Stale in this market?

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by nsumner

There is ALWAYS a good reason if a house is on the market for more 10 days right now. I am really being generous with the days too.

Would you say this is the case at all price points, or only below certain price points? I've seen a few houses get snatched up ASAP in Southlake/Colleyville, for example, but others stay on the market for quite awhile. the vast majority of listings there are up for longer than 10 days before going under contract.

[nsumner]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Would you say this is the case at all price points, or only below certain price points? I've seen a few houses get snatched up ASAP in Southlake/Colleyville, for example, but others stay on the market for quite awhile. the vast majority of listings there are up for longer than 10 days before going under contract.

It's the case with anything up to 500K. After that, there is less competition so the days on market are going to be longer, but less than 60 days.

Naima

[Emmagi]

Homes under $200K are flying fast, $200-400K are running fast, $400L-500K are walking fast but anything over $500K is still taking time. Builders are selling much faster than individual sellers. Individual sellers are selling faster if they feed into good schools and have a desire able elementary at walking distance.

My best friend's brother bought 2 years old stale listing. Unfortunately lost his job and had to sell within a year. Fortunately, it was sold in 5 days and he made $95,000 though only spent 5K and some elbow grease on sprucing it up.

[mom2gurls]

Originally Posted by ObamneyI

Why care if its stale or not in this tough market. You get appraisal, inspection, CMA, CAD if you like the property go make a fair offer. If seller is at a point where he is learning that this property won't sell for more than X dollars then it can be your lucky day, worse he'll say no and you'll loose few hundred dollars. I say worth the gamble.

If you want peace of mind then get an additional inspection for few hundred dollars. You may save thousands and end up with a nice property that just need some TLC. I've seen properties with terrible listing pictures that no one bothers to look at but they turn out to be hidden gems.

Agreed, my husband is very much like this...unless of course its a structural thing. A couple of hundred here and there for the layout you want..its a small price to pay. Our first home had wonderful layout and was a stale listing. Reason...gosh awful wallpaper and colored wallscarpets.

We saw thru it, negotiated a fair price (met halfway). Came in, ripped out the wallpaper and did a benji moore eggshell paint and it lit up the house. A couple of months later..put in cream colored carpet.

The day of walkthru, one of the garage door openers broke. They just gave us cash at the closing to go to sears to get a new one. Otherwise it was a 4 year old house, with all the bells and whistles, finished basement. But people were VERY turned off by those walls and colored carpets.
You just have take a step back and look at things in the "grand scheme of things".

[synchronicity]

Re: Stale listings, I know selling our old place we encountered that problem. We had a combination of a less-than-stellar realtor, a poorly staged home, and entered the market when it was still down and at a poor time (shortly before the Holiday season). Drops in price were not enough to make it attractive. We then had a deal that fell through, which kept the house on the market even longer.

A few months after all that, we changed realtors to someone who really knew what they were doing (seriously, the difference was night and day and was reflected in dozens of tiny little items throughout the process), had the place properly staged, and with an improvement in the market began getting multiple showings and offers almost immediately, resulting in an accepted offer in less than a week, at a higher price than the older deal-which-fell-through.

From a buyer's perspective, I can also attest to the "what's wrong with it?" mindset regarding any stale listing. There is at least one I can think of which appeared great in all ways to which my first comment was "OK, what's the problem?" I suspect that even with nothing wrong with a house, the simple fact that it's "stale" can cause people to FIND something wrong with it in their minds and/or be unwilling to bid up for it, even if the price has been lowered (heck, potential buyers may figure that the price will just get lowered again) to be comparable to the places around it.

I'm no expert, tho', just someone who's recently sold a house and is buying another, both of which were "stale" listings, so I may be an idiot as well.

[ObamneyI]

It doesn't make you an idiot or a Real Estate Guru. Some people see out of the box while others can't see past fresh listings. Some want to buy the best home for their family while others are merely looking for a 1920 Tudor to restore or 2013 cookie cutter to attract future buyers. There are no perfect decisions, you are making ones that make most sense to you. If everyone used same floor plan then residential architecture would go extinct.