Trying to sell home in Southern NH (Derry, Salem: for sale, real estate market)

[Sarie1975]

My husband just got a new job and we need to sell our home in Salem, NH. The house is beautiful, but our realtor claims we'll be lucky to even get what we paid for it 3 years ago because the market is so bad. Has anyone recently sold a house or bought a house in southern NH. Our home is 4 bdrms, 2.5 bath, 3000 sq ft and around $550K....just wondering if there are even buyers for that around here right now...

[Strongasabear]

Join the club. Our house is for sale in Londonderry, and it could be a while. The housing market is very bad right now, and the mortgage crisis makes it that much worse.

[buck naked]

had a house on the market in Derry 4 years ago - it wouldn't sell at $325K - it was a beautiful 4 bedroom, 2 fireplace home with a large detached barn for horses, etc. It was on the market for a year without a bite. I lowered the price to $309K and it sold in 3 days, but that was 4 years ago.

I had a place on Lake Winnipesaukee that also took years to sell. The property taxes were $30K per year on 1 acre, but with 300 feet of frontage on the lake. The taxes are $100 per foot of frontage and rising every year. The lake has become a home for the rich only.


$550 seems high even for Salem, but I know that Windham has some very nice homes in the same price range and they are selling. slowly, but surely.

good luck -

[Valerie C]

Sarie, it's a really tough time to be a Seller... the pendulum has swung and you missed the market. Unfortunately I think you may have bought at the top of the market, and matching what a home sold for in 2004 will be tough. In fact, you may want to consider having an appraisal completed so that you have a better idea of where you sit.

Of the 157 homes sold in Salem so far in 2007, (according to MLS data), 25 were sold for over 500,000.
January: 0
February: 2
March: 4
April: 2
May: 2
June: 4
July: 4
August: 2
September: 4
October: 1

RIGHT NOW there are 55 homes for sale in Salem for 499,900 or over. So there is quite a bit of competition... make your house STAND OUT!

There ARE buyers out there in that price range, but few and far between. Your biggest job in selling is to make sure you have lots of GOOD exposure: excellent pictures, enhanced package on realtor.com (25 pictures instead of 1) with detailed write up, a good virtual tour, and most of all a full-time agent, not a fly by night who does real estate as a "side business".

October is NEVER the best time to get your home on the market, and it may be a long road, but hiring a professional is your best "first step". I look forward to seeing your home on the MLS

[GregW]

We wound up renting the house we had for sale in Lisbon, NH. I hope it covers carrying costs for a couple of years. Our situation is similar to many people in that most of our capital is tied up in our home so have had out options severely limited in this market. Buy the time I retire in a couple of years I hope the real estate market improves enough to allow us to snowbird for a couple of years them move to New Mexico.