What is really going on with the real estate market here? (Roseville: for sale by owner, apartment)

[leavingcali]

Dear current and recent sellers:

What's the market really like? My hubby and I are going to put our townhouse on the market this summer. We're wondering how much the market has slowed down. How long has your home been on the market? How long did it take to sell? When did you list it? Did you get your asking price? Also, did you do a FSBO or use an agent, and what did you think of this experience?

We really need to sell, don't have much equity, and we're nervous. We aren't trying to make a lot of money, just don't want to lose any.

Thanks!

[aslowdodge]

I'm not an expert, but from what I have heard Saxto is really taking a beatingin the market. It was one of the top foreclosed areas according to Money magazine. I think it wil only get worse in the next year or so. Houses in the bay area at the 1.2 to 1.8 million are selling with multiple offers. it's the cheaper ones at entry level that are taking the hits.
I think you should be honest on what you should be getting for the home. A lot of realtors are building up sellers hopes on inflated values just to get listings. My friend has lost many listings because he was honest about prices. Many of the sellers went with a realtor who promised them a higher price but knew they would have to drop. He got some of those listings back 3 to 6 months later when the people realized what had happened. By then prices had slipped even more.
When you set your price, make sure you are really at where the market says you should be. If you have to sell, bite the bullett and lower the price to move it. Too many people are so concerned with not losing money or not making money that they lose sight of their gols. If you wind up selling at a loss, maybe it's better to take the loss now rather than a bigger lose later-esp if you have plans on moving elsewhere. You might be waiting a long time.
Of course there are little niches where some properties sell quicky. Just do you homework and you should be fine.

[CityGirl72]

Also depneds on what part of Sacto your townhome is in.

But I know my ex huband's house in Elk Grove which could have sold for 500K in Jan 2006, is now worth 380K

[Adamson865]

Am I safe in assuming that for someone moving down there (like moi), it might be advisable to rent a while until the market finds a safe landing?

(I'm still in one of the few markets where housing prices are still going up. A 2bd/2ba house across the street from my apartment building is on sale and they're asking $770k - and will probably get it.

[wanttoteach]

Originally Posted by leavingcali

Dear current and recent sellers:

What's the market really like? My hubby and I are going to put our townhouse on the market this summer. We're wondering how much the market has slowed down. How long has your home been on the market? How long did it take to sell? When did you list it? Did you get your asking price? Also, did you do a FSBO or use an agent, and what did you think of this experience?

We really need to sell, don't have much equity, and we're nervous. We aren't trying to make a lot of money, just don't want to lose any.

Thanks!

Our house was on the market in Roseville for 15 MONTHS! It went from 566k to 433k. We tried FSBO for much of the time. For the first month it was FSBO, then for about 6 months we had a realtor. Then we took it off the market for about 4 months. Then we did FSBO for about 5 months. Then it finally sold when we had a realtor. This is what I recommend:
1. Do not do FSBO. People did not seem to trust us. In another market yes-FSBO would be fine, especially since we are very educated in real estate. But now, buyers are very, very weary of FSBO. We did get one offer which we should have taken while we were trying to sell it by ourselves though, which leads me to number 2
2. Consider ALL offers! We were greedy and should have accepted our first and only other offer. We ended up selling about 5 months later for 30k less.
3. Price it below the market. We did not even have anyone looking at our house unless our price was below market.
4. Keep adjusting your price.
5. Do not get your heart set on selling.
6. We ended up making nothing! So plan on that-or even losing a bit.

I am not an agent, so I am still very limited in my knowledge, but I really did learn a lot. It was a horrible time to sell. It was heartbreaking for us because we wanted to move to Southern California badly. It finally happened when I just gave up. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions. We had a beautiful home...but buyers are so picky right now because they can be. However, there were just a few that seemed to sell very quickly, but it had to be a VERY low price, and it had to have a pool, and it had to be beautiful. I hope that this helps...I hate to be negative, but I just have to tell the truth. I really wish you luck.

