I hate this market (Hunter: real estate, budget, houses)

[dman72]

Originally Posted by KarenBo

I'm not having much success in this market either, although I'm nowhere near your budget. I've been seeing something else the last month that is odd to me.

The weirdest thing I've been encountering lately is price ranges instead of simple asking price. I've seen about 6 houses lately that had a range of 30K to 60K difference in price (ex. A house listed for 339K to 398K) I don't understand it. I even made an offer on two such houses (in the middle of the range) only to be told that the seller really wants the top of the range. Well, then why mislead your potential buyers?

If you want $X why would even put a number 60K below that anywhere in your listing? The agent said, "to increase interest" but its not real interest. People who are looking for a 400K house aren't going to be able to pay 469K just because you got them in the door?

It just confounds me.

They want to try to grab people on the MLS who are plugging in numbers beneath what their sellers want. It's absolute nonsense and the MLS should not allow it. I've noticed it a few dozen times on the MLS.

Somebody should do us all a favor and poke one of these clowns in the eyes!!! Just kidding, mods!!

[rocafeller05]

Yes, I have been seeing this alot too. Some realtors I know say this is a way to bring in more buyers that are close to the lowest asking price. Example...a home originally is appraised at $400 k. The owner will list it from $370-$400 so they can attract people in that have a budget of $375. Its a way of saying..."look what you can get by spending an extra $** dollars".

Originally Posted by KarenBo

I'm not having much success in this market either, although I'm nowhere near your budget. I've been seeing something else the last month that is odd to me.

The weirdest thing I've been encountering lately is price ranges instead of simple asking price. I've seen about 6 houses lately that had a range of 30K to 60K difference in price (ex. A house listed for 339K to 398K) I don't understand it. I even made an offer on two such houses (in the middle of the range) only to be told that the seller really wants the top of the range. Well, then why mislead your potential buyers?

If you want $X why would even put a number 60K below that anywhere in your listing? The agent said, "to increase interest" but its not real interest. People who are looking for a 400K house aren't going to be able to pay 469K just because you got them in the door?

It just confounds me.

[KarenBo]

I could understand 15-20K but 40-60K? That's just crazy.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

Ah but it IS there! There are actually not one but TWO fields for it. Pull up any Stratus listing you wish. In the "center" column of data, the one where the field for "W/W carpet" appears at the top: the 18th field from the top is "Approx Int Sq Ft". And in addition to that, in the righthand column of data, the one where the top field is "School District", the 6th field from the top is "Building Size".

The fields for this information ARE there but most agents do NOT use it. And until the MLS requires them to use it, apparantly most will not. As a realtor, do you use either of these fields? If not, why not?

Even if there were no fields in which to enter it (which however there clearly are), why would a realtor not enter the square footage information into the listing description? Why not enter something that is such a useful piece of information to a potential buyer?

I stand corrected. I guess I've just glossed over it since nobody ever uses it. I will make an attempt to start using this field in my listings. Maybe it will catch on.

[alexei27]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

I stand corrected. I guess I've just glossed over it since nobody ever uses it. I will make an attempt to start using this field in my listings. Maybe it will catch on.

When we looked for a house last fall...we noticed that sq footage was missing ( I think even posted on this forum about it)...as it was the first place I have ever lived where it was not normally included in the listing. Our Realtor told us basically the same thing...it's just not used.

Hopefully it does catch on...it's a useful number for deciding whats most important in a house. Good post!

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

I stand corrected. I guess I've just glossed over it since nobody ever uses it. I will make an attempt to start using this field in my listings. Maybe it will catch on.

Good for you, Tom! Maybe you will be the cutting-edge trendsetter in Long Island real estate! If more listings start giving it, then gradually more buyers here will become accustomed to the helpfulness of seeing it, and then start complaining to agents about NOT including it.

Hey, every revolution has to start somewhere!

Oh, about Range Pricing... we HATE IT! We hate it because it immediately starts the guessing game of "What does this seller REALLY want for this house? Is the lower number rock-bottom or just a ploy?" We've looked at 4 range-priced houses. The most recent was in Hauppauge and the range price was between $539something and $590K. That's a 49K spread! We offered 550K, figuring they were looking for something in the middle, and were countered with 580K. We gave them a final of 570K which was the absolute top of our range and in our opinion 10K more than the house was worth. They said they couldn't consider anything less than 580K. We said have a nice day. What the blank-blank-blank was the point of range-pricing down to 539K if they never intended to take less than 580K?????!!!!

