Stale in this market? (Howe: sale, apartment, leasing)

[Transplant13]

I see some good looking stale properties in almost every desireable town, isn't this odd as market is supposedly so hot?

[MckinneyOwnr]

What you think is good looking may be lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes. My parents just looked at probably 30+ houses in their recent move, and a few of them looked great on the outside.

The inside however, was a different story on a few of them. Odd, awkward layout, or the homeowner had done some renovations that were hideous, or the home needed work... A lot of things can keep what may appear to be a nice house on the market longer, until they lower the price or someone loves the house as is.

[Squirl]

Houses that don't sell have these issues:

*overpriced for the neighborhood
*needs work that is more than simple cosmetic
*location is bad.
*property problems such as: high wire tower directly next to property, across the street from an eyesore, borders busy street, some noise or smell is invading the house,

[ggolf]

If you watch HGTV as much as we do, almost anything can be mitigated by a price decrease. Then you have a budget to fix most everything. Only thing you can't fix is location. We found the cutest house, upgraded to the wazoo, pool, quarter acre, priced right around $70 a sq ft, however that pesky high tension wire that came across the back half of the lot was a head scratcher. Not sure how Oncor pulled that one off without some kind of payment to the previous owner. After 2 years on the market they took it off and wound up leasing it.

If you back up to a major highway it ain't going away. If you back up to a 3 story apartment, you'll have to deal with it. If you want to gentrify and there are crack and meth houses nearby, either deal with it or walk.

The best bet is to find a good location first, then look for houses there, even if they need work. Maybe especially if they need work.

[Mulching]

I agree. At right price you can sell any house. If there is a problem with the house then an attractive discount can compensate for it. I've seen buyers, investors and flippers buy all kind if houses for sweet deals. If its a good area with good schools people will buy despite of it backing or fronting to any road, apartment, strip mall, parking lot etc. Its just some owners can't or won't bring the price down. Some homes just get a stigma attached after a while. However, it's just about sweeting the deal.

[CREW747]

Originally Posted by Transplant13

I see some good looking stale properties in almost every desireable town, isn't this odd as market is supposedly so hot?

The market in some of the DFW suburbs is not,yes.There is ALOT of new home builds going in right now.I think that in the past 3 years building has really seen an increase.The market for standard ore owned homes is hot also.Now is a good time to possibly get a decent price on a pre owned home in certain suburbs.Anything that looks like a really really good deal most likely has some issues that most buyers do not want to tackle.

[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. There is also the deceiving camera work. Many homes look sooo much better with a great camera.

Naima

[Mulching]

Most buyers don't want to buy most houses, only one buyer buys one house. Of course, ideal house in ideal location with ideal schools gets more buyers interested but still no DFW house gets more than few offers at or above asking. Many times stale properties go on sale for less than what their earlier offers were, if your timings are right than you can get a great deal.

When I was buying my second house, one property that we really liked had many offers including ours upto 95% of their asking but they wanted more and declined. Six months later when it was time for them to move, there weren't many interested people. Only buyer who made an offer got it for 90% and saved about $40K compared to if he was bidding when it first came on the market. So, never say never!

[CREW747]

My apologies for the horrible auto fill in my responses....I just figured out how to turn it off on my Ipad....

[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.