Would you put your house on the market now or wait until spring? (Vienna: for sale, rental)

[michgc]

I am loving everyone's perspectives. Please keep them coming! In my gut I feel like our house will sell well even in the fall. We are in the $550-$600K range for a 4 bedroom. There are very few 4 bedrooms on the market in that price range in our zip code (22180). We are on a cul-de-sac and have a 1/3 acre flat back yard, so we do have a lot of nice, family-type house. On the other hand, we did not update our kitchen and the house is your typical older, 1950's ranch. Of course, most houses in our price range in Vienna are like that. I am leaning toward option 1. As of dinner tonight my husband was leaning toward option 2, but I just read him your perspectives and he's being swayed a bit. So much to think about! We will know by Sunday night. If we want the town house to rent, I need to call first thing Monday morning.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

I still think it's a huge risk. If you put it on the market now, and it doesn't sell throughout the winter, then you enter the big buying season with a house that has the "stink of the loser" about it. I can remember (from our own home search of just over a year ago) seeing houses that for whatever reason (usually too high an asking price) sat forever--and then sold for less than they would have if they had taken the steps needed to sell quickly.

Well, one way to remedy this is if our house doesn't sell by December 1 (or whatever date we set) we can take it off the market. Once it's off the market for 90 days, it can be put it back on as a new listing. Of course we'd still be paying a mortgage and rent and would essentially be losing about $1500 per month for each month it sits. Of course, we could always try to rent it if it got to be too bad, but I truly do not anticipate it being hard to sell (although I could be biased toward how great our house is. :-)).

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by michgc

I am loving everyone's perspectives. Please keep them coming! In my gut I feel like our house will sell well even in the fall. We are in the $550-$600K range for a 4 bedroom. There are very few 4 bedrooms on the market in that price range in our zip code (22180). We are on a cul-de-sac and have a 1/3 acre flat back yard, so we do have a lot of nice, family-type house. On the other hand, we did not update our kitchen and the house is your typical older, 1950's ranch. Of course, most houses in our price range in Vienna are like that. I am leaning toward option 1. As of dinner tonight my husband was leaning toward option 2, but I just read him your perspectives and he's being swayed a bit. So much to think about! We will know by Sunday night. If we want the town house to rent, I need to call first thing Monday morning.

michgc, I would go with Choice 1 (if my family was in that situation). It seems like the best plan for your family. There are always families moving to northern Virginia, as we see here on city-data. Good luck with your move!

[HarryLou]

My son and his wife put their house on the market last Friday, sold it on Monday.

[OrangeFish]

Originally Posted by michgc

Well, one way to remedy this is if our house doesn't sell by December 1 (or whatever date we set) we can take it off the market. Once it's off the market for 90 days, it can be put it back on as a new listing. Of course we'd still be paying a mortgage and rent and would essentially be losing about $1500 per month for each month it sits. Of course, we could always try to rent it if it got to be too bad, but I truly do not anticipate it being hard to sell (although I could be biased toward how great our house is. :-)).

I think you have a fabulous plan.

[JD984]

It should not be hard to check some of the local real estate sites and see whether similar homes in 22180 were sold in the fall or winter and how long they'd been on the market. My guess is that you'll find a fair number.

[elias9193]

I don't think you will have a problem selling your house if you price it comparably to other recent sales. Vienna is a very desirable area and your backup plan sounds like a good alternative. GL!

[bmwguydc]

I would put it on the market now, with an experienced agent who knows the house/neighborhood and might have a pool of buyers looking. A "coming soon" campagin can work wonders to generate traffic early in the listing cycle, which is a definite plus if the house is priced well. Plus, you have the added benefit of being within the town, on a cul de sac, and walking distance to Maple Avenue. If there's not much inventory in your price range, you may be able to sell in the fall.

It can be difficult to be away from your husband for both you and the children, so if it would cost you $15k over the course of the year, if it were me, I'd be willing to negotiate that amount to make a solid deal to get out of the house as soon as possible, either in price reductions or seller concessions toward renovations. Remember that the time for emotion over the house is gone, and it has served you well as a home for your family; now, it's time for you to set out on a new chapter, and you need not be bogged down by managing two houses that are several hours apart.

Good luck!

[ACWhite]

The inventory is low now relative to qualified buyers, and if you price your home competitively, it will sell very quickly. If you try to hold out for an above market price, it will sit. There are also buyers who may fear that interest rates will go up and want to act now rather than take a chance.

I agree that you could also put it on the market now, and if it doesn't sell quickly, you can pull it off the market and put in on again in early spring. I see no downside to trying to sell it as soon as you're ready.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by michgc

I thought I'd survey the collective wisdom of the C-D participants. Here is our situation. My husband has a job transfer to North Carolina with his company starting in mid-November. We own a 4-bedroom, 1950's ranch home in Town of Vienna. We are in a good location about 2 blocks from Maple Ave and therefore walking distance to many amenities and about 1.25 miles from Vienna Metro. Here are our two choices:

Choice 1: We can put our house on the market in about a month - hopefully October 22 (working hard to pack everything up, make small repairs, clean and "stage" the place" to get it ready by then). And then we would rent a house for a year in NC that we have already found which is a great price and has lots of storage (that we need) in a neighborhood we are looking to buy. This would give us the time to get to know the area better and be able to pounce on a house there in the spring when many houses come up. And we will be the buyer without any contingencies and with a hefty down payment in hand. On the other hand, we are concerned if our house doesn't sell quickly, we will be carrying a mortgage and rent for several months. Although our realtor seemed optimistic.

Choice 2: We can hold off on putting our house on the market until spring - I'm thinking March 1 as the beginning of spring real estate season. If we do this we would hope to sell as soon as possible. And hope that we time it in such a way that a house on the NC end does not come up until after we have sold ours. The big negatives on this choice is that I'd be living up here by myself with 3 children (ages 4, 6, and 10) for several months and a house might come up in NC before we sell ours and then we cannot pounce on anything and wouldn't be attractive buyers (i.e. we might need a contingency clause), and it would be hard to time it properly. The positive is that we'd only be moving once and would save money (approx. $15K) by not having to rent a house and overlap paying rent with paying our mortgage here and our buying a house on the other end. My husband has a place to stay rent free down there (his mom's) until then. Another negative, though, is we wouldn't get to "try out" this development before we buy there, even though we're pretty sure that's where we want to be.

We have to make a decision this weekend. What would you do?

I would ask a really good real estate agent like my friend Julie Williams at Williams Realty. She's been in the business in your area for over 20 years. When she sold our house in Vienna she said that the fall, after September, was pretty dead. But I also recall she said the Spring season started earlier than what I would have thought. Call her, she'll have good ideas for how to do this.