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It's painful to look at the listings every day and see homes sitting for months and months and months, slowly chipping away at their prices (or worse, the ones in MAJOR denial, not lowering at all).
As potential buyers, there are homes we see that if they had been listed at today's price in April, we would've bought them. But this isn't April anymore, is it.
I like to browse through printed housing listings and I always spot a good number of overpriced houses and think to myself, "They're never going to sell that one."
You know what makes it hard, too, is hearing from friends and family who have bucked the trend - my best friend in Boston just sold her condo that they only bought about a year ago for 3k OVER asking price. They didn't even lose any money. I was shocked. Then there are even people here on city-data, like the lady in Durham, the lady in New Jersey, etc. who are very confident they will sell quickly, you almost feel bad for them, and then they DO sell quickly! It's like wow, if it can happen to them, why not me? Hoping that the average person is going to put their house up for a 100k loss on the first day is probably futile. No matter how hard you try, you can't fight human nature.
Very good article and so true. I've seen it time and time again. We sold our house in FL 3 years ago at the peak and we told friends and neighbors to sell, pocket the money, and they could buy back in a few years with money in the bank. They thought we were nuts, including our realtor. Now 3 years later all that "potential" profit has been wiped out and they still don't get it.
The only reason why houses went so high was the types of loans being given out in the first place. All people cared about was "what is my monthly payment"?. They didn't care if it went up because "the equity in their home was going to keep going up and of course they would also make more money at their jobs over the next few years". People started living farther and farther away from reality and they didn't shop for value. Any time something goes up that fast it will come down.
YNo matter how hard you try, you can't fight human nature.
That goes for both sellers who think their house is worth more than the market will bear AND buyers with unrealistic expectations who think that lowballing is the thing to do and get mad when sellers won't give them their houses. Human nature in both cases.
That goes for both sellers who think their house is worth more than the market will bear AND buyers with unrealistic expectations who think that lowballing is the thing to do and get mad when sellers won't give them their houses. Human nature in both cases.
Only time tells who is delusional in these cases. Certainly, we've read plenty of stories in these forums of sellers who passed on an "unrealistic" lowball offer, only to ultimately sell for less later.
We've also read stories of sellers who pass on the lowball and get a better price.
I think it boils down to finding a realtor with a good current sales record and trusting their judgment on what your house is worth.
It's been called " irrational exuberance", unduly escalated asset values, which become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions .....
This term has been attributed to Greenspan back in the late 50's and is the name of one of Robert Schiiler's ( Case- Shiller) books ( 2000). While the book is about the stock market, the principles are applicable to any bubble.
You know what makes it hard, too, is hearing from friends and family who have bucked the trend - my best friend in Boston just sold her condo that they only bought about a year ago for 3k OVER asking price. They didn't even lose any money. I was shocked. Then there are even people here on city-data, like the lady in Durham, the lady in New Jersey, etc. who are very confident they will sell quickly, you almost feel bad for them, and then they DO sell quickly! It's like wow, if it can happen to them, why not me? Hoping that the average person is going to put their house up for a 100k loss on the first day is probably futile. No matter how hard you try, you can't fight human nature.
Wow, can I relate to your post. Our condo—in a historical building, architecturally significant, blah blah blah, in a major US city— was on the market for more than two years. We did everything; when our realtor said our den should be a breakfast room, we made it into a breakfast room. When she said we should have granite in the kitchen, we installed granite, etc. And we came down $130K in price before it was sold. During those two years, my friend in Wichita, KS, was preparing her house for market and very confident. I kept thinking: "Yeah, well, just wait. Your turn is coming."
She sold it in two weeks. Received two offers; one full price for cash. I am very happy for her, but I wish some of that had rubbed off on us!
And...the right real estate agent is key. We changed agents a couple of times in those two years. Find the one(s) in your community who are winning the big sales awards; they know what they're doing.
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