Would you walk away? (Atlanta: mortgage, houses, neighborhoods) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

sweettea1 · 12-09-2008, 07:29 PM

We finally sold our house (albeit for less than we wanted, but we knew the market we were playing in) and are actively looking to buy. We found a house and neighborhood we like and made an offer. House has been sitting vacant for close to a year. We offered 9% less than asking price. Sellers won't budge. Neighborhood is very nice but not terribly convenient. We love the house. Should we walk and see what happens? Are sellers being unreasonable?

FromCLTtoATL · 12-09-2008, 07:50 PM

Walk away. It's a buyers' bonanza (as a seller, I can tell you that).

Iconographer · 12-09-2008, 07:58 PM

Your offer is certainly reasonable...hard to know where the sellers are coming from in this case.
If they're not even willing to counter, I say screw 'em. Walk away.

lastminutemom · 12-09-2008, 08:03 PM

I might. It depends on what else I have seen or what might be coming available (though I don't know your time line.)

Do you have any sense for how old the owners are?

sweettea1 · 12-09-2008, 08:14 PM

My sense is that they're in their late 50s early 60s...have very little mortgage (which may give them reason to hold out) left and have already retired.There's certainly no urgency to sell though having a house sit vacant for over a year seems like a bad business move to me. Then again, I'm biased!

atlantagreg30127 · 12-09-2008, 09:25 PM

You just said the location isn't really convenient for you, so, walk away. It's not the "perfect" place even though the house itself is nice. There's probably one just as nice in a more convenient location just waiting for you at the price you want.

lastminutemom · 12-10-2008, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweettea1

My sense is that they're in their late 50s early 60s...have very little mortgage (which may give them reason to hold out) left and have already retired.There's certainly no urgency to sell though having a house sit vacant for over a year seems like a bad business move to me. Then again, I'm biased!

I have seen this same scenario in my neighborhood -- they owe nothing and are "egotistical" to believe that their house is worth xxxxx so that is what they will get for it come h*ll or high water. However, in the meantime, they are paying property taxes, some utilities, sanitation etc.

But on a 500,000 home in DeKalb (if that is where this home is), it would take a lot of years for those extras to add up to nearly 50K.

cautious-mom · 12-10-2008, 04:49 AM

In my opinion, this is a terrific question. It seems like a no-brainer. "Just walk away" is what most people would say because the market is saturated. But I think it's more complicated than that.

Atlantagreg30127: Do you really think Sweettea1 hadn't already looked for a home more convenient at a better price before settling on this one?

Sweettea1: I would wonder more about why the house sat for a year. Is it even a wise purchase? I know it's supposed to be a slow market, but are other houses in that neighborhood selling? Did the owners recently lower the price drastically enough to draw you in? If so, that could be why they're hesitant to budge.

Personally, I've found that there are only a few neighborhoods that I could comfortably afford to live in that I would actually feel comfortable living in. Houses rarely come available in those areas. The good ones don't sit for more than a few days. The lousy ones (or seriously overpriced ones) sit forever.

I guess I'm saying, it's not so easy to walk away when you've found a house that you think is right for you. Besides, sometimes a full price offer is appropriate.

sweettea1 · 12-10-2008, 05:33 AM

Interesting twist cautious-mom. These are all such helpful responses! I was actually excited to wake up and see what everyone thought. The house was originally WAYYYYY overpriced which is probably why it got no action. Then it was still overpriced but lowered slightly enough for us to take a look and see if it's worth what they're asking. Having sat on the market for a year made us slightly hesitant and wondering 'what's wrong with it?' but the people have moved out of state and we thought they want to be done with it. At this point, it's probably the nicest neighborhood we'd be able to afford (and we were hopeful that the market would give us entre in) and one, when, the market gets better, we would be priced out of...

So...on from here...do we let it sit longer and hope that they come back to us while still looking to find another house? Or will they be too proud to come back to us in 5 months when they still have no other offers?

REally, I can't think you all enough for your insight!

lastminutemom · 12-10-2008, 06:05 AM

Those are interesting questions-- there is some thought that the market is a long time from recovery to pre-dropping prices. That is, that while the market may pick up in 2010 we are years away from "recovering" from the losses. Does that make sense?

So waiting them out is certainly one option or waiting to see what else might come on the market in the next few months in that same neighborhood is also a possibility. I suspect that most homes that come on the market in the next few months will be because the owners must sell.. so you can expect them to be motivated.