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"I would have to be pretty desperate to live in a house I was selling."
It would seem that many sellers don't have the patience to wait until their first house sells before buying the second house and carry mortgages on both. They're braver -- or crazier -- than I am, in this uncertain market! Also, many aren't aware that nearly all insurance carriers will refuse to pay a claim for fire, theft, or vandalism on a empty house -- until they go to file one! Read the fine print.
3 verbal offers but they would have included a contingency for the buyer to sell their own house. OP is not willing to accept said contingency and is willing to pass on any offers that include it.
OP is not willing to compromise on much of anything, apparently. A lot of sellers accept contingency offers. If OP is desperate to sell, he/she should at least consider them, especially since potential buyers are in the same financial situation as OP. The potential buyers are trying to sell their house and will buy OP's if they can sell theirs, which is exactly the same situation OP is in. Real estate is a chancy business. Even sales that look like a sure thing can fall through at the last minute due to financing snags, inspection issues, unpermitted improvements, survey conflicts, any number of things. The home still screams overpriced, and OP isn't willing to drop the price either.
Seller7, really enjoyed your post. Id' love to read more of your stuff. Although, I don't agree with your take on renters. In "some areas" it is better to rent and maybe their job has become solid which is why they rented in the first place.
What I would tell your realtor is, NO showings to anyone without a "pre-approval" letter so no time is wasted.
A lot of people, neighbors included, like to see your home and what features you have for the price you're asking. Many of them are just kicking the tires and wasting your time, while some may come in there to scope it out only to steal the tires.
Uhh yeah, so don't put it on craigslist.
"I would have to be pretty desperate to live in a house I was selling."
It would seem that many sellers don't have the patience to wait until their first house sells before buying the second house and carry mortgages on both. They're braver -- or crazier -- than I am, in this uncertain market! Also, many aren't aware that nearly all insurance carriers will refuse to pay a claim for fire, theft, or vandalism on a empty house -- until they go to file one! Read the fine print.
That's why you don't entirely empty your house and you go by every day to check on it. They will pay on an empty house for a given period of time, but eventually, they do not want to pay unless you change the type of insurance.
You can get insurance for a house that's empty most of the time. How do you think people manage vacation properties?
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Having just come back from a house hunting trip, I have to say that as a buyer I have no desire to look at houses just to look at them. Quite a few of the houses we visited we did so because there were not very many pictures in the MLS. Then we walked in and saw one thing and we were done looking. So my recommendation is to have lots of pictures taken of every area of the house. For example, I am looking for a house that has double sinks in the master bathroom if the picture shows that there is only one sink I won't visit it. Another thing that is helpful is a floor-plan to show the layout of the house. If you include measurements even better.
Bang on. Acreage add with no photos of the acreage. Outbuildings mentioned with no photos of the buiidings. No photos of the general neighbourhood. BUT lots of photos, blurry, of empty rooms or your bad taste in furniture. that would drop the count on visitors, as one of them wouldn't be me or you!!!!
Our sellers didn't initially accept contingency offers either. They were also trying to make us jump through many hoops (higher earnest money deposit, paying full asking "plus a little extra") to try and get the house because of that. However, when their house sat for 14 days and ours got an offer within 48 hours once we put it on the market, they changed their tune. Not only did we pay the standard EM deposit, our realtor knocked off $5k from the asking price. A contingency offer with a contract gave us a better position. not accepting a contingency offer means that you let a buyer slip away and that's fine if you're assured that there is a line of others waiting to buy it. But that's not the case all of the time. Many people use the proceeds from their first home as downpayment for their second home.
It would seem that many sellers don't have the patience to wait until their first house sells before buying the second house and carry mortgages on both. They're braver -- or crazier -- than I am, in this uncertain market!
It's a lot easier to coordinate the move, and to get any desired upgrades in the new house done first, if you do things this way. As long as the individual can comfortably carry two mortgages, why not buy first and then sell?
