Anyone else having a hard time selling their house? (Phoenix: real estate market, waterpark)

[micrguy]

I have not heard any negative comments on my home from the people that have gone through it. The house is vacant, but I left a little bit of furniture to stage it. It's a nice little starter house in north central Phoenix and it shows very well. Almost everyone that has looked at the house likes it and about half say they want to put in an offer, then my agent never hears from them again. Their guess is that the people that are looking at my house are having a hard time getting financed, especially if they are first time home buyers.

[linrob411]

Originally Posted by micrguy

Just curious to see if anyone else is having a hard time selling their house or if my agent is blowing smoke about the market right now. I have had my house for sale for six months and have not received one offer and have only had 4-5 people look at the house. It's in Phoenix over by Metro Center in a decent neighborhood and it's priced the same if not lower than everything else in the neighborhood. Should I blame the market or my realtor?

I live in Esat Mesa Had my house on the market for 7 months, one looker and one phone call. best of luck !!

[MovinFromUT]

Listen to arizonanative. We just bought a home in Jan. after looking for two months, very carefully. We looked at exsisting homes, as well as new homes. The incentives that the new builders are offering are incredible. How can you compete with $50,000 off, or a new pool?? She/He is dead on right about how it shows. We almost bought an exsisting home because of the way it showed. It was a little lower priced than the one we ended up buying, and it was in a nice established area. We wound up deciding to buy a Fulton home on the Q.C./Gilbert border. The house is huge, and they were in the final stages of getting rid of them. We have $65,000 in equity already. If you want YOUR house to stand out, price it below what others in the surrounding area are. You say you have 'some' furniture. How much? Your furniture shows buyers how they could put their furniture. I'm sure arizonanative will tell you houses with furniture sell better than houses without furniture. Just my two cents, hope it helps.

[rakkasan35]

Originally Posted by moose168

Right now I'm trying to get my mother's house fixed up for selling so she can move with me.
We've tried Home Cheapo, Lowe's, handyman services, and a few contractors. None of them seem to be able to make the necessary repairs to our satisfaction. It is an older home that needs a lot of fixing up - new tile, new doors, facia-board replacement, and a few other things. I can't believe how many idiots there are in the carpentry business here who don't seem to know how to do basic repairs! Even the better ones hire day laborers with questionable backgrounds.
If anybody can drop a few names of some good contractors or companies that are efficient, professional, and have a good reputation for door installation, and other repairs I'll go for it.
Thanks.

I do remodeling and would be happy to see what you need done. Iv'e been pretty busy lately but if you could shoot me an email maybe we can work something out. Paul

[BSL63087]

This thread makes me think that it may be a good time to be a buyer in PHX in a couple of years. I could be wrong, but if houses aren't selling the prices are eventually going to drop. I'm definitly no expert, in fact I don't know much about the Phoenix housing market at all, but I am looking to move to the area in a couple of years and I'm hoping the prices start to come down.

[MG1]

Originally Posted by micrguy

Just curious to see if anyone else is having a hard time selling their house or if my agent is blowing smoke about the market right now. I have had my house for sale for six months and have not received one offer and have only had 4-5 people look at the house. It's in Phoenix over by Metro Center in a decent neighborhood and it's priced the same if not lower than everything else in the neighborhood. Should I blame the market or my realtor?

Yes, expect to have a VERY hard time selling your house, at least at these prices. Home prices in Phoenix have gone up 74% since 2002, but salaries in the area have only gone up 17%. That's quite a discrepancy, and it shows that the housing market in Phoenix is grossly overvalued, not ruled by fundamentals as it should be, and is spiked by speculators, some of which are now in over their heads.

Nobody can ever convince me that a four bedroom cookie cutter house in the Phoenix area is worth $300,000. No way. Maybe $165,000. That's the most I'd ever consider paying for it.

When rentals are far more cost effective for the average family than a suicide loan home "purchase", then you know you have a housing bubble. Just like much of the rest of the country.

