It looks like a magazine, I agree. One thing that really makes a stager important these days is that so many people look at the house online first. Well staged and well photographed properties will get lots more interest. Artlover, I’m sure your place will get lots more interest because it is so beautiful in the photographs. Heck, I want to buy it! I would feel so calm and happy living in those photos!
My parents’ realtor provided the stager as part of their commission (high end property). The difference was amazing. The stager had them box up 30 years worth of personal pictures and things, moved things around and brought in new “trendy” prints and art and throw pillows in vibrant colors. My parents had already purged a lot of clutter and old furniture preparing to downsize.
She spent one two hour visit suggesting what to do (take down all those '90’s window treatments and just have bare windows, etc) and then another actually rearranging their furniture and brought in her stash of accents. The change was amazing. She did have my parents crate up their own art and she hung trendy prints in the right colors.
No at the high end $200k is just s small amount in the grand scale of things and realtors around here all know this game. I have seen houses asking 275K and selling for 365K locally and it requires total rehab.
@cbreeze
Just for an example, a highest end 5000sf condo was asking 5 million dollars before the crash, it is not too far from this condo in the same town. Our condo is no where near the size and prestige, but it is at least 2200sf living space plus a 500sf terrace that no one has.
No, actually our condo is unique in the complex and there is no such condo in the complexes around us. See my parents were part of the development group who built this complex. So they had the first choice of location and features. Our condo is actually 1.5 unit of other condos in the complex and there is a 500sf out door roof top terrace no one had. And the last transaction in our condo was almost a year ago so the comps are not valid any more. The appraiser had a hard time to come up the price at the time of my mom’s death, which is going to be used as the basis for tax purpose. He came up with a very low appraisal that everyone laugh at. He is also my friend, and just two days ago, we had dinner together and we all joked around his appraisal which was about 50% off.
Another builder’s condo was sold 8 years ago which is slightly bigger than ours was the only comp we can have.
That’s a new concept to me: “All offers must be in by xx date.” Also new to me is the whole concept of listing at a price significantly under the expected sales price. In my area, I know there are a lot of places that sell at the asking price (rare even a few years ago), but I don’t think there are too many that actually go significantly above the asking price. But I could be wrong! (Of course, the asking prices all seem ridiculously high!)
Anyway, this is all so interesting! You’ll have to let us know how the bidding goes. We want play-by-play – to the extent you feel comfortable sharing!
It really depends on the local market. In our area it seems to be the norm than exception, including:
Offer deadline, mostly in a week or less
Significantly over offered price
Multiple offers, over 20
All cash, no contingency
As is where is
Owner has the right to refuse any or all offers
No interior viewing owner occupied
Just viewed a house that requires total rehab but is described as “need little TLC”. That house does not even have a kitchen! Nevertheless, I view it as a “good” house for me because less demo is needed!
Otoh
On the way home, passed an open house and stop by on a whim. It is priced around 600k, fully renovated for flipping. Was purchased earlier in 2014 for around 400k. This had no offer for 60 days last year and is being relisted.
That’s the case as well where I live. You don’t see the ridiculously low prices that are clearly intended to generate multiple offers, most people list high, hoping to get x percentage of the asking, one rarely ever hears of bidding wars or over asking prices. Every once in a while a niche market might have low inventory, so you might see some of that, but in general, getting one’s asking price would be considered a lucky day, though DH would say if he got his asking price, he must not have been asking enough.
This kind of thing is VERY market specific, and IIRC, the OP is in California, where you see much more of the “crazy” real estate practices.
I’ve always heard the rule of thumb that you should price your house about 5% above what you hope/expect to get for it. But that might be market-specific.
Depending on the market, if it’s a new home what I’ve been told is there’s usually not a lot of give on the asking price. Some maybe, but not much. With a previously owned home there may be more leeway. Factors that could affect this include how the buyer is paying, whether there are any contingencies (ie sale of another home), how long the home has been on the market, how motivated the seller is, other offers, desirability of the particular property and area, time of year, supply vs demand in general.