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We are relocating and looking at houses. There is one that is as close to perfect for us as we will ever realistically get. It has been on the market for about 1.5 years. It's last price reduction was in January from $347k to $299k and it is still obviously for sale. It is a divorce situation and the house is sorta-kinda not exactly vacant. Barely any furniture, but some stuff scattered about the house...........I guess somebody is staying there sometimes since they are having to pay the mortgage. They haven't made any attempts to make it presentable for sale either. The yard has been let go for quite some time, there are rooms that it looks like they started to paint, but never finished, the carpet is all stained/loose, etc.
Anyhow, I think an FHA loan is our only real option and the max for that area is $276,250, and we'll only have about $7k cash. On the one hand, it seems to me like they'd be glad to get rid of it at any price (I've been there.......lost lots of $$ but didn't care at the time......was just glad it was gone). What makes it difficult is it's uniqueness for the area. There really aren't any comps, much less any recent ones. It seems like $299k must be too high, because it has been at that price for 4-5 months. From what my realtor tells me, the area is not as hard hit as many as far as declining values, and it looks like the average selling to listing price is about 95% in the area. However, this house and this situation, are not exactly average............
The public records I found says they bought in Dec. 2003 for $279,900 and financed $223,920.
Any suggestions/strategies? If it matters to you, we aren't looking to steal the house and make cash, we truly intend to live there for quite some time. As I said it's probably about as perfect as we are going to get but our financing will have a ceiling..............
I think there's little to gain by speculating on what the seller is thinking or can afford.
All you can do is make an offer you think is fair for the house and the area, and that you can afford, and go from there.
I think there's little to gain by speculating on what the seller is thinking or can afford.
All you can do is make an offer you think is fair for the house and the area, and that you can afford, and go from there.
That's probably good advice.........wish my mind worked that way!
Quote:
Originally Posted by verobeach
Aren't all listings stale these days? I'd say there's really no such thing as a stale listing anymore.
Well, maybe so, but I'd consider a listing that has been on the market for 1.5 years in an area with an average DOM of about 160 to be "stale." I guess you could call it whatever you want, but regardless of what you call it, the listing is >3x the duration of average and still hasn't sold!
Nothing personal intended but I get from your impression that you feel everyone is struggling. Perhaps I misinterpreted your blanket statement and if I did I apologize. I based that post off of many of your recent posts complaining about not being able to sell and having removed your home from the market.
Nothing personal intended but I get from your impression that you feel everyone is struggling. Perhaps I misinterpreted your blanket statement and if I did I apologize. I based that post off of many of your recent posts complaining about not being able to sell and having removed your home from the market.
It's not that we can't sell. We have a 6 mo. contract which is up in a few days. Two months into it, we decided we didn't want to (or have to) sell. We can't get out of our contract so we're riding it out. We've been honest with our realtor. She knows we've changed our mind. But we're not paying the hefty fees that go along with negating a contract so she continues to show it. We've told her we'll seriously consider all full-priced offers. This is Florida and it won't happen so we're safe. She showed the house yesterday, well aware of where we stand. We've had offers but none that make us want to sell our home.
I think days-on-the-market are fictitious anyway. We have houses down here that have been on the market for a year and then they relist as Brand New!! One just relisted after a year on the market for $30,000 more. There's no rhyme or reason to figuring out what's stale and what's not.
It's pretty crummy the agent won't just let you out since you decided not to sell. She may have cost herself a future client with her pigheadedness. I hope the next time around is better. Anyway, I figure we've hijacked this thread enough.
Oh, and OP, the only way to find out what they'll do is make an offer. Maybe it'll work out.
I'd go ahead and make the offer you want to make. The worst that could happen is a "no"... The best is, well you may get yourself a home. It's nothing personal, it's just business. Yes?
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