<p>I’ve already read the interesting thread started by vicariousparent on advice on selling her NJ home (and was glad to see that she was ultimately very successful in selling her home). We’ve followed much of the essence of that thread with major decluttering, fixups and cleaning. Unfortunately, we went on the market in the teeth of the financial storm, making the real estate environment of last spring/summer seem like a seller’s market. We thought that we had it sold after 2 months on the market - had a contract through attorney review and everything … but the buyers got cold feet over the economy and managed to back out. We are now 3 months into the process and it’s time to reassess our strategy.</p>
<p>One strategy that I am considering is taking it off the market for at least a month and perhaps until spring when the yard will become an attractive selling point again and when more buyers traditionally come out. Our agent advises against this for two reasons: one is that the prices are continuing to fall, so he says the longer we take to sell it, the lower the eventual price will be. A second reason is that as spring approaches more houses will come on to the market, thus creating more competition. He is advising another price reduction to attract new buyers.</p>
<p>I see both of his points. However, I also see how houses sit on the market for an extended period of time tend to get a “reputation” and, once they do, they tend to sit forever and only sell at a give-away price. I’m thinking that by giving it a “rest” for awhile, that when it comes back on it will appear as a new listing to those who are using the Internet to search for houses. I wonder if the fact that our agent’s listing will expire in 3 months has anything to do with the advice that he is giving. </p>
<p>So, what do the real estate sages of CC have to say about this?</p>
<p>If you’re willing to put up with the hassle of having a house on the market (house having to be in ‘show condition’, people trooping through the house, ups/downs of contract negotiation) why not leave it on the market? It really just takes one party to see the house and declare it to be ‘the one for them’. You might miss some of these while you have it off the market. It’s true that there’ll be some more buyers but also sellers as spring comes around and summer approaches. I doubt there’ll be too much of a ‘time on market’ penalty these days since it’s probably fairly common now.</p>
<p>Disclaimer - I’m not a realty professional. I wish you good luck though.</p>
<p>I would take the agents advice with a grain of salt. Most would just be trying to keep a listing.</p>
<p>Many believe that Obama will make it a priority to really get the credit markets going quickly. That thinking makes sense to me. Freeing up credit to allow folks to purchase is key to kick starting the economy. It’s quite possible this would make many real estate markets start to become more active in a few months.</p>
<p>It’s hard to give advice without knowing the particular market. Here in NY houses can sit on the market for months and then sell for full price. That’s unheard of in CA, where traditionally if a house doesn’t sell in a few weeks it will never sell at the starting price.</p>
<p>So your answer depends on a lot of things. Has the number of people looking fallen off? Are you in a small market with only a few agents who have stopped bring buyers or a large market with a steady stream. What is the average days on market in your area? Is anything selling in your market? Is the market dependent on an industry/industries where things are bound to get worse? And most importantly do you need to sell fast?</p>
<p>While the number of people looking has fallen off, it’s hard to know if it is because of the house or just the holiday season. We actually had 2 showings in the last week.</p>
<p>The area is Central NJ which is a reasonable commute from NYC. There are some things selling (15 houses in our town went into contract during December, but this is less than half that went into contract during September and October … again, the holidays may have played a role in this.) The “need to sell” question is hard to answer. Every month that we do not sell costs us money but unless it drags on for a year or more, we should be OK. In fact, the amount that our agent is suggesting to lower the price by is about what our carrying costs are for 9 months.</p>
<p>Having been through this a few time (military family), I would usually recommend getting out a pencil and paper and running the numbers, which you’ve already done. It sounds like you can wait to sell, if you like. I didn’t read the other thread, so I apologize if this is a repeat. A few things I have done with success (or perhaps it was just a conincidence!):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Repaint the inside walls a light, neutral color. Fresh paint literally brightens a room and it’s not a huge expense. If you don’t want to redo the whole house, you can do the main rooms and hallways but skip the bedrooms/bathrooms. </p></li>
<li><p>In the winter, the curb appeal can really go down. A few evergreen shrubs or the like can add some color.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have pets, make sure the house does not smell like them. Have a friend who does not care for dogs/cats/whatever your pet is walk in the front door and take a deep sniff.</p></li>
<li><p>Declutter again. Take down all personal pictures, etc. Rearrange the furniture, if you need help you can hire someone to come in and give you advice on how to best stage your home.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If your community is one lived in by people commuting to NYC, it’s a market that is at high risk for getting worse. NY is a mess. Fully half the shows on Broadway will be closed by the end of the month! That’s one I haven’t seen in other recessions. Because a quarter of the jobs are Wall Street related, I think it will be at least a couple of years until things start going better.</p>
<p>I’d be inclined to keep it on the market. I’d take a hard look at very recent closing prices in considering repricing. I would pull out the stops to make it as attractive as possible.</p>
<p>Also beware of the high number of people backing out of these deals or making offers and then not getting financing, so be careful about the buyer you deal with if you have choice. This is the time to hire very sophisticated agents, I’ve seen so many blown deals lately, usually because the agents don’t understand how to deal with this new market and it’s new issues.</p>
<p>I’d want to know how much your current agent has shown the house. What has your current agent done to market the property, etc. If you feel your agent is a real go getter and they have a track record of selling properties, I would be inclined to leave it on the market based on the points you made above re:more listings in spring, etc.
