Consumer Homes.

Question:

>….  FSBO price was too good to pass up.

And that FSBO probably cogratulated himself on how quickly he sold his house, and how he ’saved’ all tht money in commission.  When all he really did was sell it cheap, and give the buyer the ’savings’. -v.

Response:

>> all he really did was sell it cheap, and give the buyer the >’savings’. >He bought it to settle a family estate and sold it for what he paid for >it.

So, he DID sell it cheap, if you had a rising market, which most places in the US did over the last coupla years. >  He wasn’t trying to "save" anything

Then why did he FSBO it? >or brag about the savings,

Brag?  I didn’t say brag, but how do you know whether he did it or not?  FSBOs often do. > nor was he trying to make a fat profit on the house.

So, he DID sell it cheap.  And why would the profit have been ‘fat’, and is there something WRONG with that?  Will you take a pledge to sell it for only what you paid for it, when it is time for you to move on?   >He’s happy – I’m happy… I don’t really see your point.

The point had nothing to do with your happiness.  Of course YOU are happy, you got "a FSBO price too good to pass up".  That’s good for YOU.  But what good did it do him to FSBO?  He likely would have netted no less, and maybe more, by having a broker sell it for a market price which was a higher price than he had paid for it.   THAT’s the point.  That often the seller does NOT get any more $ by going FSBO, as the money that would have gone for a broker’s commission went to the buyer, not the seller.  Therefore, since the seller does NOT get nore money, the seller gets little advantage. MOST sellers would regard more money as an advantage; are you saying your seller would have turned down an extra $10k if you had offered it to him???? What’s you’re point, that sellers who had bought from an estate wouldn’t want a profit?  That sellers who live in a place for a short time wouldn’t want a profit (if they could have one)?  I *never* disagreed that YOU got a good deal at a price "too good to pass up". My point is, did HE? -v.

Response:

v, are you a broker/agent? The seller is happy with the deal. And, that’s it. Maybe selling it fast is more important than making the best profit for the seller. Maybe the seller likes the buyer. The seller did not sell the house you owned, right?

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->> all he really did was sell it cheap, and give the buyer the >’savings’. >He bought it to settle a family estate and sold it for what he paid for >it. > So, he DID sell it cheap, if you had a rising market, which most > places in the US did over the last coupla years. >  He wasn’t trying to "save" anything > Then why did he FSBO it? >or brag about the savings, > Brag?  I didn’t say brag, but how do you know whether he did it or > not?  FSBOs often do. > nor was he trying to make a fat profit on the house. > So, he DID sell it cheap.  And why would the profit have been ‘fat’, > and is there something WRONG with that?  Will you take a pledge to > sell it for only what you paid for it, when it is time for you to move > on? >He’s happy – I’m happy… I don’t really see your point. > The point had nothing to do with your happiness.  Of course YOU are > happy, you got "a FSBO price too good to pass up".  That’s good for > YOU.  But what good did it do him to FSBO?  He likely would have > netted no less, and maybe more, by having a broker sell it for a > market price which was a higher price than he had paid for it. > THAT’s the point.  That often the seller does NOT get any more $ by > going FSBO, as the money that would have gone for a broker’s > commission went to the buyer, not the seller.  Therefore, since the > seller does NOT get nore money, the seller gets little advantage. > MOST sellers would regard more money as an advantage; are you saying > your seller would have turned down an extra $10k if you had offered it > to him???? > What’s you’re point, that sellers who had bought from an estate > wouldn’t want a profit?  That sellers who live in a place for a short > time wouldn’t want a profit (if they could have one)?  I *never* > disagreed that YOU got a good deal at a price "too good to pass up". > My point is, did HE? > -v.

Response:

>The seller is happy with the deal. And, that’s it. Maybe selling it fast is >more important than making the best profit for the seller. >Maybe the seller likes the buyer. The seller did not sell the house you >owned, right?

Well said. "Profit" may be measured by more than the $ made in the final agreed-upon price. The seller may very well have got a great deal if s/he got, say, less aggravation and more time to do what s/he likes.

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> Well said. "Profit" may be measured by more than the $ made in the final > agreed-upon price. The seller may very well have got a great deal if s/he got, > say, less aggravation and more time to do what s/he likes.

There is ‘profit’ and there is ‘profit’. We sold our house at a great price (about 10-15K more than what the agent thought it’d fetch) in four days. Then a comparable house across from us sold in a few weeks for yet a higher price, and that was curtains. There hasn’t been a house sold in there since June. For us, selling quickly was worth more than anything since we wanted to get started on a new house in the summer. I did not want a winter built house for many reasons, and it worked great. Timing wise we were timing it so that we’d lock in our rate at the depth of the recession (:-)) which so far has resulted in good interest rates. ST

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>.. The one feature that’s lacking is the location.

