<p>I’m somewhat concerned about the effect of the planned reduction of conforming limits later this year. Not many people in my area are under the limit, as jumbos are the norm here. But reducing the limit might put a damper on some of the “medium” expensive areas where with a large enough down payment someone might have the hope of getting a conforming loan.</p>
<p>One of the trickiest things for me is understanding how to set a listing price. If the definition of a comp is a house in the same town/same school district with similar square footage/lot size/age/number of bedrooms and bathrooms, then there are lots of comps for my house. But the range of sold prices for these comps is quite large - a swing of about 25% above & below the average. In real terms, this is a lot of $$s. So, if I price at the average, am I leaving money on the table? If I price in the top quartile, am I going to sit on the market for months? It used to be that you could price low and count on a bidding war, and that still happens occasionally but is far from certain these days. One agent has sent me lots of comps but they’re all well over the price I think I can get for my house. I think he just wants the listing.</p>
<p>I don’t plan on putting my house on the MLS until the fall. However, I’ve allowed a couple of agents to do off market showings. One set of buyers wants to come back a third time this weekend. They saw it in March, the wife was back 2 weeks ago on her own, and now the husband is back in town and wants to see it again. Could be good news - if it sells then we avoid doing all the painting/staging we were going to do. The bad news - having to move much sooner than planned, with nowhere to go! Maybe we can move in with dstark? :D</p>
<p>From the feedback I’m getting for your area, Vballmom, jumbos are not an issue. My brother says houses at the ask price of my neighbors’ at half the size and not so beautifully staged and spruced up are going in very little time. Around here, certain price ranges just are not moving for some reason. </p>
<p>It scares me how many sellers are 'staging" these days in this area. It’s all I can do to kick the shoes and socks under the beds and sofas and spray some air freshner for showings.</p>
<p>It’s going to be interesting info for me when that house sells, as I truly have no sense as to what a good price for it would be.</p>
<p>Hayden, Count me in on the porch with a highball…
Ironically, the house used to have a screened in porch. My parents enclosed it when I was a teenager and made it into a den. But-- they didn’t permit it. So I am having to go through all that now, and until it is permitted (“legalized”) it can’t be calculated into the square footage of the house. A shout out thanks to the cc’er who is helping with the legalization. You know who you are!!</p>
<p>BB-
I’d suggested they recarpet the den with a large carpet/rug that we took out of the living room. But, it was white and they said “no”. The estate sales people can help with the floor replacement and overseeing the job (thats what they do) and if we need to do it, we will, I suppose…</p>
<p>Hayden, start pouring please… next round is on me.</p>
<p>BTW, my dads’ house has been on the market about the same length of time as yours. We should compare notes through this process. Misery loves company :(</p>
<p>^^^Off topic, but jym, don’t forget the 25 cent martinis at Commanders at lunch.</p>
<p>Another piece of advice: Don’t hire someone you know or a relative as a real estate agent. We hired my brother’s mother in law for all the sales, and she services a totally different area of the city. Although she was an experienced realtor, she had no idea what the market was like in our area, and was either too ignorant or timid or more likely greedy to suggest we lower our price at the outset. It was aggravating to see her make a bundle on commissions during our three real estate transactions in a span of three years, while we took a bath on all the two houses we sold and paid way too much for the one house we bought.</p>
<p>The conforming limit here is $729,750 maximum now and will go down to $625,500 in October. Having to come up with an additional $100K down payment to get a conforming loan is significant. I do hear from my mortgage broker that jumbo loans are loosening up pretty well, so they’re not as hard to get as a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>Montegut
Does Commanders Palace deliver? My DS got home from NOLA the other day.
Hayden
Merlot sounds good to me. Who else is drinking?
By the way, does anyone have any experience with open houses? I’ve not heard that they are particularly successful.</p>
<p>Well now that we are choosing drinks… Our house is entering week 3 on the market, with a couple of multiple visit couples, but no offer yet. I am pretty discouraged, given how good the house looks and what a value it seems to be, given the size and unique features. Sigh! I hope things pick up before we have to reduce the price.</p>
<p>3 weeks on the market with several multiple-visits? Please don’t get discouraged! Really, that’s great. It’s the no-visits in a month that need to worry!</p>
<p>(The house we sold in June of 2009, thrilled to get out alive, is now back on the market for a little more than they paid for it. They’ll be lucky to break even after commissions. I’ll be interested to see how long it takes them to sell.)</p>
<p>I agree that having lots of foot traffic AND repeat lookers is a great thing!! Especially since the house isnt officially on the market! Congrats vballmom!</p>
<p>I was congratulating you on the amount of traffic and repeat visitors you’ve had in such a short time! Thats very impressive! Hopefully there will be more congratuations to follow!</p>
<p>The people that bought my mom’s house visited it several times. They loved the front and back yard, and I think they were waiting for us to be desperate enough to lower the price so they could spend what they wanted to renovate the interior to their style. The house truly was in move in condition, but they spent six months renovating, and even painted the outside. It is really nice to see how beautiful the garden is in the front yard, and I was so happy that we did give someone a home, rather than turn it into rental property, which was our initial idea. If you have repeat viewers, I would lower the price to see if they’ll make an offer. You may have a meeting of the minds where you can get your monkey off your back and the buyer can get a home they really want.</p>
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