Quote:
Also, many aren't aware that nearly all insurance carriers will refuse to pay a claim for fire, theft, or vandalism on a empty house -- until they go to file one! Read the fine print.
There are insurance companies which will insure a vacant property, provided that property is checked on regularly. But you are absolutely right that this is an issue that needs to be resolved first, not after-the-fact!
Seller7, really enjoyed your post. Id' love to read more of your stuff. Although, I don't agree with your take on renters. In "some areas" it is better to rent and maybe their job has become solid which is why they rented in the first place.
What I would tell your realtor is, NO showings to anyone without a "pre-approval" letter so no time is wasted.
A lot of people, neighbors included, like to see your home and what features you have for the price you're asking. Many of them are just kicking the tires and wasting your time, while some may come in there to scope it out only to steal the tires.
Uhh yeah, so don't put it on craigslist.
2 peas in a pod. Failing peas who self-sabotage and do not achieve their goals. So this post has just been entered in the National "How Not To Sell a House" Registry. When your home is on the market, you want EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE to come in and kick the tires. The more people that are involved the better. A nosy neighbor with zero intent to buy may have friends or relatives that are interested, or become interested. An agent who shows the home to a tire-kicking lookie loo may see its benefits for another buyer, or for another buyer of another agent in the office. An unqualified buyer may recommend the house to a more qualified friend, relative, co-worker, acquaintance, or even a stranger in a restaurant where it comes up in a chance conversation. The combinations and permutations are endless. When you put your home on the market, everyone who wants to see it should be allowed in to look. Your home has now become NOTHING MORE THAN A WATERMELON IN THE PRODUCE AISLE.
Can you imagine if you went into Shop-Rite and you could not look at certain watermelons unless you showed your true motivation and intent to buy one? Of course not. That would be stupid. And so it is with your house. When you list it to sell, IT IS NO LONGER YOUR HOME, even if you plan on living there through the sale. IT IS NOW A WATERMELON. So put it out on the shelf, turn up the display lights, spray it with water every few hours to keep it looking fresh, and stop thinking of it as something to be hidden and protected. IT IS NOW A PRODUCT IN THE CATALOG. Nothing more.
Products that can't be seen, walked through, talked about, and exposed widely and deeply are not likely to sell, at least not very quickly. The home sale process is a grind, and you don't want to extend the process by being stupid. So price it right, keep it spotless and clean ALL THE TIME. Then forget it's on the market and let every damned warm body with a pulse through whenever they care to show up.
An earlier poster had it right:
Quote:
Originally Posted by riaelise
Uh, no. I don't think so. Neither strength nor desperation has anything to do with it. Not everyone can carry two mortgages at once. I have no shame to say that we couldn't pay $6k+ in mortgage payments and didn't want to deal with bridge loans or deplete our savings. No thanks.
You CAN live in a home and sell it. Many people do it. I've already done it. Twice. With and without kids. It isn't the easiest thing in the world and can be tiring, but we've pulled it off 8 months ago. We did the diligence prior to putting the home up for sale, prepping it correctly, and thereby cutting down on the need for endless showings, open houses, etc etc. In fact, we never had an open house. Some people showed up at the house the moment it went live and throughout the weekend and a few of them put in offers on Monday. Sure, we had to spend extended time outside of the house during the weekend. Sure, we had to adapt to living in a model home for 45 days but it ended up not being that bad at all. Prior to even putting the home up for sale, we rented TWO 10 x 30 storage units to hold our crap (and this was after selling and donating items) so that our home didn't look lived in at all. With the furniture and the toys decreased, it was actually not hard at all maintaining the squeaky clean look. The adjustments I had to make was getting up earlier in the morning (by 15 minutes) to make sure everything remained pristine and that all things were out of view. Everyone ate at the kitchen island so as not to disturb the formal place settings. Before we left for work, blinds went up.
Yes, even with two kids, including a toddler, our kitchen looked like this from listing to closing. It's hard but doable.
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What's with the cell phone photos??
