Irony--home sold for what I offered 9 months ago (Houston, Sugar Land: real estate, apartments)

[CaroleF]

Some of you may remember that I offered for a condo in "The Mark" in February and the owners raised the asking price. Well it has just sold for the amount of our counter-offer!

I guess it wasn't meant for me.

[Be Happy 2]

They must've just put it on the market at the time you put in your offer and they assumed they could get more. It's 9 months later and they just sold it so that tells you they figured we need to get rid of it now before we have it another 9 months.

No it wasn't for you. You'll get something much better. I had a home that feel through at closing. I was upset but I found something much better so I'm happy overall.

[crone]

Happens all the time in Houston. When we came back here, it appeared most of the houses where we were looking were way overpriced. Our 1st. offer was always around 95% of asking. Owners were pi----- off. When 5 tries on 5 houses did not produce a contract, it dawned on me that folks were holding out for the price their agent said. The agents habitually told the sellers an unrealistic price to get the listing. The sellers were getting upset with the buyers. By the time that you are the 3rd. or 4th. offer, sellers see the light and you can get a house.

With the exception of our beloved agents on this forum, the agents I have encountered in Northwest Houston are either dumb as dirt or crooked as a snake. Sometimes both.

[AlexTx]

You can bet the Sellers wish they had accepted your offer. And you can feel good about the fact that you walked away and didn't offer more since it turned out to not be worth more. It just took the Sellers 9 months to realize that.

[modster]

Originally Posted by crone

Happens all the time in Houston. When we came back here, it appeared most of the houses where we were looking were way overpriced. Our 1st. offer was always around 95% of asking. Owners were pi----- off. When 5 tries on 5 houses did not produce a contract, it dawned on me that folks were holding out for the price their agent said. The agents habitually told the sellers an unrealistic price to get the listing. The sellers were getting upset with the buyers. By the time that you are the 3rd. or 4th. offer, sellers see the light and you can get a house.

With the exception of our beloved agents on this forum, the agents I have encountered in Northwest Houston are either dumb as dirt or crooked as a snake. Sometimes both.

Yes, telling the seller what they want to hear is the oldest trick in the book to get a listing, but if the listing won't sell, I don't know what good it does the agent to take it.

That said, the bigger problem is sellers often refuse to see the light. I never met a seller that didn't have some figure already in their head that they wanted for the house. If what they imagine is too high you can show them all the proof in the world that the price they want is too high and some sellers will not hear it. A realistic price could come down out of the sky on a lightening bolt and be engraved across a stone tablet and they wouldn't pay any attention to it. Their house is just sooooo much better than all those other dumps that sold in the neighborhood.

For some sellers it just takes time sitting on the market to "get it."

[tac2008]

Or maybe some people just aren't in a rush to sell and are willing to wait to see if they can get a larger offer.

[AK123]

A few years ago, we put an offer on a home in the First Colony area of Sugar Land. Upon inspection, it was found there was deferred maintenance on the roof and A/C -- both hadn't been touched in the entire 16 years the homeowners had lived there after building the home. From a cosmetic standpoint, the carpet looked like it hadn't been updated the entire time either.

They refused to drop the price more than about $5k for a home that would need probably closer to $20k in repairs (new roof and A/C.) So we cancelled the contract. We later found out they sold the house about 3 months later, for LESS than we had offered after we found out about the deferred maintenance.

Their agent was a major pain-in-the-butt to deal with too, took forever to get back to us on anything -- which was even more frustrating considering we were in a real time constraint because our home we were in at the time had already sold. I would have expected a lot more from a real estate team (spouses) who have their faces plastered all over the First Colony area and market so many homes in the area.

[crone]

Well, anything over 90 days in Houston and the world thinks it's built on a toxic dump. We relied on our trusted friend and agent. We went on the market so overpriced it was delusional. 181 days later, another flim flam agent. He got our listing. Guess what he said 30 days later? The market is different today. By the time we found a realistic person to sell the house, the DOM make us look like we put shrimp shells in the curtain rods, like that old joke about the divorcee having to sell the house. I'll leave this place in a hearse if I have to depend on the moron agents in area 13.

[peonies]

Originally Posted by CaroleF

Some of you may remember that I offered for a condo in "The Mark" in February and the owners raised the asking price. Well it has just sold for the amount of our counter-offer!
.

Nerve of them to raise the price after listing! Serves them right, doesn't that place have like $500/mth condo fees x9mths?

Originally Posted by crone

Happens all the time in Houston. When we came back here, it appeared most of the houses where we were looking were way overpriced. Our 1st. offer was always around 95% of asking. Owners were pi----- off. .

I know what you mean. Not sure about crooked but definitely not knowledgeable. I see a lot of houses that are extremely overpriced that I wouldn't dare to make an offer on, afraid they'd throw insults at me. Ie, townhome lists for $500k, 300 d on market, price had been lowered 1% over 3mths ago, sold compareables suggest $400k, owner already moved out. I just dont have the guts to offer them that little. The sad truth is, if it's a decent house and location, if they hold on long enough, some sucker will come along and buy close to the asking price...probably their agent convinced them it's a bargain.
On the other hand, I see some very overpriced house where the owners were just trying to sell back the house for the same price that they paid 5 yrs ago. I feel really bad for them but it's not my fault they overpaid the first time.

[CaroleF]

Originally Posted by peonies

Nerve of them to raise the price after listing! Serves them right, doesn't that place have like $500/mth condo fees x9mths?

That's for the two bedroom ones. The one bedroom are in the $300s. The Mark has the cheapest HOA fees for a mid-highrise I think, but the apartments are not very big.

I am now looking at a townhome that is about 1400 square feet that costs much less than the one in the Mark, and wondering why I would have considered it in the first place. I wouldn't have used all the amenities, but i liked the idea of the elevator and the soundproofing on the walls. I'm a little sad. It was nice.

Is 1400square feet too big for one person?