arabrab

Good luck, Ema!

I wonder if your thought about summer might not be a little wrong. I think that a lot of families with school kids particularly like moving in the summer, but perhaps as buyers without school kids you'll have some better choices in the early fall. I hope so.

UCDAlum82

My realtor said the hottest times, and thus the highest prices, were in the summer when the house would be closed in time for the kids to be moved in time for the first day of school.

On one hand, realtors tend to push sellers to get their houses up in June, rather than August. On the other hand, there is less competition if you are looking at houses in August and September.

UCDAlum82

The buyer's loan company had two appraisers in, and apparently the house appraised to what the buyers needed to qualify. The loan came through. Buyers asked to come by next week in the afternoon to measure while we are out. My signoff day is Thursday. We are really moving!!

Emaheevul07

I am wondering what on earth happened to the market here, I am not experienced enough to understand what I am seeing. We've been looking consistently all summer and right around May things just dropped off here... there's just a whole bunch of nothing right now and it's been that way since maybe May, and prior to that there were seemingly dozens of new houses coming on the market daily.

The only listings I see anymore are a small handful of dumps that have been for sale forever. We drove around yesterday and saw only a couple for sale signs, and those houses are listed for a good 100k over what any of the other houses in the neighborhood have been selling for lately... not sure what to make of that.

emilybee

Ema, I don't know where you are but in my town the selling season is pretty much over. As someone mentioned - it is due to parents wanting to be in a house when school starts - and our schools are the main reason people move to my town, as you pay more for your home, more in property taxes and get less house then almost any other town in my area.

Only the ones who are asking too much for homes which also need a ton of work are still on the market.

ohiobassmom

Our area is still seeing activity but closings around here routinely happen in 30 days unless there is some request to wait. And we are definitely one of those school districts people choose deliberately.

Showing #20 tomorrow (in 7 weeks), the second "second" showing we've had.

BunsenBurner

My LOL of the day: the friend says that the owner of the lot with the infamous cell tower plans on being the lease holder even after the sale and assumes that he will pocket whatever rent the cell co. will pay. Apparently, that is "reflected in the price". Wow I say good luck with the sale, unless he finds a desperate sucker. Some people have very unrealistic views of the reality (and real estate ).

ellebud

Our neighborhood has always been desirable: private police and fire department, decent schools for California, and really good commute times (although limited access to freeways).

Princes here (sold) have skyrocketed this year. Not much inventory and the stuff sold.

Emaheevul07

Even this past winter, when we had a lot more houses on the market than we EVER did this summer, inventory was low and buying competition was high. To my amateur eyes it seemed like things were ripe for prices to start creeping back up. I am wondering if they did this summer and that is why we didn't see any listings all summer... perhaps they went out of our price range. That would be such a bummer. There are really only so many cities within reasonable driving distance of my boyfriend's work that don't have god awful schools. We drove through another one this weekend trying to get the lay of the land, the town that is the only other obvious choice, and things weren't really any different there and the houses are much smaller for the same prices even though the neighborhood is significantly less desirable. Hard to get excited about that.

I am in touch now with a few new realtors and I asked them for their take on things. Hopefully something will work out. I am trying to remain optimistic though we are discouraged. I think if we can get the right people on our team something will have to happen for us eventually.

VeryHappy

House has been on the market for around 9 weeks. I think it is fairly priced. Feedback has been that it's a very nice house. For some, it needs too much updating. For others, the land is a problem (It sucks.) Realtor suggested yesterday that we drop the price.

Opinions?

We're not in any rush to sell.

IMO, if the realtor suggests dropping the price, doesn't that mean it was priced wrong to begin with??

menloparkmom

^ perhaps, but what it really means is that given the amount of time it has been on the market, with no firm offers, it is priced too high. And at this point the listing is "stale" .So if you want to attract new interest from new buyers and get it sold, you need to lower the price. The market has spoken, regardless of whether you think it is "fairly priced"

VeryHappy

"with no firm offers" -- Actually, with no offers of any kind!

Do the rest of you agree with menloparkmom? Should we drop the price?

jym626

Do you have any other alternative other than to wait? Are you interested in doing any further upgrades that might make it more attractive? I would personally not go that route as its a headache. But you are in no rush. That said, I agree that you dont want the listing to get stale. So whats the harm in dropping the price? You will look like a motivated seller.

dstark

How long is the average time before a house sells in your area?

Are homes priced well selling in your area?

How many people have seen your house?

And, is your home the best priced home in your area?

sistersunnie

Walk through last night, went well. Holding my breath for the last hurdle, settlement!