I believe it was Prudential who began the range-pricing gimmick back in the late 1990s and we've noticed it's Prudential who still seems to use it the most although some others do too.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

Good for you, Tom! Maybe you will be the cutting-edge trendsetter in Long Island real estate. If more listings start giving it, then gradually more buyers here will become accustomed to the helpfulness of seeing it, and then start complaining to agents about NOT including it.

Hey, every revolution has to start somewhere!

Oh, about Range Pricing... we HATE IT! I think the MLS search function only picks up the higher number, doesn't it? Not sure about that. Anyway, we hate it because it immediately starts the guessing game of "What does this seller REALLY want for this house? Is the lower number rock-bottom or just a ploy? We've looked at 4 range-priced houses. The most recent was in Hauppauge and the range price was between $539something and $590something. That's a 49K spread! We offered 550K, figuring they were looking for something in the middle, and were countered with 580K. We gave them a final of 575K which was the absolute top of our range and in our opinion 10K more than the house was worth. They said they couldn't consider anything less than 585K. We said have a nice day. What the blank-blank-blank was the point of range-pricing down to 539K if they never intended to take less than 585K?????!!!!

I believe it was Prudential who began the range-pricing gimmick back in the late 1990s and we've noticed it's Prudential who still seems to use it the most although some others do too.

I don't like the price range listing thing, either, and there are very few situations where I would use it. You are right, it is Prudential that invented it. Also note the wierd numbers that they use like 478,643. Very Strange indeed. I guess they did some sort of psycological study (or at least tell their sellers they did).

In theory, the range listed is where sellers will entertain offers. To me, that means that you should expect to at least get a counter offer if you bid within the range.

[lesscrappy]

Absolutely. I can't move to suffolk b/c my future wife is a teacher in queens and there's no way she's going to be able to handle that kind of commute. Otherwise i would just buy a house in huntington and be done with it. Wantagh is really as far east as I'm willing to go.

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

The OP was looking for houses in Wantagh and Rockville Centre which sounds like he wants to be in closer commuting distance to NYC than Suffolk would be. It also means that lots are going to be in the 1/4 acre range although I think RVC has some larger ones. I *am* surprised to hear that the 800K range is turning up so much garbage UNLESS he's looking at the waterfront sections like Mandalay (in Wantagh) and others, or the more elegant older parts of RVC.

I didn't mean to suggest that the 400K range in Northport is necesssarily a fixer-upper, only that for that price it's likely to be on a less than 1/4 acre lot and that can be a deal-killer for many people, especially if they want to eventually put in a swimming pool.

And of course "fixer-upper" is SO subjective a term. One buyer's Fixer-upper is another buyer's Acceptable and another buyer's Utter-teardown. I know people who consider any house without central air, windows that are more than 15 years old, and original siding from the 60s or 70s as definitely a fixer-upper.

[vilzvet]

Originally Posted by dman72

They want to try to grab people on the MLS who are plugging in numbers beneath what their sellers want. It's absolute nonsense and the MLS should not allow it. I've noticed it a few dozen times on the MLS.

Somebody should do us all a favor and poke one of these clowns in the eyes!!! Just kidding, mods!!

>
I have my house listed with a range and would definitely be happy with an offer smack in the middle. The range is to pull in people who could potentially offer higher than what they are doing their price search on if they like the house, since the price search engine is usually in $50K increments. This is what my agent tells me anyway What do I know? My house is still sitting!

[dman72]

Originally Posted by vilzvet

>
I have my house listed with a range and would definitely be happy with an offer smack in the middle. The range is to pull in people who could potentially offer higher than what they are doing their price search on if they like the house, since the price search engine is usually in $50K increments. This is what my agent tells me anyway What do I know? My house is still sitting!

Yeah, do me a favor and poke your agent in the eyes for me. People put those increments in for a reason, and listings like yours are ignored by me because I start off not trusting the agent or the seller. That part I'm not kidding about. Anything with a range, I ignore, and I'm a qualified buyer with impeccable credit with household income of over 140K. Also, if I go to a house and they've lied about how many bedrooms they have (ie "this COULD be a 3rd bedroom..if you put up a wall!"..I walk right out.