You have heard the old saying that the 3 most important things in real estate are "location, location, location"?  It is one of the only things that the buyer can’t modify (mitigate maybe, change, no). >I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) >selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected >flood of offers.

IMHO, selling on the first day (ESPECIALLY for more than asking price) is *NOTHING* to be proud of.  It merely means you were not asking enough money.  That is, it is your mistake if you asked so little that someone thought it was a good deal at more than asking. >Does anyone know the >average time homes are on the market before selling?

Yes.  Your Realtor does.  Average time on market is something that various Boards of Realtors routinely track.  It is usually expressed in days, as in "107 days".  Or "3 days" as the case may be.  Don’t ask us, ask them.  It varies WIDELY by market.  180 days or more in one place, 2 days someplace else. good luck with your sale, -v.

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Does anyone know the > average time homes are on the market before selling? > Thanks…

your realtor can tell you what the ‘average’ is for your area, but be aware that it can vary widely.       Our house was for sale about a year before we bought it…the seller had it on the market for 6 months at $190K with no offers.  She took it off the market for several months, then relisted it on a Tuesday for $20K less than she asked the first time.  We were the first people to see it on Thursday and put a bid on it Friday.       Our next door neighbors put their house on the market in April 1999, and asked the same price we paid for our house -$170K (but they have 1.5 baths compared to our 3 baths, they have no garage and no central air).  We knew that the price was too high…the house sat with no offers for a long time, but they kept lowering the price and eventually, 13 months later they sold it for about $140K, which we thought was about right. Tracey in CT

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… > The above examples are related to why I am skeptical about people who > have ‘dream house’ plans in their back pocket, without a clue as to > what the site will be like that they will ’someday’ put the house > on….

… Many people who have ‘dream house’ plans in their back pocket also have ‘dream locations’ in mind for these plans. While ‘I want plan #xxy out of Barbies Dream Houses’ is probably a bad idea any way you look at it there are good things that can come from thinking about what it is that you want in your house long before you spend the money and resources to design and build the thing. Very basic things can be decided early in the process which can dramatically change the final design. For instance, a single person may have a vastly different idea of what should be in a house compared to a married couple. Such simple things as kitchens, libraries, entertainment rooms, bathrooms, garages and dungeons are highly variable and some people may chose to not even have one or more of these while another wouldn’t think of having a home without elaborate and huge versions. Yes, the final site and other variables will, and should, affect the final design but it’s still going to be the same person building and living in it and it’s unlikely their values and desires will change completely overnight. Anthony

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>At the very same time as all this (approx. 2-1/2 yrs ago), the >contractor who had built our current house went bankrupt because too >many of his spec houses would not sell.  We heard that some had been >on the market for two years.

That may be a good example as to how a good tradesperson can be a lousy designer or marketer.  Some of the worst inappropriate house designs I’ve seen were by builders.  Like the guy who built this kit plan view house with a 2 story window wall (2-story living room with bedrooms off balcony upstairs) but facing a neighborhood of shoody little converted seasonals across the street.  A good design for a lake or mountaintop, but not for there. Another contractor I can think of built a 3-master suite design and crammed it in on a back lot, looking right at the rear of another house he’d also built.  Wrong design (that’s what you get when you just pick nice looking pictures out of books) for the market (good design for a ski house rental market where about 12 people from the big city would each take half shares to use the 3 bedrooms on alternate weekends).  And poor siting.  That house sat for years and then sold for way cheap in relation to size, quality, workmanship and (probably) cost to build. The above examples are related to why I am skeptical about people who have ‘dream house’ plans in their back pocket, without a clue as to what the site will be like that they will ’someday’ put the house on…. whatever, -v.

Response:

>he >paperwork we signed gave him 6 months of "rights" to sale of that property. >In other words, if we dumped him, he still got co-broker commission if >someone >else sold it in that 6 month time frame.

 Unfortunately, that was one of >those >fine-print items that got glossed over before signing.  

Fortunately, this was not a fine-print item on my sales contract with my agent this past year. Regardless, I believe one’s real estate agent getting 50% of the total commission, regardless of how much work s/he does for you for the time s/he’s contracted, is standard. >This guy was beyond pathetic.  He managed to go the whole 6 months and showed >the house 3 times (and that was only in the 1st 3 months).  Never set up an >open house (even when we requested it) and never got around to advertising >(even when we asked several times).

Now this sucks. Thanks for sharing it. I didn’t ask my agent too many questions about how many open houses she planned or the advertising she’d do, mostly because her company had sold a few houses in my area and I’d seen all the work they did for the sellers. But based on your experience, I’ll press my next agent (a million years from now) to give me particulars in advance and in writing. >I told him he didn’t >need >to worry about his money because he wouldn’t see a dime from me since I >wouldn’t sell the house to anyone he brought over directly because of his >uselessness.