hmom offers some great advice too…in these times you need a very smart agent who is working hard and knows how to deal with this market…not someone who is making excuses about how the market is slow, etc.
You might also want to check in with another agent in your area and see what they feel about your listing price…</p>
<p>My husband works for a large company and often transfers people after the 1st of the year. We’ve been out looking at homes in January in 3/4 transfers. Believe me, there are fewer homes on the market at that time. We’d usually find something by mid Feb., so if you take your home off the market, don’t do it for long.</p>
<p>In the MLS, new listings are flagged and so are price reductions. So and realtors acting as a buyers agent should be getting both when searching the MLS. And remember that the ultimate buyers for your house can come along at any time. As for the yard issue, the flyers and web pages that your realtor has prepared should include a photo showing it in all its glory.</p>
<p>But the bottom line is the pricing. If your home is not priced near the bottom 25% of comps, your house is merely selling others which are priced thusly.</p>
<p>We sold our house last year in a poor market in one day. Our good fortune was a combination of good pricing and having the “right” family in the market. Sure, we may have gotten a bit more for the house but that was not worth the stress of having two properties as we were in the process of building our dream retirement home in Tennessee which we should be closing on in about a month.</p>
<p>I’ve recently spent a lot of time looking at houses. Here’s what I’m seeing: the houses that have been on the market a while feel discouraged. The heat is turned down, the staging items (like the silk flowers) are dusty, and the owners won’t negotiate. (We made an offer on a house that has now been on the market–empty–for almost two years. The owner is sure his house is worth that 10% more. Nope, not in my opinon. Meanwhile, his house is cold and it smells bad, like mildew.)</p>
<p>So here’s what I’d do. Don’t take your house off the market, but have a long and cynical look at the price and plan to reduce it. Don’t reduce by inches, but with a bang. </p>
<p>Before you do that, have the place cleaned, top-to-bottom, put out fresh flowers, and see if there’s more cleaning/decluttering/etc. that you can do. Change your description so that it says “serious seller” or “seller will take back contract” (if that’s true). </p>
<p>Plan a trip out to look at your competition and see what they’re doing. </p>
<p>Add to your in-house marketing. Have school newsletters, restaurant menus, whatever you like best about your neighborhood. Have those minor repairs done and have a current inspection report right there with the fancy flyers. You want to make it easy for the buyers to buy your house.</p>
<p>I have had two friends sell houses in this market. They both did serious decluttering and had staging items. Before they would leave the house for an open house they would set the table both in and out with matching items, fresh flowers. Nice fruit bowl on the counter. Being Ca they also invested in new cushions for the patio furniture. It was all stuff that doesn’t stay but it made the house look inviting. If it was cold they would light a fire.
When we had our house on the market I had a small photo album with pictures of the house and view in different conditions. We have an ocean view and awesome sunsets but if someone came on a foggy or cloudy day or during the day they missed what was for the us one of the key highlights of our home.
