Selling Your House or Condo -- how hard was it? What were your experiences? (Lansing: real estate)

[Bhaalspawn]

I'd like to hear more about people's first-hand experiences with selling their houses or condos. How hard was it? Did you receive scads of low-ball offers or very few offers of any sort? Do you wish you had accepted a low-ball offer from a year ago compared to the offers you are receiving now?

[jwild]

I sold my home on acrage, I will tell you when I first bought back in michigan we were just coming out of the last bad recession, the 70s and 80s so land was cheap, I bought 10 acres for 4 thousand and wanted the 10 next to me and the owner would not sell.
I offered him 15 thousand for it 3 times the going rate. He was stunned but took it. when I sold in the mid 90s mi was booming, 10 acres in my road were going for 30 thousand and people were standing in line for it.
I made 50 thousand and sold in 2 days.
I bought 80 acres for 72 thousand and built a home. remodled the stone homestead and rented it out.
sold the stone house 5 years later for 100k and kepts 72 acres and the main house.
I thought I was sitting on a nice little chunk of investment.

then things started to really go down hill when I decided to sell and move 2 years ago.

things really started to slow down and people got really picky.
At first I had a lot of lookers but no offers, I held firm to the price because I thought I was in control but the markets thought otherwise.
When it came time to sell I a year later I started to move the price down, I saw the writing on the wall and because I lived through this before I knew that if I did not get ahead of the bell curve I was going to lose more money.
I split the remaning land, sold it for 1k and acre, and was told I gave it away. dropped my home price and sold. Did not get a lot of lookers even at a low price, I sold 30 acres and a 30x40 pole barn and 2200 sf home in exc. condtion for 139k, I was told I was giving it away. Now I am told I got a good price for michigan and I would not get that today.
I keep an eye on Michigan and its real estate in the area and many people just keep the price where things were selling 2 to 3 years ago.
The property just sits there. even property that is priced to move is not moving, and there are no buyers in the wings looking to pounce on good deals. It is worse then the late 70s and 80s because places like cal. and fla are not doing as well as they were when MI was going throught this the last time.
But some here are wrong, there are places that building is still going well, you just need to look. I just aint Michigna. and it will not be MI for some many years to come.

[michiganbob]

Sold my house in Eaton Rapids (just outside of Lansing) in September 2006, just before things really started getting back. Even back then we had it up for sale all summer and had to lower the price three times before we got an offer. It ended up being at the low end of what we thought we would take, but within a year, two houses within spitting distance (built by the same builder, about the same time mine was and with approx. the same square footage) went into foreclosure because the owners couldn't sell. Both went for tens of thousands less than what I got. Nothing has sold in ER since early 2007 from what former neighbors are telling me.

I am renting a very nice house in Lansing now because it's owner could not sell after 18 months of trying. (In my opinion he's asking about $50,000 too much for it.) I have been watching the Lansing market closely the past year and have two examples to share with you: one very nice older brick ranch near the Lansing Country Club started out at $275,000, dropped to 255, then 245, then 225 over the course of 2007 (it was empty). By last fall it was listed for $185,000. It is no longer listed, but I can't find that it sold. Also, another house (wood frame two story built about 1970) next to a friend of mine who lives in SW Lansing started at $170,000. It also was empty and needed a lot of work. Eventually sold for $104,000. Anecdotal evidence? Maybe, but I can't remember the last "Sold" sign I saw. Extreme examples? I'm sure a lot of Lansing homeowners hope so. We'll know better this spring.

I can tell you that a local builder has a billboard on I-96 near 496 west of town that is offering a brand new 3 bedroom, 1400 sq ft, two story home in Holt (just south of Lansing, but has a good school system) starting at $110,000. Not sure how existing homeowners can compete with that when the builders are willing to low ball each other to get rid of existing inventory. Expect more of that this spring.

As for condos . . . check Craigslist under "Apartments for Rent."

[jwild]

I have been telling my family that want to sell to take the loss and get out now, every day you wait you lose more money.
Michigan is no place to buy real estate now. You are trying to catch the knife on the way down.
What you buy for now will be worth 30% less in a year.
The problem is not even that it is worth less but you can not sell it at all..
We are living in times where we are coming to the end of the cheap oil party.
so many problems are because of the oil crunch.
With Michigans harsh climate people are not willing to move there for work or pleasure.
Industry is moving to china, In fact today in the news the world now considers china the new economic super power taking out the usa for the first time.
We are going to have a lot of bad time and places like michigan are going to have the hardest time, for a lot of years people in places of industrial power like detroit and grand rapids have lived a life that most of the rest of the country did not live. They had cradel to grave work and could just wink and get sonny in the job make very high wages and life was good.
Now with oil over 100 a bbl and industry moving to china Michigan is going down rapidly.
There is no light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel is a dead end and no one wants to talk about it, they instead want to say I see people standing in line for ice cream so things must be ok.

So like the person in the white house would pray for our way out, remember nothing fails like praying.

We can hope that some one like obama gets in and takes on the hard issues. Now that McCain is bogged down with girl problems I dont think his heart would be in to the job.

The bottom line,, DO NOT BUY REAL ESTATE IN MICHIGAN. MOVE OUT ASAP
and if you have to stay because you work there and need a place to live, rent, you can find some one who is hurting and can not sell and rent their home for cheap.

[Bhaalspawn]

Originally Posted by jwild

We can hope that some one like obama gets in and takes on the hard issues. Now that McCain is bogged down with girl problems I dont think his heart would be in to the job.

I know this is off topic for this thread, but I've looked over Obama's platform and I doubt he'll make much of a difference. He basically supports John McCain's amnesty program and co-sponsored it, he doesn't oppose H-1B and L-1 visas (end those tomorrow and you'd open up a couple hundred thousand decent jobs), and from what I can tell he isn't going to get serious about offshoring or our international trade issues.

All three candidates, Juan McAmnesty, Obama, and the Hildabeast are all about the same from the perspective of an "Americans first" point of view. Of the three I tend to favor Obama because I know he at least has the intellectual capacity to perhaps identify the nation's problems, but I don't have much hope.

[Mkach]

Originally Posted by Bhaalspawn

I know this is off topic for this thread, but I've looked over Obama's platform and I doubt he'll make much of a difference. He basically supports John McCain's amnesty program and co-sponsored it, he doesn't oppose H-1B and L-1 visas (end those tomorrow and you'd open up a couple hundred thousand decent jobs), and from what I can tell he isn't going to get serious about offshoring or our international trade issues.

All three candidates, Juan McAmnesty, Obama, and the Hildabeast are all about the same from the perspective of an "Americans first" point of view. Of the three I tend to favor Obama because I know he at least has the intellectual capacity to perhaps identify the nation's problems, but I don't have much hope.

You hit the nail in the head IMO. Its a toss up of lesser of three evils