There’s a solution… > That pissed him off and made me fell better anyway… >So!  After all that BS was done and over with 6 months later, we relisted >with >another broker (after a lengthy discussion) and she had everything set up for >an open house, and had ads in the paper in 2 days.  We sold the house (for  a >few grand more than the other broker suggested) in a total of 11 days after >listing with this new broker.  She also found us our new house shortly after.

Helluva story…

Response:

I tried FSBO for a month around August of this past year. I had to leave town relatively suddently to help a relative (and was discouraged with FSBO, anyway), so I contracted an agent to show my townhouse from Oct. through March. When I interviewed her, she said something like ‘if I can’t sell this in four months, I’m no good at this.’ She had several showings in October and November. These are dead times to sell where my townhouse is, but interest rates were on the decline, so there were one or two second walk-throughs. In December, my agent said the feedback she was getting was that the price was somewhat high. I said, ‘I’m in no rush to sell. I’ll wait for the spring market if necessary.’ A month later, in late December, someone made an offer. We went back and forth a few times, then deadlocked at about 2.5% apart. My agent probably gave him the ‘the seller’s prepared to wait for the spring market’ line, because he ultimately met my last counter. (I’ll add I was really happy to have an agent at this point. Blind negotiations permitted me to be as rational as possible.) I think people need to digest what they take in on a first showing, especially an open house. Interest rates are low. Have faith! With all the usual caveats about sale frequency varying with location, it sounds to me like you’ll have a sale within a few months, worst case, especially with the usually busy spring market fast approaching. Meanwhile, if you haven’t read up on negotiating the final price, closing costs, and other minutiae, I’d do so.  Let us know if you sell soon!  :)

Response:

So he was PUT OUT….heh heh I have had similar offers and I just smiled and politely told (both him and her) where they could shove the offer… Honestly I am not a very rude person nor am I crude but My Daddy taught me to treat people as they treat me in SPADES… They insult you you insult them…they slap your face… you flatten their nose….(not really) but the idea is the same…. Bob Griffiths – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->There are also those who regularly make low-ball offers.  They >have no intention of buying a home unless they stubble on the >"deal of the century".  Again, like a hobby, they just make offers >to pass their time. > I remember someone coming by when we were having a yard sale (while we were > attempting to sell our house FSBO.)  We were asking $140,000 for it (and > ultimately sold it via realtor for $135,000.)  This bozo offered me $90,000 > and was *put out* when I wouldn’t take it.  "Whadda think this is, New Joisey > or somethin’?" > Well, pal, it ain’t New Joisey but maybe you should look at a newspaper > some time.  LOL > — > The reason I use Linux is because I’ve used Windows.

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>Just curious about selling stories. [snip] >I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) >selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected >flood of offers. I know it’s a little rediculous to worry about not selling >after just 2 days, but we are a little discouraged. Does anyone know the >average time homes are on the market before selling?

It all depends…. Our previous house sold in a week (although the closing didn’t take place until the next month).  Shortly before that, the neighboring house sold even before it was listed.  The owners had contacted a realtor they knew well and had discussed the listing, but hadn’t signed a contract with her yet.  She mentioned the house to some prospective buyers, arranged for them to see it, and a deal was made. (The sellers didn’t hesitate to pay her the usual commission, even though they hadn’t signed a listing agreement.)   At the very same time as all this (approx. 2-1/2 yrs ago), the contractor who had built our current house went bankrupt because too many of his spec houses would not sell.  We heard that some had been on the market for two years. C. Brunner

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I do hope that your agent warned you about the "lookers".  People who regularly go and look at houses newly up for sale.  They have no intention of buying.  They just like to go and look, and see what the inside of a house is like.  Kind of a hobby, I guess. Agents learn very quickly who these people are since they run into them over and over again. There are also those who regularly make low-ball offers.  They have no intention of buying a home unless they stubble on the "deal of the century".  Again, like a hobby, they just make offers to pass their time. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > Well not exactly a bidding war but an offer or request for more info would > have been pleasing. This is our first house, and the first time selling so > we’re pretty nerved up about  the whole ordeal and although we do want to > get it over with and get on with our lives we certainly don’t want to take a > beating.

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>There are also those who regularly make low-ball offers.  They >have no intention of buying a home unless they stubble on the >"deal of the century".  Again, like a hobby, they just make offers >to pass their time.

