<p>You never know what is going to attract somebody…</p>
<p>I’m in Cal and I like this area of California that reminds me of Sunriver, Ore. I have good memories from time spent at Sunriver. Others are not going to have those feelings. </p>
<p>Well…it has been a few days since the buyers have taken over my old house…and I haven’t received any phone calls from them. :)</p>
<p>Good time to change the number.</p>
<p>Speaking of changing numbers (thanks for the segue) We lowered the pride onmy dad’s house and redid the copy that is in the MLS. The previous description was very bland. I sent them several of the suggestions that were made here. Stay tuned!</p>
<p>Barrons, :).</p>
<p>Jym626, good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks. Apologies for the typos. The *price was lowered and the copy updated. If we get any nibbles they"ll say it was a price and I’ll say it was the copy written by the cc’ers.</p>
<p>Today we finally got through the inspection contingency. We (of course) felt our agreed price reflected an aging house, but the buyers wanted a perfect house, so some negotiation ensued. Today, we caved to what I think was an unreasonable demand, but we really didn’t want to lose the sale over a few thousand bucks. If it comforts anyone who is feeling alone in their misery, our final selling price is about 20% below our original list price (and our assessed value). That list price had the blessing of our realtor and several others, while another handful thought it was a couple percent too high. It was hard to predict what this market would do. Now we just need to close the deal, but that seems like it will happen.</p>
<p>dstark - congrats on your new home! It sounds great.</p>
<p>And best of luck to all the other sellers!</p>
<p>fauxnom…I have been having many discussions about this in the real world.</p>
<p>I didn’t like the inspection process as a seller…because it cost me money…</p>
<p>and now as a buyer…I still don’t like it. 
I will know more in about 10 days when the negotiations begin…the work that should be done is several thousand more so far…</p>
<p>It’s true the initial price negotiated between seller and the buyer is not the selling price.</p>
<p>And it does seem buyers want a new house even the house they are buying isn’t.</p>
<p>A twenty percent difference in what a place is supposed to sell for and what it does sell for is quite large…</p>
<p>Good luck on your closing.</p>
<p>The purchasers of my mom’s house actually had a contractor do an inspection and give a price for the work that needed to be done. So, we knocked that amount off the price of our counter offer, in essence, giving them the money to do the repairs. </p>
<p>So, even though we took an even greater beating on the price, at least we didn’t have to come out of pocket to hire repairmen to do the work to correct the deficiencies. The purchaser was happy for the price break, which gave them more money to do the renovations they were planning.</p>
<p>There is another bid in second position waiting for my wife and me to bail…makes it harder to negotiate problems that have come up in the inspection…</p>
<p>Then again…I would assume any buyer would want problems fixed…</p>
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<p>When we sold a house last summer, we ended up at 20% off original list price even though several high-volume realtors told us it was a fair price. At some point, you just decide it’s worth taking the hit and moving on. Otherwise, the house could languish on the market for years.</p>
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<p>Personally, I would think twice about spending money on new carpet. Could you install a wood floor instead, at least in non-bedrooms? If I were your buyer, I’d be deducting the cost of ripping up the carpet and installing a wood floor from the price I’d be willing to pay. I really don’t like carpet, and I’d rather get an allowance towards putting in the flooring I prefer. But I may be in the minority.</p>
<p>My mother lives in Wilton, CT and houses in her neighborhood seem to have been selling rapidly. In the past few months, at least four have sold within a quarter mile or less at prices from $875K and up. Most of them were nothing special from the outside, although they may have been gussied up inside.</p>
<p>On the other hand, her condo in FL continues to languish on the market. People who can’t hold on any longer continue to put units on the market at a huge loss, plus there are still foreclosures and short sales, and the prices may not have bottomed out yet. I’ve pointed out to her that the carrying costs mean that, if she really wants to sell it, she would be better off biting the bullet now and taking a big price reduction, but she has already come down below where she wanted to be and is reluctant.</p>
