PRICE PRICE PRICE replaces location, location, location (foreclosures, sales, housing)

[AndrewMensch]

It is unfortunate that many threads exist on here with sellers who have been selling their house for a year or more. "No lookers" "Low offers" "No offers" over and over again.

Homes are selling... if they're priced RIGHT for TODAY'S MARKET. Actually, homes that are priced at the market or below the market are getting multiple offers and full price... a price that's lower then it once was, but homes are selling.

Many posters on here are Anti-Realtor because they think that we are not telling the truth. This reminds me of the famous line from "A Few Good Men." when Jack Nicholson's character says "THE TRUTH, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth...." The market is down. Those of us who are responsible tell this to sellers, and some of us walk away from those who want to price their homes at 2004 levels.

Many sellers don't want to "give their house away," yet want to steal a house when they're on the buying side.

Everyone is moving somewhere, and the truth is that whatever you're "losing" on the selling end, you will get back on the buying end.

For those with the money and the guts, this is actually a great time to move up to a larger home. Interest rates are low, prices are down.

Tip O’Neil once said that "all politics are local." This is the same with real estate. Some markets have leveled off... and a few are actually up. Broad strokes only go so far. Florida and California are having huge problems; my area in New Jersey is down, but not nearly as much as those states.

Look at your local areas... some are down more then others. Regardless of the market, look at homes. Take a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial in "Town A," move it to "Town B" and the price can go up or down by THOUSANDS of dollars.

That, my friends, is the truth.

[fairmarketvalue]

Originally Posted by AndrewMensch

It is unfortunate that many threads exist on here with sellers who have been selling their house for a year or more. "No lookers" "Low offers" "No offers" over and over again.

Homes are selling... if they're priced RIGHT for TODAY'S MARKET. Actually, homes that are priced at the market or below the market are getting multiple offers and full price... a price that's lower then it once was, but homes are selling.

Many posters on here are Anti-Realtor because they think that we are not telling the truth. This reminds me of the famous line from "A Few Good Men." when Jack Nicholson's character says "THE TRUTH, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth...." The market is down. Those of us who are responsible tell this to sellers, and some of us walk away from those who want to price their homes at 2004 levels.

Many sellers don't want to "give their house away," yet want to steal a house when they're on the buying side.

Everyone is moving somewhere, and the truth is that whatever you're "losing" on the selling end, you will get back on the buying end.

For those with the money and the guts, this is actually a great time to move up to a larger home. Interest rates are low, prices are down.

Tip O’Neil once said that "all politics are local." This is the same with real estate. Some markets have leveled off... and a few are actually up. Broad strokes only go so far. Florida and California are having huge problems; my area in New Jersey is down, but not nearly as much as those states.

Look at your local areas... some are down more then others. Regardless of the market, look at homes. Take a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial in "Town A," move it to "Town B" and the price can go up or down by THOUSANDS of dollars.

That, my friends, is the truth.

Amen to that! Good post, thanks.

[aneftp]

Originally Posted by AndrewMensch

For those with the money and the guts, this is actually a great time to move up to a larger home. Interest rates are low, prices are down.
That, my friends, is the truth.

The problem is people either have very little equity (or even negative equity) in their current homes and they have not saved enough to move into a bigger home.

Supposed some one purchased a home for 400K in 2005 with 80K downpayment. They have paid off about 30K in principal in 4 years.

Now they want to move into that new 500K home (that was worth 600K at peak). But there current home is now down to 320K. So they essentially lost all of their 80K downpayment. All they have left is 30K into the principal they have to come up with an additional 70K in cash downpayment for that 20 percent downpayment.

Plus they lost 30-50% in their taxable stock market accounts that past 12 months.

That's why homes are not moving anymore.

[HomeStager]

I think buyers moved by the discount shoppers fever, need to be careful.

The fever has some of them, consumed with how little they can get a home for, and they end up looking in areas that are not as ideal, and or settling for floor plans not as ideal, just to brag that they bought the deal of the century.

Already, I have heard a few murmerings of buyers remorse.

I think in any market, it is important for buyers to get clear on what they truly want out of a location area, and what they truly want out of a next place to live in day in and out and ultimately, look for that, to end up being happy with their purchase.

What good was cheap, if you hate the area and house you end up in, once the "buy cheap fever" wears off?

It's like those that buy a clothing garment because, the sale price is too good to pass up, and then, it collects dust in their closet because, after the discount shoppers high wore off, they really didn't like the color, had no place to wear it to, and it didn't even fit right.