I remember someone coming by when we were having a yard sale (while we were attempting to sell our house FSBO.)  We were asking $140,000 for it (and ultimately sold it via realtor for $135,000.)  This bozo offered me $90,000 and was *put out* when I wouldn’t take it.  "Whadda think this is, New Joisey or somethin’?" Well, pal, it ain’t New Joisey but maybe you should look at a newspaper some time.  LOL — The reason I use Linux is because I’ve used Windows.

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Be very careful of stories.  Too many times, they become more and more exaggerated as they make it through the gossip path. Were you really counting on a bidding war?  :) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) > selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected > flood of offers.

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First of all thanks everyone for the responses. > Were you really counting on a bidding war?  :)

Well not exactly a bidding war but an offer or request for more info would have been pleasing. This is our first house, and the first time selling so we’re pretty nerved up about  the whole ordeal and although we do want to get it over with and get on with our lives we certainly don’t want to take a beating.

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Mark> I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area Mark> (central MA) selling on the first day or having bidding wars on Mark> them that we expected flood of offers. It’s really up to you.  If your house sells in a couple of days, it probably means you weren’t asking enough for it.  If, on the other hand, it’s still on the market after six months, it means you’re asking too much. Conversely, it’s easy to sell a house real fast — just price it at $50,000 or so less than the expected price and explain that you’re doing so because you want a quick sale (and have a convincing reason why you want a quick sale, so they don’t think you’re trying to hide a defect). —

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>Does anyone know the average time homes are on the market before selling?

I’ve heard it’s measured in months, not hours.  :-{)    You had the flood of tire-kickers that always come out when a house gets listed.  Who knows, one of ‘em may buy it.  The guy who ultimately bought ours came back twice before puttin’ an offer down. Our house was put on the market in November, it sold in April.  Busy street, corner house.   We’re entering house-buying season.  People are going to start shopping for houses in the spring to settle before the summer, so they can start a school year fresh in a new school district. Don’t panic.  Yet. — The reason I use Linux is because I’ve used Windows.

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Lots of things factor into your question…. My Mother In Law passed away about 5 years ago and her house was sold Honestly within hours …My mother passed away last July and her house is still unsold…same neighborhood, better condition, comparable price … and NO offers ??? I really do not think you should worry much about it..especially at this stage… Bob Griffiths – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central > MA) > selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected > flood of offers. I know it’s a little rediculous to worry about not > selling > after just 2 days, but we are a little discouraged. Does anyone know the > average time homes are on the market before selling? > Average means very little. I have an uncle who’s house was on the market for > nearly two years before it sold a few years ago. A house directly across the > street from my parents house was recently sold after being on the market for > about four or five months. A house a few doors away from my parents, but on > the same side of the street sold last week and it was on the market for only > about ten days.

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It completely depends on the local market and your house. My Dad’s house sold in 5 minutes (literally).  There was someone waiting to see it when it went on the market and they made an offer on it immediately.  The market was hot, it is a great neighborhood, and it wasn’t an expensive house. My previous house took 9 months.  Actually we had an offer after a few weeks that then fell through due to financing problems from the buyer and that put us out of the then hot market into a cold market and it just sat there.  Grr. My neighbor’s house has been on the market for over a year.  The market’s good here now but they are asking waaaaaay too much for it (30% more than it cost them to build it a few years ago!) and no one has been fool enough to fall for it.

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[snip!] >I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) >selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected >flood of offers. I know it’s a little rediculous to worry about not selling >after just 2 days, but we are a little discouraged. Does anyone know the >average time homes are on the market before selling?

1. We are finally entering a buyer’s market. There are many estates in    Southern California selling for less than asking. Starter homes are    doing better, but estates are usually the first to fall. Those quick    sales probably happened a few months back. 2. Give it a month (or two!) before you freak out. Dimitri

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> I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) > selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected > flood of offers. I know it’s a little rediculous to worry about not selling > after just 2 days, but we are a little discouraged. Does anyone know the > average time homes are on the market before selling?

Average means very little. I have an uncle who’s house was on the market for nearly two years before it sold a few years ago. A house directly across the street from my parents house was recently sold after being on the market for about four or five months. A house a few doors away from my parents, but on the same side of the street sold last week and it was on the market for only about ten days.

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Just curious about selling stories. We put our house on the market on Saturday and had 11 showings the first two days, but no offers or additional inquiries. The visiting agents and our agent and her company all tell us the house is priced right and is a beautiful home and will sell. The one feature that’s lacking is the location. We are on kind of a busy street with a lot of smaller older homes, our house was built in 1992 and is set back far enough so that it doesn’t stand out. I guess after hearing so many stories about houses in our area (central MA) selling on the first day or having bidding wars on them that we expected flood of offers. I know it’s a little rediculous to worry about not selling after just 2 days, but we are a little discouraged. Does anyone know the average time homes are on the market before selling? Thanks…

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