[House4Sale]

Thanks Kroc67. I agree and price doesn't seem to be a problem but the house is on a slight bit of a hill and some like that where others do not. The sticking point seems to be the backyard bearing wall (think that's what it's called) but if a lanai/pool or a patio gets built, that retainer can and does get moved. The neighbor did it as well as others. But finally our new agent noted that in the details where the others didn't. Hopefully now our chances improve. The view is breathtaking, the house new. 3/2/3 with extra rooms. $17,000 in upgrades, a sturdy shed, planting/herb gazebo etc. etc. Hopefully all this helps.

[Sunandsand]

Originally Posted by House4Sale

Thanks Kroc67. I agree and price doesn't seem to be a problem but the house is on a slight bit of a hill and some like that where others do not. The sticking point seems to be the backyard bearing wall (think that's what it's called) but if a lanai/pool or a patio gets built, that retainer can and does get moved. The neighbor did it as well as others. But finally our new agent noted that in the details where the others didn't. Hopefully now our chances improve. The view is breathtaking, the house new. 3/2/3 with extra rooms. $17,000 in upgrades, a sturdy shed, planting/herb gazebo etc. etc. Hopefully all this helps.

No offense, but price is always the "problem". If a house has issues, someone will still buy it for the right price.

Anyway, showings are meaningless, you will know the price is right when you get solid offers within a reasonable percentage of the asking price.

[Mike1306]

Showings are the key to getting an offer. The price is one thing that factors into getting showings so you should feel encouraged that you are getting showings.
Just make sure to try and get the feedback and see what any issues may be.

[House4Sale]

Thanks, Sun&Sand and Mike. As they say in business, "A complaint (or crit) is a gift."

I've had 500 flyers printed up and have started passing them around to anyone who will listen and who wants one. I'm going to hit up public bulletin boards as well. Wish me luck.

[hiknapster]

Have you tried putting the house on Zillow?

[Sunandsand]

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

Showings are the key to getting an offer. The price is one thing that factors into getting showings so you should feel encouraged that you are getting showings.
Just make sure to try and get the feedback and see what any issues may be.

Not true. I know realtors who have been in the business for 30 plus years. The number of showings is not an indication of anything.

The number of showings can be the result of a lot of factors. Drive by location results in natural traffic, agents playing up a certain house because the seller is offering a higher commission, the outside of a house is appealing. But if the house is not priced right, none of that means a darn thing.

Top real estate agents look for offers within 5-10% of asking price. The number of showings is meaningless, showings cost money, time, and inconvenience for sellers. Look for one thing and one thing only, legitimate offers. No good offer means bad pricing, end of story.

People are selling their houses, even in this market. But the ones selling are the ones who set the price correctly, not the ones who attract lots of showings through what ever means.

[Ten]

Originally Posted by House4Sale

they believe the housing market has finally hit Thee Bottom and that rates will not go down further and that housing prices have seen a slight increase. Hopefully this is true and the worst is behind us. With this, buyers will start getting off the fence and will be able to shop for the home of their dreams as they have a big surplus to pick from.

Anyone else hear this? What are your thoughts?

When have we ever trusted the talking heads? Look, the economy is a managed shell game. The Fed played with excess paper money (did you know that ALL money is really a sea of instruments of debt) and it kicked back. There is NO hard evidence that this correction is really even getting started, much less over.

Add to that the fact that the US is a service economy and makes hardly anything (at least as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of historical global production) and there is simply nowhere for real house-buying worth to come from.

Remember, the entire bubble was based on cash manipulation. Those days are over. So what's going to push prices back up if there isn't the worth to buy them? Meanwhile, inventories at at record levels, prices are dropping like stones, and the reason we haven't seen anything approaching a bottom is because people can hang on for quite a while before bailing out and taking what they can get. When the desperation sets in, there are going to be tens of thousands of fire sales.

Of course, this is the macroscopic picture -- local blips and variations and exceptions moving both ways will occur. But overall, the fundamentals are what they are and the US is in for some rough sledding.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by Sunandsand

Not true. I know realtors who have been in the business for 30 plus years. The number of showings is not an indication of anything.

The number of showings can be the result of a lot of factors. Drive by location results in natural traffic, agents playing up a certain house because the seller is offering a higher commission, the outside of a house is appealing. But if the house is not priced right, none of that means a darn thing.

Top real estate agents look for offers within 5-10% of asking price. The number of showings is meaningless, showings cost money, time, and inconvenience for sellers. Look for one thing and one thing only, legitimate offers. No good offer means bad pricing, end of story.

People are selling their houses, even in this market. But the ones selling are the ones who set the price correctly, not the ones who attract lots of showings through what ever means.

If a house does not get shown it does not get sold except in the most unusual circumstance.
As I said price is one of the things that factors into gettings showings.

Ask your friends that have been in real estate 30 years how often a house gets sold if it is never shown.
Then ask them, if a house gets shown many times does it have a better chance of getting sold.

The answers should be, a home will almost never get sold if it isn't shown and if a house is shown many times it has a better chance of getting sold.

You don't get offers if you don't get showings.

[Ten]

In conjunction with a story on the CA implosion, CBS just quoted Moody, I believe it was, projecting a $4 trillion loss in home value by the end of 2008.

It's lost 1.2 trillion so far.

If this holds, we're not even a third of the way to correction. And I hear CA hasn't the problems FL does.

[V20]

Originally Posted by Ten

In conjunction with a story on the CA implosion, CBS just quoted Moody, I believe it was, projecting a $4 trillion loss in home value by the end of 2008.

It's lost 1.2 trillion so far.

If this holds, we're not even a third of the way to correction. And I hear CA hasn't the problems FL does.

You can buy a new off-water home in Cape Coral for $120k or so. How much lower can it go? Will a brand new home be $25k? You could import all the materials and the laborers from China to built the house but you still couldn't do it for $25k. The problem isn't the $120k house for sale it is the multitude of similar homes that sellers are asking $250k for.

It has recently been stated that there are 16,000 condos and homes for sale in Lee County. But how many of them are actually priced to sell. I see new listings on lots and houses that are at numbers that were accurate when the market was at its height.

Quality gulf access canal lots in northwest Cape Coral can be picked up at under $100k today. None have recently sold over $140k. There are hundreds for sale, yet only a few dozen are priced under $150k. All of those lots above $150k do not have the slightest chance of selling. Yet there are all sorts of sellers putting them on the market and all sorts of realtors listing them.

Why would a seller think they could sell a lot for $300 when a equivalent neighboring lot is listed for $119k? Why would a realtor agree to list it at such a number? Who knows?

It is fair to say that 80% of all the properties on the market in Lee County are listed at a price that will not sell (until the market turns around). If the sellers realized this and pulled such properties off the market there would only be 3,200 homes and condos on the market.