My family is soon to be leaving the entire Phoenix area (forever!) but for the moment we're waiting for June to leave, and in the meantime I'm watching neighborhood homes for sale here in East Mesa. They're all sitting on the market for six months plus, and none of the sellers are bright enough yet to figure out that they have to lower their prices to find a buyer. Three bedroom down the street in East Mesa here being offered at $275,000. Give me a break. I wouldn't give them more than $125,000 for it. Not that I would consider staying in AZ anyway...

[Boatdrinks]

Originally Posted by MovinFromUT

Listen to arizonanative. We just bought a home in Jan. after looking for two months, very carefully. We looked at exsisting homes, as well as new homes. The incentives that the new builders are offering are incredible. How can you compete with $50,000 off, or a new pool?? She/He is dead on right about how it shows. We almost bought an exsisting home because of the way it showed. It was a little lower priced than the one we ended up buying, and it was in a nice established area. We wound up deciding to buy a Fulton home on the Q.C./Gilbert border. The house is huge, and they were in the final stages of getting rid of them. We have $65,000 in equity already. If you want YOUR house to stand out, price it below what others in the surrounding area are. You say you have 'some' furniture. How much? Your furniture shows buyers how they could put their furniture. I'm sure arizonanative will tell you houses with furniture sell better than houses without furniture. Just my two cents, hope it helps.

Have you had your house appraised by a bank and been told you have 65K in equity? I'd be very surprised if that's the case, as there's no way you'd be able to turn around and sell it for 65K more then you bought it for 2 months ago. I know the development you're talking about and there is SO much new construction going on, as you know. Your house is only worth what a new buyer will pay for it. So while a builder may have told you that you have 65k in equity, it likely isn't the case.

There's a huge benefit in buying a resale, especially with such a supply now that you can find almost the perfect house for you if you look - landscaping is done and mature, which is SO nice; pool is built, which saves you huge dollars right there. If you buy new and have to put in a pool yourself, you'll never recover all that money on resale. Also, you know for sure what your neighborhood will look like - our last neighborhood, we bought new construction and the area around it never turned out as well as we thought it would. Just my .02 cents, after having sold 3 new-build houses within 2 yrs of buying them over the past 6 yrs.

[azloafer]

I live in Green Valley and there are 1,000 houses on the market now. There are approximately 13,000 houses in the community at this time. There are four houses for sale on my block that have been for sale for one year! My house is the oldest on my block at 3 years! The market has definitely adjusted and it is hard to sell. One of the houses here has dropped $60,000 in the asking price and after 6 months has not sold. We live in a new gated community, but that has not helped resale at this point in time.

[jco]

Have you had your house appraised by a bank and been told you have 65K in equity? I'd be very surprised if that's the case, as there's no way you'd be able to turn around and sell it for 65K more then you bought it for 2 months ago. I know the development you're talking about and there is SO much new construction going on, as you know. Your house is only worth what a new buyer will pay for it. So while a builder may have told you that you have 65k in equity, it likely isn't the case.

I agree with this response. They're doing this all over the valley. Because owners are expecting to sell their homes under their asking price, it's usually better to buy a resale. I could kick myself for not driving around the neighborhood we were considering before buying our first house. Not only would we have been in sooner, had things like ceiling fans, window treatments, and landscaping taken care of, but we would have paid less for the house.

Here's what I keep seeing: Person buys house for 150k three years ago, during housing boom it's worth 250k, now the builder's selling it for 200k base model (with the 50k "discount"), but the person is willing to sell for 190k because they'll still make 40k on the sale.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by jco

I agree with this response. They're doing this all over the valley. Because owners are expecting to sell their homes under their asking price, it's usually better to buy a resale. I could kick myself for not driving around the neighborhood we were considering before buying our first house. Not only would we have been in sooner, had things like ceiling fans, window treatments, and landscaping taken care of, but we would have paid less for the house.

Here's what I keep seeing: Person buys house for 150k three years ago, during housing boom it's worth 250k, now the builder's selling it for 200k base model (with the 50k "discount"), but the person is willing to sell for 190k because they'll still make 40k on the sale.

You got it!