
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2016, 10:30:51 AM »
When we sold our house in Plano less than 2 years ago, we got 5 offers in 3 days and closed the showing then. Our realtor did research and came to our house and told us what needed to be done to make it present well and he priced it right according to the comps in our neighborhood. We got multiple offers with prices higher than what we listed at. We closed with one of the offers that was higher than list.  You may need to find a more competent realtor. I can introduce mine to you if you want, I've known him for more than 10 years, and he had sold another house or two for us in the past as well.

Wanting to sell your house at the price you want doesn't mean your house is worth what you think it's worth.  What it's worth is what people are willing to pay.