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We are empty-nesters and have a large family-size home in North Fulton that we would like to sell. We had planned to list it next spring and take our lumps with losing money on the sales price.
Would it be better to wait another year with the hope of a better price? I'm concerned that if we wait a year, especially if the market improves, that there will be many, many other baby boomers trying to unload their homes, and the intense competition will drive the prices even lower in 2013 than the low prices of next spring--2012.
I'm not a realtor. The best time to sell a house is when you need to sell. We listed our Michigan home in December 2010 and sold it in May of 2011. The market was brutal in Michigan but we priced right and got showings just about every week.
Why don't you interview several realtors and get comps and their marketing strategy. That way you will get a good idea on pricing and what your competition is today. If you wait till spring, you will have more competition.
Interest rates are low...it's a great time to buy but a lousy time to sell.
You know what the best advice is? Never listen to realtors!
Remember when the huge slump began? It took the National Association of Realtors (or National Association of Liars as I like to call them) over a year to actually admit the market had slowed down. The numbers were there to prove it, but they still denied it. I distinctly remember people wondering why their homes weren't selling and realtors were not giving appropriate advice to alter the asking price. They were hoping if they just denied it, maybe it would go away....it didn't.
Do you know when a realtor is going to tell you to sell your home? Right now. Always. Of course they are, why wouldn't they? That's how they make money. If nobody is buying and selling homes, realtors starve. It's a commission only business. In my entire life, I have never ever heard a realtor say this really isn't the time to buy or this isn't the time to sell. They'll tell you there are always buyers and sellers out there.
This is true, but it depends how long you want your home to sit on the market and how big of a hit you are willing to take. A lot of it also has to do with nobody having a crystal ball. If a realtor told you that you'd be better off waiting until the spring, or 2013, I would still say they are full of baloney. They don't have crystal balls. Nobody knows what the housing market is going to do. It might get better....it might get a lot worse. The only thing anybody can say with any certainty is it's not going to get back to where it was in the height of the boom for a very, very long time.
If you're already in a home and want to buy a new one when you sell yours, it's a bit of a wash, isn't it? I mean, does it really matter when you sell? If you sell when prices are low, sure you won't get as much for your home, but you'll also be able to buy during the down market and pay less for your next one. If you wait for prices to go up, you'll get more for your house, but you'll also pay more for the next one you buy. I think the only real difference is right now it will probably stay on the market for a longer period of time.
Anyway, I think you raise a very valid point. When prices improve, might a lot of people who have been holding off start selling and driving prices down? That's a good question, but I would think the market would find equilibrium rather quickly. The answer to your question, unfortunately, is that nobody knows. I don't know. Realtors don't know. Warren Buffet doesn't know. If a realtor tells you he does know, that's a pretty good sign of who NOT to list your home with. If you're not in a huge hurry to sell, why not put your home on the market? If no good offers come in, you don't have to sell, but at least you won't feel like you missed the best time to do so.
Good luck with it, and don't be afraid to do a lot of your own marketing, too! A lot of listing agents think taking a few snapshots and throwing your house on the MLS is all they have to do. I would suggest hiring a professional stager and maybe even photographer would be a good start to moving your home quickly. And there's no reason you can't do your own video tour of the house and put it on Youtube. You can also put it on Craigslist yourself. There are lots of things you can do to complement what the realtor does (or doesn't do) for you.
And just for full disclosure, in case you couldn't tell, I think most realtors are terrible. Apologies to any of the few good ones who may be reading this.
"If you're already in a home and want to buy a new one when you sell yours, it's a bit of a wash, isn't it? I mean, does it really matter when you sell? If you sell when prices are low, sure you won't get as much for your home, but you'll also be able to buy during the down market and pay less for your next one. If you wait for prices to go up, you'll get more for your house, but you'll also pay more for the next one you buy. I think the only real difference is right now it will probably stay on the market for a longer period of time."
Trouble is, we are going to purchase a less expensive, smaller home, so the loss on the larger home will be greater than the savings on the smaller home.
"If you're not in a huge hurry to sell, why not put your home on the market? If no good offers come in, you don't have to sell, but at least you won't feel like you missed the best time to do so."
The home is not quite ready--painting, clearing out, and some updating to do.
"Good luck with it, and don't be afraid to do a lot of your own marketing, too! I would suggest hiring a professional stager and maybe even photographer would be a good start to moving your home quickly. And there's no reason you can't do your own video tour of the house and put it on Youtube. You can also put it on Craigslist yourself. There are lots of things you can do to complement what the realtor does (or doesn't do) for you."
I'm guessing ATLJTL has had a bad experience with a real estate agent or something! Sheesh! (Took my crystal ball saying, too! lol )
So, I'll address staywarm2 instead
If you're still doing things to the home, don't list yet!! Buyers buy what they see, not always what they can imagine. Give them a finished product to see. If you do the work you're planning on, it'll justify the price better - hard to list at a price and say, oh, yeah, we're going to do this, that and the other - do it first.
List when you're ready and serious to sell - not just to see if you can get offers. Days on the market mean something in the real estate world - the longer the days on the market signals either defects in the house, incorrect pricing, or difficult parties to deal with, to name just a few.
Some will say that the winter time is not the time to list - wait for the 'spring rush'. Of course, if there were no homes on the market, what are people that HAVE to buy going to choose from? Winter is typically a slower time for home sales, as a lot of people wait until the weather is more accomodating, kids are out of school, vacation time for moving, etc. WHEN you list is entirely up to you.
If you do decide to follow ATLJTL's advice and do it yourself, educate, educate, educate yourself! There are several different threads around here in regards to the benefits/disadvantages? of using an agent. That being said, there are plenty of people that try and go it alone, so to say. If you do, you'll then realize what a good agent contributes to the marketing and sale of a home. (Some agents will provide video tours, at no additional cost to you).
