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We are so tired of doing our research, knowing so much and finding that homes are still overpriced.
1.They say to look within your price range, but just because you look in your price range doesn't mean you should just buy....the home could be priced still too high and really belong in a lower price range.
We look 75k higher and find after researching the comps, land size, upgrades etc that these homes would be in our price range and that we could actually buy a nicer home if only these people were priced right.
2.Then they try to give us some bull excuse as to why we shouldn't consider all the comps we find: These homes are distressed, relocation, job loss, pre foreclosure etc....well what house isn't! Most homes on the market are some sort of distress sell or why would you sell. Yeah there are a few fishing, but why would you bother if you really didn't have to sell.
We are so fed up with trying to find the fair market value and not buying a home that will find us underwater before we even get the key in the front door.
This is NJ so I guess the greediness is to be expected more here.....what other excuse can I find. What really is fair market value...a figment of our imagination.....
So, if sellers won't sell at a lower price, wouldn't the higher price be today's fair market value? I can imagine another posting complaining about buyers not understanding fair market value and how their comps are not really comps and how buyers are greedy.
It is a marketplace where sellers and buyers must find a market price or I guess there isn't a market.
The fair market value is what a buyer and seller decide it is. I completely disagree that most homes are distressed. That is not the case in my area, and in many areas. While all areas have some degree of distressed properties in most areas of the country it is faulty thinking to think that most properties are some sort of distress sale. Many people are selling because they want to upsize, downsize, move closer to family, move away from family...
If you think that many homes aren't priced at fair market value then I would say that your perceptions of fair market value might be off. If you are worried about being underwater, you should not try and buy a house right now. Things are still correcting in many areas.
If you truly believe houses in your area have a ways to go on the downside, do yourself a favor and just sit out the market. House prices (especially those of "owners" who have a fat boom-era loan to pay off) tend to be sticky. Right now, you're banging your head against a wall.
We've been sitting out a market in suburban Chicago for nearly two years. In that time, the number of nice homes "in our price range" has increased dramatically. In fact, now there are even nice homes below our price range. My gut is most listings here are still overpriced compared to longterm trends. But autumn is here-- which means the next price cliff dive is here, too.
The boom was supported by sales to investors and people with overly generous loans. True price discovery can't happen till the current and shadow inventory is bought off by "real" buyers with a real downpayment and a real job.
My gut is there are many more McMansions and "HGTV" renovated homes than there are buyers who can afford them without the help of tricky loans and/or government handouts.
In 1994, I relocated into NJ. It was the tail end of multi-year depreciating market that followed a regional balloon. We were running into similar issues, minus the short sales and foreclosures. Not only were we looking for the right property...we were looking for motivated sellers who had sufficient equity in their homes to allow their home to sell for what the market would bear.
While it was a challenge, back then, the impact of home equity loans, the premature draining of a home's equity, was insigificant. Back then, most people had some skin in the game and resigned themselves to staying put ...riding it out...even though they owed more than the house was worth, at that time and the inability to refinance their debt.
A distressed sale is an urgent sale of assets, usually at a significantly reduced price and a realized loss to the seller.
In this market, in many areas, the majority of homes being sold are when the sellers are highly motivated and or it's a distressed sale. Motivation and distress, in this context, are not the same thing.
There are sellers with substantial equity in their homes who are motivated to move.....retirement/down sizing, relocation and trading up.
There are also sellers who want to move...buy something else.... but need $X out of the sale of their current home to do so. And many of them are finding that the market will not bear and pay enough to give them what they need to make the move and so they either remain amongst the unsellables or eventually withdraw from the market.
Pay attention to the push back you are getting. Sounds like these listing agents are attempting to defend their client's home value and are disqualifying some of the comps, no different than an appraiser would, assuming the local market is not chock full of foreclosures/shorts and recocation company sales. There is a tipping point in every market, where the majority of sales are distressed or not. If distressed sales do not represent the true market, you need to compare apples to apples.
So, if sellers won't sell at a lower price, wouldn't the higher price be today's fair market value? I can imagine another posting complaining about buyers not understanding fair market value and how their comps are not really comps and how buyers are greedy.
It is a marketplace where sellers and buyers must find a market price or I guess there isn't a market.
Well the market would be where they sell at, not where they want to sell at(ie comparables that have actually sold and not list prices). But of course its everyone's perrogative to sell for what they want. But if the house has more value to the owner than the buyer than common sense dictates no transaction will take place.
Get used to it.......and please, lets not get started again with the Delusional Buyers/Delusional Sellers rant. I have encountered LOTS of sellers that "Don't have to sell". Why you'd want to go through all of this if you don't have to is beyond me but I've already sold my house so that's not my problem any more. If you can put up with having your house on the market long term well go for it!
I met another Mr. I Don't Have to Sell yesterday. I've been waiting for the price to come down to a realistic number when I noticed the open house. His house has been on the market for over 2 years and knowing my area and comps based on recent sold home within the same subdivision he needs to come down about 75k and enter reality. Met the owner....really nice guy with a nice house. Just overpriced. First thing he told me when I walked in was that he didn't have to sell. Good Thing!
Just move on to the next one...it's frustrating, I understand completely, but they own it and it is their perogative not to "give it away!" Just move on.
I agree with the previous poster...the question is why do you have urgency to buy?
Whether or not anyone believes their market is distressed or is not for the time being, IMO, it's not a good time to buy UNTIL the broader real estate markets confirm we've hit bottom and start to improve.
In the meantime, why argue or worry about buying from sellers when the entire RE market is being propped up by the government, and we still have that big wave of Prime/Alt-A loans resetting beginning in 2010?
You can never have enough cash saved up for a downpayment, the federal government has shown they will battle tooth and nail to keep the cost of capital at zero, so there's little fear of being priced out of any market.
Likewise, the tax credit for homebuying is now likely to be extended and maybe even widened, so just sit back and let the right home come to you.
Whether or not anyone believes their market is distressed or is not for the time being, IMO, it's not a good time to buy UNTIL the broader real estatemarkets confirm we've hit bottom and start to improve.
Deciding to buy now or later is a personal decision. I have enormous respect for this.
How will the market improve, if everyone, everywhere decided this is not a good time to buy?
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