Looking for real estate advice

fundingfather
Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:22:45 +0000

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.

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.

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.

So, what do the real estate sages of CC have to say about this?