<p>We were lucky that we didn’t actually have to lose money when we accepted less than we originally thought the house was worth. We could have held onto the house; we talked about renting it out, but my husband is not at all convinced the market will improve in a year or two. We just have no interest in holding it over the long run; we like our new house just fine! MomLive, I agree with you - at some point you want to move on.</p>
<p>Consolation, I’m with you, I loathe carpet.</p>
<p>A laminate floor (like quick step or pergo) can be almost as cheap as carpet, and makes a nice clean, expansive look. Easy to keep clean, too. I would never put carpet in a house, and if I was prepping a house for sale, I’d install laminate. JMHO ;)</p>
<p>Our neighbors who are doing a short sale invited us over to look at the house, as they are finished renovations. They took up the carpet on the stairs, which is what we have, and it really looked great. They had laminate on all the downstairs floors, with large tile in the kitchen and the foyer. I’ve seen some other places, including my boss’s house, who has several large greyhounds, that have a tile that looks like a laminate floor. This is what I would get in my house, as I have cats. We are definitely going to take up the carpet on the stairs when we move to the inside renovations. It really looked nice.</p>
<p>I was surprised how small the house looked on the inside. I had only been in the den area, when the previous owner lived there, and that must have been the largest room. There is a large den with fireplace, a dining room, a small bedroom, a kitchen and kitchenette, and a half bath in the foyer on the first floor. We didn’t go upstairs, but she said there was the master bedroom and three other bedrooms on the top floor. I assume there’s a full bathroom upstairs. I don’t think there would be room for more than one bathroom, but I may be wrong. Perhaps the three other bedrooms are small. The previous owner had ten children, though, all who lived under that roof at one time, so it must have been a tight fit. </p>
<p>It’s a nice house, one of the model homes from when the subdivision was first built, and it will make a nice home for a family. </p>
<p>It’s on short sale because the granddaughter who was living in the house couldn’t make the note, and the house was going to be foreclosed on. The aunt and uncle interceded to work with the bank to let them fix up the house and try to short sale it. They said they would like to sell the house to the granddaughter, but she now has bad credit because of letting the note go. They wished she would have come to them for help with the note, but she didn’t know to do that. It’s unfortunate, as the house was bought by the grandmother, their parents, with the intent to keep the house in the family for the grandchildren. But when the grandmother and grandfather passed away, the grandchildren couldn’t handle the responsibility of the home on their own, and that’s why it was abandoned and is now up for short sale.</p>
<p>Posts 219 and 223…</p>
<p>I mentioned a house went up for sale near my old house and I was shocked at the asking price and said it better go for atleast 10% over the listing price.</p>
<p>Well…I found out today…there were 7 bids and the best offer was well above 10% over…</p>
<p>I guess the real estate market is not dead if a place has some things going for it…including a very low asking price.</p>
<p>Now…I think the sellers did very well…</p>
<p>We will see if the buyers try to get a lot of concessions.</p>
<p>So which is the better strategy – put the house on the market 5% or 10% above what you really expect, or put it on 5% or 10% below what you really expect?</p>
<p>Seems to me the seller is more in control if he puts it on for more than he expects. The seller can always lower his price.</p>
<p>If there is no bidding war and you set the price lower than you really wanted, seems to me you’re kinda out of luck.</p>
<p>I think if you are 10% above the market…you are going to have a lot of trouble selling your place…</p>
<p>And once your house has been on the market for awhile, it becomes stale.</p>
<p>Wow, dstark!! What part of te country is that?
How long do you consider a house to be on the market when it becomes “stale”? We may consider taking my dads off and relisting it, but are waiting for some paperwork to finalize first.</p>
<p>I’m in Nor Cal…and the area is an area people want to live. Having said that…prices are down 25 to 30%.</p>
<p>I think stale depends on the area…where I live 1 month is stale…you will not get your price if it takes more than a month…and a month may be stretching it…probably…you won’t get your price if the place hasn’t sold in one or two weeks.</p>
<p>Selling your house a little below market works here…there is demand…</p>
<p>If you are 10% above market …forget it…buyers are very price sensitive.</p>