How do you think the real estate market is in the area? (Simpsonville: for sale by owner, foreclosures)

[beckycat]

Just wondering what opinions you all have on how the market is doing? Are there still a lot of good deals out there to be had? Are single homes moving in a decent time? (less than 3 mo) Since we bought our home, I see some homes still on the market from 6 months back and other ones that were a good buy moved quickly. Are investors grabbing the good deals to flip homes? What are you seeing?

[Pat Grissinger]

Not trying to be smart but it all truly depends on location & price. A large company bought a lot of homes & are renting them out. Foreclosures & short sales are not always the steal people think they are. The market has picked up & depending on the location, prices have risen. That is definitely area specific. There are a lot of new homes & building permits being issued. National builders are doing well & buying lots to build on.

[shamrocker]

We just sold our house in December, so I'll provide my point of view. The market seemed to be pretty strong in Simpsonville. Nearly every house in our old neighborhood that was for sale when we listed sold before ours. The neighborhood was 15-20 years old, but very conveniently located. We listed ours For Sale By Owner, got some good interest, we later put it on the MLS and had 6 showings and a buyer within 3 weeks. We got a good price. It seems that once it got in front of the right people, it went quick. We marketed ours with its unique qualities and were confident it would sell. As far as the other houses we were looking at for ourselves, many are still on the market, but the prices weren't coming down to attract buyers. The new houses in our new neighborhood don't seem to be selling quickly at this time, but again, the prices are rock solid. We felt like idiots paying full price at first, but the builder truly isn't budging... Maybe we'll hear from some RE agents as to what they're seeing, but things seem to be pretty steady around here.

[DSMRE]

From what I'm seeing it's good. My last listing sold in less than 90 days. The stats show that we are almost equal between buyer's and seller's market.

[saucystargazer]

From our brief search before deciding to not buy here....I think there are a lot of people who are still underwater on their homes and are still trying to make a profit. For example I've seen several year old not so nice homes being listed at 30-50k more then a brand new granite/hardwoods same size home in the same neighborhood. The new homes kept getting sold before we could even turn around and make an offer (not exaggerating this happened 3times) while the not so nice ones are still sitting 6m later.

[BigRedBeth]

In our neighborhood, Hollingsworth Park, homes are selling very well for the most part. There is one resale in the nieghborhood that looks lovely but has been on the market a long time. It is one of the first homes built there, and I think perhaps buyers are looking for more square footage for the money, rather than expensive appliances and finishes. On our street almost all the lots are gone and the spec homes are snatched up quickly.

[sojones]

Homes are selling in new areas

I lost money on my house being lazy & more focused on goals, where I had moved... but I could have sold for my purchase price, i'm pretty sure

Foreclosure.com | Foreclosures | Foreclosure Listings has all the foreclosure listings by Government

[USNRET04]

My home hits the MLS today. A little nervous, but feel that we have listed it at a very attractive price among other homes in our neighborhood. We've worked hard to make the home look nice for buyers, landscape, paint, etc...

I've noticed what Beth was saying about the large national buyer coming in a purchasing many homes to re-lease out. One seller told me they got a very good price, but I would have to assume it was below market.

Shamrocker, can you share the unique qualities you used to move your house? (Thanks for the boxes, btw!).

[Transplant08]

we're listing our downtown townhouse (12 minute walk to Mast General Store!) on MLS this weekend. (2 Br, 1.5 Ba, 1000 sf). Hope the market is moving!

[Shadetree930]

Originally Posted by BigRedBeth

In our neighborhood, Hollingsworth Park, homes are selling very well for the most part. There is one resale in the nieghborhood that looks lovely but has been on the market a long time. It is one of the first homes built there, and I think perhaps buyers are looking for more square footage for the money, rather than expensive appliances and finishes. On our street almost all the lots are gone and the spec homes are snatched up quickly.

We looked at that home several times and wanted to make it work but could never reconcile the 1st floor layout. The living area is too small and the stairway/foyer eat up too much of the already small living space. The funky access to the media room (through a bedroom!) was another show-stopper. We wanted to give Hollingsworth a try but just could not find anything existing that suited our needs so ended up back in Thornblade.

Our experience is that properly priced, well maintained homes are selling fast. We sold to the first showing on the first day (essentially a pocket listing). We turned around and bought a home that had been on the MLS for 1 day and had to come in at close to full price with no contingencies because this home was also properly priced and well maintained. The sellers ended up with 2 backup offers behind us if we balked!