It sure wouldn't hurt to talk with several agents and see what they offer, what their track record is, their area knowledge, etc. Ask what sorts of marketing they do, how they deal with showings, offers, etc.
It is true that you'd get savings in this market on the purchase of another home - it's up to you to decide if the savings offset the potential loss of the current sale. Who knows, maybe things aren't as 'bleak' as they seem for your neighborhood!
My wife is a realtor and generally recommends listing in the spring, but sometimes she will list properties in the fall/end of summer and will get a buyer during November who wants to close on the property in December over winter break. I am in Buckhead so I think the market is a bit different all over the metro. Up in N. Fulton I was browsing the listings because of a thread I started here, and I saw a listing in Country Club of the South that has been on the market for 1889 days now! I could not believe it! That is over five years! It did seem really overpriced. Go look at the listings in your neighborhood and see who are the most used realtors and call them in for interviews.
A lot of people seem to hate on realtors because they think the job is so easy, but let me tell you some of the things my wife deals with is crazy! I love when people say why do they get payed commission instead of flat rate! When my wife has a listing for 300k it is way easier to market than listings over One Million.
I hope you are not in one of the neighborhoods where there are a ton of foreclosures! I feel so bad for people that bought those houses who could afford them, because they got completely screwed over by people with ARM & 0% down. I still love when I hear people are shocked their ARM interest rate adjusted! Well what did they expect to happen! Back during 2004ish I sold some investment properties to people who were putting down nothing or very little and got ARMs. I have seen a few of the homes back on the market in foreclosure sales. I was not surprised at all!
People who put down nothing almost make out better than people who put down money because they can just walk away if you have money to buy another house. Can the bank go after you, I believe Georgia is a recourse state?
I would definitely use a realtor. Years ago we sold a couple of houses ourselves, but I don't think that works anymore. I watch our neighborhood home listings and sales VERY carefully. It seems everyone uses a different realtor. The homes, although similar in sq. footage, seem to sell for very different prices. Some prices are on the high side (but not nearly as good as 3 yrs. ago) and some much less. Of course the stucco homes sell for less. We only have one foreclosure, which is a lovely home. The realtor said the problem is the bank.
We are updating many features and fixing everything in the house preparatory to selling. I don't even want any realtors to come here until we are done, so that they have a very good impression of the house.
As far as Craig's list, etc. go, can I post photos on Craigs List or Face Book, even though I have a realtor? Maybe listing my MLS #?
Oh, I never said not to use a realtor! Just know what you ar doing and don't put all of your eggs in the realtor basket.
Most realtors aren't going to mind if you do your own marketing on the side. Why would they? You're just making their job easier. That's all I'm trying to say. A lot of people say why isn't the realtor selling my home instead of asking what am I doing to help sell my home? Nowadays a lot of people find homes on their own, even if they are working with a realtor, they still do their own research. I had a realtor, but I found the home I bought, I just told my realtor about it. I think your listing agent will put your house on MLS, but you can go and make sure it's listed properly on sites like Zillow and Trulia, the stuff that buyers will be looking at on their own.
I have a friend who hired a professional stager. He took all of their furniture and put it into storage, and brought in all of his own furniture and decor. It really made the house sing, and if you don't have top of the line items in your home, this approach can be beneficial.
I also heard Clark Howard a long time ago say you can get a high end HDTV and have it professionally wall moutned or buy a top end front loading washer and dryer, something very marketable, and tell buyers it comes with the house. It won't add to the value of the house, but it will help it sell quicker.
In fact, that's a good rule to remember which I asume you alreay know. If you spend $40,000 remodelling your kitchen, you can't tack $40,000 onto the price of your home. All it will really do is help the house move quicker. Of course, some buyers might be lookig to spend a little less and remodel the kitchen themselves to their liking. I would strongly consider what improvements you want to make and whether they will really help with your goal. Of course, I would think a fresh coat of paint will always help unless you choose a divisive color. And every realtor I have ever known has given the same advice: get rid of as much clutter as you can!
We successfully sold 2 homes in the last 4 years, and this is what we learned about the market.
Use an agent that will aggressively price your home. In this market, that does NOT mean pricing it at market. We have seen homes in our neighborhood sit and languish with mutiple price reductions because the listing realtors were trying to get the "best price" for the house.
Our agent priced our houses below recent comps (yes, it was painful and scary for us), BUT it resulted in the following....we ended up with multiple offers that bidded the price back up to where it was reasonable, and the bank appraisal came back at the price as well and we were able to close.
IMHO, because the pool of qualified buyers is so much smaller now, you really need to light a fire under them so that they will submit an offer. Those buyers are in no rush to buy, and can afford to keep shopping around, KWIM? So if you are adament in getting a certain price, then be prepared to wait a bit, but chasing the market is not what you want to do. If you want to sell quick, I think pricing is the key.
Oh, and don't make the mistake thinking that your house is the best (totally subjective - it's not) and therefore should be the highest priced. If your house IS the best in location, condition, etc, it just means that if equally priced with a similar home that is not as nice, your house would get an offer first....
I sold two houses that were listed the first week of December. With both, I spent a lot of time putting up holiday decorations around themes (Christmas in Connecticut for one and Cozy Cabin Retreat for the other). One got four bids over the asking price in the first week and the other sold for the asking price within two weeks. Granted, it was in a different time and markets, but I had been advised on both occasions to wait until the "spring market."
Also, think about when your home has the most appeal. If you have beautiful spring landscaping, and other outdoor appeal, then I would wait until then, if you don't have to move before summer.
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Time to Sell?
