How to deal with Home Selling in Naperville (Mark: bank owned, for sale)

[ArunG]

Hi All

We are the residents of Naperville, our home is on the Market in Prime Location in Naperville since Dec 2007 its almost 1 year.
Its vacant since last 6 months we moved out in June 2008.
We have showings but no offer. There were days in our sub-division
the homes used to get sold in 2 days of market time and some times
the realtors use to call and ask "Are you willing to sell the house we have a buyer" even though the house was not in the market?

Recently we upgraded the Kitchen with Granite and all Stainless Steel Appliances too.
Please give suggestions and your advise

[SouthSideWhiteTrash]

Originally Posted by ArunG

Hi All

We are the residents of Naperville, our home is on the Market in Prime Location in Naperville since Dec 2007 its almost 1 year.
Its vacant since last 6 months we moved out in June 2008.
We have showings but no offer. There were days in our sub-division
the homes used to get sold in 2 days of market time and some times
the realtors use to call and ask "Are you willing to sell the house we have a buyer" even though the house was not in the market?

Recently we upgraded the Kitchen with Granite and all Stainless Steel Appliances too.
Please give suggestions and your advise

Ohhh, if I were you, I probably wouldn't do anymore renovations on the home. Granite countertops and stainless steel appliances are a big expense, I wouldn't put any more money into the house than you already did. Because if worse comes to worse you might have to come down on the asking price a little bit, and it'd be a shame to lose profit on the house due to expensive renovations. We tried to sell our townhome last year, and our townhome was on the market for a year, and we never sold it. We ended up deciding to stay even though we were trying to move to a smaller place. Hey, have you thought about renting your house out? Or would that be out of the question? If you can rent it out, then maybe you can sign someone to a one-year lease and see if the real estate market and economy improves in a year and try putting it back on the market then?

[Prairie]

ArunG, it is a bleak picture for sellers right now. A year ago we sold our family homestead (belonged to my parents) a classic 1950's home. It was a hybrid, my Dad was a craftsman who delighted in working on his home. We had worked on the house for over a year (working a few weekends only), tearing up carpets to expose the white oak floors and put in a new kitchen. We finished the renovation in the fall and I interviewed three real estate companies. I was amazed at the different selling prices suggested - one extremely low and two very high. I had the house appraised and it was that we based our selling price. We did not list the home until Spring and sold it the first week - full price with back up offers. My question to you is has the house been appraised (not by real estate companies)? A outside source would be the best qualifier. Have you looked at your competition in the area?? Also - is the house staged to sell? I looked at the competition (on the computer - they always have pictures!) and I also staged the house using some of my own furnishings. I had three job offers to stage homes from realtors, it made that much of a difference in selling the house. If you can stage the house so it does not look vacant (think model home - generic stylish look) you will have a much easier time selling. For beds just use those inflatable type and accessorize using bed linens. Good luck to you.

[irish setter girl]

How are you priced in comparision to your competition? How many homes are for sale in your area? Are you competing with Relo or bank owned homes? There are a few neighborhoods in Naperville that are flooded with relo homes and the prices are hard to beat. Is your home staged at all? Are you competing with new construction in your immediate area. For the right price homes will sell but there are so many other factors that impact the price. What about offering to buy down the interest rate for the buyer. Instead of dropping the price 10k, use that 10k to buy down the rate to 3% (or so), that is the gift that keeps on giving in the buyer's eyes. A selling bonus to an agent does not really work in this market. You need to offer something that your competition is not offering. Buying down the rate may help someone jump off the fence and buy! Good luck to you!

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by irish setter girl

How are you priced in comparision to your competition? How many homes are for sale in your area? Are you competing with Relo or bank owned homes? There are a few neighborhoods in Naperville that are flooded with relo homes and the prices are hard to beat. Is your home staged at all? Are you competing with new construction in your immediate area. For the right price homes will sell but there are so many other factors that impact the price. What about offering to buy down the interest rate for the buyer. Instead of dropping the price 10k, use that 10k to buy down the rate to 3% (or so), that is the gift that keeps on giving in the buyer's eyes. A selling bonus to an agent does not really work in this market. You need to offer something that your competition is not offering. Buying down the rate may help someone jump off the fence and buy! Good luck to you!

Definitely wouldn't put any more money into it. It's not going to help because it will probably run directly against the grain of what people are looking for. Buyers do not seem to be looking for premium priced stuff right now. Don't know if Naperville is similar but what I'm seeing in my local market is homes selling, but only the extreme bargains (e.g. foreclosures). Anything that's been updated, taken care of, and priced at something resembling a fair market rate is languishing on the market.

Don't compare 2008-09 to the salad days of '03-04. They sold in 2-3 days because any idiot could get a loan. Not so now. Better news for neighborhoods, not as good of news for sellers.

If you can at all afford to, I'd hold on to it for awhile. Otherwise, if you really want to sell, you're simply going to have to keep lowering your price until you reach the "bargain" threshold. Good luck!

[Havasu]

Maybe a few simple things could help, here is a basic website with a few tips that help you sell. http://www.someonebuythishouse.com/
I had my house staged and it sold after that

[ArunG]

Originally Posted by irish setter girl

How are you priced in comparision to your competition? How many homes are for sale in your area? Are you competing with Relo or bank owned homes? There are a few neighborhoods in Naperville that are flooded with relo homes and the prices are hard to beat. Is your home staged at all? Are you competing with new construction in your immediate area. For the right price homes will sell but there are so many other factors that impact the price. What about offering to buy down the interest rate for the buyer. Instead of dropping the price 10k, use that 10k to buy down the rate to 3% (or so), that is the gift that keeps on giving in the buyer's eyes. A selling bonus to an agent does not really work in this market. You need to offer something that your competition is not offering. Buying down the rate may help someone jump off the fence and buy! Good luck to you!

Can you please explain in detail
does this buy down the rate means seller has to finance or the mortgage will be on sellers Name.

[Lookout Kid]

Now is just a bad time to sell. Pull the house off the market and wait a year or two if you the have the ability to do so. If you have to sell now, you're just going to get a bad price.

[tcs1366]

I dont think pulling the house off the market and waiting 2 or so years, will do much good, since they moved out.

Yes, it is a bad time to sell ... but if there are buyers out there that can get financing ... if it is priced right, it will sell.

[cohdane]

It's astonishing to me that so many people think pulling a house off the market "for a year or two" will yield better results than selling today.

The market is trending down. Real estate tends to level off for a while after it bottoms. Since interest rates are at historic lows now, there's a chance they'll be higher in a year or two. All of these factors tell me it's as likely as not that prices could be EVEN LOWER in one or two years.

I'm not saying they will be or they won't be. But implying that you can get a better price in a year or two-- given current economic conditions and forecasts-- seems foolish to me. A more honest guess would be in five, ten or fifteen years.

Are you willing to wait that long to get out?