[cw68]

Get a good agent, fix what needs to be fixed, do a little staging and price your home right. At the beginning of last year, when we were buying/selling, we put an offer on a home that had been listed for over eight months and had dropped $50k in price. We put our home on the market and had an offer in four days, ended up selling $2k below listing.

[wanttoteach]

Originally Posted by cw68

Get a good agent, fix what needs to be fixed, do a little staging and price your home right. At the beginning of last year, when we were buying/selling, we put an offer on a home that had been listed for over eight months and had dropped $50k in price. We put our home on the market and had an offer in four days, ended up selling $2k below listing.

These were definitely the kind of people I was jealous of! It was the strangest thing...everyone LOVED our home but always found something wrong. We backed up to a wetland and people even had a hard time with that. But just like this person, there were a few homes that sold really quick. I really do mean a few...most of us just sat on the market and kept dropping and dropping our price.

[cw68]

Originally Posted by wanttoteach

These were definitely the kind of people I was jealous of! It was the strangest thing...everyone LOVED our home but always found something wrong. We backed up to a wetland and people even had a hard time with that. But just like this person, there were a few homes that sold really quick. I really do mean a few...most of us just sat on the market and kept dropping and dropping our price.

That's when it boils down to price. Realistic prices are now the norm, unlike just two years ago when the sky was the limit. It was like the people who owned this place. They thought, "Well, I could have gotten XX just six months ago, so I can get this now." NOT the case. We put bids on two other houses before this one, all on homes that had sat on the market for a while. The owners didn't take the offers and sat on the market for months longer. I looked up both of them and they both sold for more that $40k less than our offer.

[wanttoteach]

Originally Posted by cw68

That's when it boils down to price. Realistic prices are now the norm, unlike just two years ago when the sky was the limit. It was like the people who owned this place. They thought, "Well, I could have gotten XX just six months ago, so I can get this now." NOT the case. We put bids on two other houses before this one, all on homes that had sat on the market for a while. The owners didn't take the offers and sat on the market for months longer. I looked up both of them and they both sold for more that $40k less than our offer.

Our price was more than realistic-it was darn good! I would say for a good 6 months. It even got to be a lot lower than those around us and some people even wondered why our price was so low. They thought that something must be wrong with it. But our price was never the best. For example, we sat around the 440's for a while. We were always one of the top three values. Then someone lowered their price to 425-and boom-it sold. I think what really affected us was the fact that we did For Sale By Owner for so long. What you said about some other owners not taking offers-that makes me feel better! We really felt terrible in those months after we rejected the offer. This whole thing was terrible...I think I will have to go to therapy to deal with it! JK! Now hopefully if I get a job I will get to be in the buying position here. As I said before...Good Luck!

[cw68]

Originally Posted by wanttoteach

Our price was more than realistic-it was darn good! I would say for a good 6 months. It even got to be a lot lower than those around us and some people even wondered why our price was so low. They thought that something must be wrong with it. But our price was never the best. For example, we sat around the 440's for a while. We were always one of the top three values. Then someone lowered their price to 425-and boom-it sold. I think what really affected us was the fact that we did For Sale By Owner for so long. What you said about some other owners not taking offers-that makes me feel better! We really felt terrible in those months after we rejected the offer. This whole thing was terrible...I think I will have to go to therapy to deal with it! JK! Now hopefully if I get a job I will get to be in the buying position here. As I said before...Good Luck!

Don't beat yourself up. I personally think that people expect FSBO homes to be cheaper because you aren't paying a realtor and that really goofs things up when it's not a white-hot market. At least it's over, right? There's plenty of things to go to therapy over. I'm beating myself up because if I would have had a little more patience and had checked things out just a few more months, we could have either bought a similar house at a lower price or had gotten the pool that I so wanted. It's all "shoulda/coulda/woulda." IMO, you've got a good 18 months of a buyer's market at the very least.