For us once we began seriously looking we found that we were trading one set of problems for another. We loved our lot, our view and closeness to the ocean. We eventually made the decision to tear down our old house and build a new one in the same location. We were lucky we were not looking to move to relocate.</p>
<p>FF - I’m not in the real estate business, but have one suggestion. You might want to spend a couple of hours looking a few episodes on HGTV of shows like “Designed to Sell” and “Get It Sold”. If you’ve already learned what they talk about, you haven’t lost anything. But if it helps you avoid a problem, so much the better.</p>
<p>Other than that, I want to wish you the best of luck in selling your house. Got my fingers crossed for you.</p>
<p>Those designed to sell shows are amazing. Some of the changes they make are more drastic than declutter and put out some silk flowers, though. But the places look magnificent!</p>
<p>I vaguely recall (I think from the book Freakonomics) that the houses of realtors are kept on the market for longer than the houses of the people they represent. The concluding assumption is that it’s in the realtor’s best interest to sell quickly, even at a lower price, because the commission is only reduced by a portion of the difference between the original price and the reduced price. The owner is likely to have more investment in holding out for a better price. (Apologies to anyone in the business, especially if I’ve misremembered the example).</p>
<p>jasmom, that sounds correct. A realtor’s job is to move inventory. While $5K price difference is $5K added to or subtracted from the sellers’ pocket, it only translates into 6% ($300) commission to be split between the seller’s and the buyer’s agents’ firms. For the agent, it is not worth showing the house for a few more months to get a part of that $300.</p>
<p>In 1999, we had to fight with our realtor to list our first house at $15K higher than his suggested price. He already had a client with a price range in mind, and thought he can sell our house to him on the spot. We insisted, the house got into the MLS, and sold in 4 days. We kept it on the market until the closing.</p>
<p>^^ I had a realtor under-estimate our house - I assumed in an effort to move it quickly and collect the commission. I just immediately dropped her as an agent and sold the house myself at a higher price - in about 2 days (and had no real estate commission to have to pay).</p>
<p>NJ is a tough market. In most areas, not only do the buyers have all the cards, but you can have a few other problems after contract (repair/inspection issues), and then the piece de resistance, the appraisal can come in lower than your contract price - both of which happened to us. However, we sold some months ago, and were happy to do so to get rid of the house. We had done major work to sell it (roof, refinished floors, paint, some shrubs) and it had previously had the kitchen and two baths done. Yes, we did not make as much money as we felt that we should, considering the number of years we owned it (all told maybe 4-5% return over many years), and it was a good neighborhood too. However, the expenses of keeping it (insurance, HVAC, landscape etc.) were regular, and we did not need to keep it.</p>
<p>Unless you are sitting on an actual loss, take less profit and lower the price. Even a loss is not always viewed as bad. Years ago in one of the previous real estate down cycles, a friend of ours who is a financial whiz, sold his two condos for a loss. He bought a bigger place for a lot less since it was a down cycle. That is the upside of the lower sales price to you; the place that you buy (especially if it is bigger) will have more upside potential when things do turn around.</p>
<p>I wish you luck, and I know it is aggravating. I also agree that the better it looks inside, the more likely the sale. (Just bring your toothbrush thing.)</p>
<p>I’d say take it off the market for just a few weeks (maybe January) and spend some time assessing what you can do to make it sell. When you come back, you need make everyone who comes through say “Wow” (Great deal, awesome place) </p>
<p>First, think about lowering your price…a LOT. A friend sold a house in a tough market - in one week. Yes, the agent under priced it. Attracted THREE offers and sold ABOVE the asking price. Neighbors (especially those who bought a couple of years ago) were NOT happy. Friends got a great deal on the house they bought so didn’t feel too bad about it. </p>
<p>Second, do everything you can to showcase your home. Find an agent who is skilled in staging and who will be honest with you about what needs to change. Same agent noted above asked our friends to rent storage place and seriously declutter. All rooms were repainted in neutral colors. Wood floors were already in the place and they looked great. Everything was spic and span clean. Fresh flowers in strategic places. Looked like a model. Pics on the net looked terrific. Wow.
I think they should do a story on our friends in the NY Times to show how it can be done.
Good luck!</p>