Should we take our house off the market?

[normie]

"Set a relatively low reserve price (60% of it 2005 high), and sell to the highest bidder. There are still buyers out there, but the ones who still have the money are the wise ones; they will expect a very good deal."

This is excellent advice. If you didn't need to sell the house I would say you should take it off the market. But since your husband has already started a job in another city, you'll have to lower the price. There are buyers out there but at this point in the game they're waiting for the prices to fall. Because they know sooner or later, they will.

[AnalyzeThis]

Depends on how bad you want to sell it. Yes, the market is very slow right now but regardless of this dip the holidays has always been the worse time of the year to sell. The decision to take it off the market just depends on how fast you need to sell the house. Personally, I would take it off until about March/April.

[bels7]

I used to live in Manassas, then Leesburg. Left two-and-a-half years ago. Now living near Greensboro and about to move to Raleigh. I've bought and sold quite a few homes over the years, but mostly in NOVA. In my opinion, you just don't know what the market will do, but what I believe is that if the house is in good condition, is reasonably priced, and you are patient, the right buyer will come along.

My home here has been on the market since Labor Day and I've had six showings. I'm not at all worried. It will sell eventually and at a fair price. The good news is that most homes here were already very reasonably priced and most houses are moving within 3-4 months. Prices are not falling much here, things are just a little slow. And that $520K house of yours in Clifton ... you could buy here, in a comparable neighborhood, for about $200K. From what I can see, the Charlotte market isn't much different.

Anyway, whatever you decide to do, good luck! And I hope you enjoy living in Charlotte as much as I have enjoyed living in Greensboro.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

I would also lower the price - all the reports I read say it is going to get worse.
I would not take it off the market - you really need to move.

We transferred here from NJ and bought our home in November - so there are people home shopping during the holidays.

[normie]

"The good news is that most homes here (Charlotte NC) were already very reasonably priced and most houses are moving within 3-4 months. Prices are not falling much here, things are just a little slow."

I find this quote very amusing. Why? Well, let me tell ya a little story...

I first discovered City-Data because we are downsizing for retirement and are interested in finding a new place to live. We thought we might like living in NC (I had lived in Asheville ten years ago and thought it might be nice to retire there.)

So I turned to the North Carolina forum. There I read post after post after post about how the housing market is BOOMING in Charlotte! Everyone needs to buy in Charlotte ASAP because the prices just keep going up, up, up and homes are being snapped up in a matter of days. The area around Lake Norman (north of Charlotte) was extolled as a retiree's paradise--charming towns, relaxed pace of life, lakeside living.

Now, I believe in having a positive attitude, and I don't mind a certain amount of puffery. But this was ridiculous! We had already planned a trip there... and when we arrived we quickly knew Lake Norman was nothing at all like it was described in the forum. And it was also obvious that real estate was slowing there just like in the rest of the country.

And so we decided "SCREW North Carolina!" And frankly, it was because the people posting on the NC Forum were so full of crap. I know I shouldn't let an internet site spoil an entire state for me, but that's the way it goes.

So if you are a realtor, and you are tempted to use City-Data to bring in buyers by fabricating claims about your city... that doesn't work. It backfires. It really ticks people off. Positive thinking is great. I don't much care for the angry people who make exaggerated complaints about cities, either. What people really want is the truth. Just tell us the truth about what your town is like and tell us teh truth about how homes are selling... because the truth is going to come out, anyway.

[El General]

Charlotte is indeed "Repo-ville." Just look at hud.gov or countrywide.com
One of the largest builders, in the deepest amount of trouble, both legally and financially, is Beazer Homes. They did a lot of shady dealings in NC. A great website is The Housing Bubble Blog --you will get a really accurate picture of the housing market there, with daily news from around the country on the housing declines.

[subwife87]

We just sold a house in another area of the country and we had to take way less than we wanted to as well as even far less than the "assessed value" of the home. It really sucked. Our only other option was to try to rent it out but we didn't really want to mess with that for several reasons. Like you though, we were in a position where we had to move (husband is military and we were moving several thousand miles away)

Honestly though, I don't think 3 months for a house to be on the market is really that long. We are coming out of a very odd, unusual selling market and actually are probably going back to something more normal. A house to sell within 6-8 months use to be the "norm".

It took 6 months for our house to sell. We listed it in April and finally closed at the very end of October. What sucked, like I said, was having to take way less than we should have had to have taken. But that's the market right now. We had 2-3 showings a week, busy open houses even. We had a total of 3 offers. One "changed their minds" before it went into escrow. Another one it actually went into escrow but a week before closing they sited "financial difficulties on buyers part" so it fell through and then finally the 3rd time it went through.

The market for sellers just sucks right now.