I will also ask some realtors to be a bit more sensitive/understanding of the huge financial losses they are asking some sellers to make, while helping them to set realistic pricing. It may take some a year to go through the shock, denial, anger and then acceptance that they just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars they recently invested into their home, to this screwy market.

[srnyong]

I'm a prospective buyer - watching the condo market in my area for the last 6 months.
I'm shopping condos that were built in 2006-2007, sold for about $500K, and foreclosures are now going for about $220-250K.

Looking at it from the seller's perspective, if I were someone who bought my condo in early 2007 for $500K, I probably would have put down 3-10% and then in 1 year paid off almost zero principle.

Assuming I want to sell my condo for the going rate - $250K, I still owe $220K on it.

I probably don't have $200K sitting in the bank so that I can get out from under my condo. But it's a Condo and I just lost my job and found another job in another city.

What do I do other than list an overpriced condo, and pray that some sucker with a big inheritance comes along?

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by AndrewMensch

It is unfortunate that many threads exist on here with sellers who have been selling their house for a year or more. "No lookers" "Low offers" "No offers" over and over again.

Homes are selling... if they're priced RIGHT for TODAY'S MARKET. Actually, homes that are priced at the market or below the market are getting multiple offers and full price... a price that's lower then it once was, but homes are selling.

Many posters on here are Anti-Realtor because they think that we are not telling the truth. This reminds me of the famous line from "A Few Good Men." when Jack Nicholson's character says "THE TRUTH, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth...." The market is down. Those of us who are responsible tell this to sellers, and some of us walk away from those who want to price their homes at 2004 levels.

Many sellers don't want to "give their house away," yet want to steal a house when they're on the buying side.

Everyone is moving somewhere, and the truth is that whatever you're "losing" on the selling end, you will get back on the buying end.

For those with the money and the guts, this is actually a great time to move up to a larger home. Interest rates are low, prices are down.

Tip O’Neil once said that "all politics are local." This is the same with real estate. Some markets have leveled off... and a few are actually up. Broad strokes only go so far. Florida and California are having huge problems; my area in New Jersey is down, but not nearly as much as those states.

Look at your local areas... some are down more then others. Regardless of the market, look at homes. Take a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial in "Town A," move it to "Town B" and the price can go up or down by THOUSANDS of dollars.

That, my friends, is the truth.

Isn't that the truth! That SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS for me. Not to mention I'm in FL, but actually my area hasn't been hit as hard, thank god! Now I just have to sell my house that's been on the market for 4 months with the last showing in December.

[FLBob]

Actually location is still working. I recently did an analysis looking at my area at a micro level and noticed that the better locations are holding value, while the areas that were undesirable before the housing boom need to be priced aggressively to sell. The buyers in any area are still able to cherry pick the best properties. But while newly built homes without the location are selling under $80/sqft. Older smaller homes in the best locations are still selling at over $200/sqft. Location, location, location is still true.

[MikeJaquish]

Price does not "replace" location by any stretch of the imagination.

"Price fixes all deficiencies" is still true, and still very true if the location is deficient.

A great location will always have more value than a similar home in an incurably deficient location.

[texdav]

Looks like if the new plan annouced by the president works most of those assets in banks will be bought up at cheap prices by large( you have to have control of managing 10 billion in assets) hedge funds and the like.This will mean a huge portion of those homes not reaching the market and rasing prices.Several hedge funds have already said they are in.Alot of money coming off the sidelines is what I see.Obama finally decided to let the markets value the assets packages with a 100 billion subsidy to do it.

[CouponJack]

Originally Posted by AndrewMensch

It is unfortunate that many threads exist on here with sellers who have been selling their house for a year or more. "No lookers" "Low offers" "No offers" over and over again.

Homes are selling... if they're priced RIGHT for TODAY'S MARKET. Actually, homes that are priced at the market or below the market are getting multiple offers and full price... a price that's lower then it once was, but homes are selling.

Many posters on here are Anti-Realtor because they think that we are not telling the truth. This reminds me of the famous line from "A Few Good Men." when Jack Nicholson's character says "THE TRUTH, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth...." The market is down. Those of us who are responsible tell this to sellers, and some of us walk away from those who want to price their homes at 2004 levels.

Many sellers don't want to "give their house away," yet want to steal a house when they're on the buying side.

Everyone is moving somewhere, and the truth is that whatever you're "losing" on the selling end, you will get back on the buying end.

For those with the money and the guts, this is actually a great time to move up to a larger home. Interest rates are low, prices are down.

Tip O’Neil once said that "all politics are local." This is the same with real estate. Some markets have leveled off... and a few are actually up. Broad strokes only go so far. Florida and California are having huge problems; my area in New Jersey is down, but not nearly as much as those states.

Look at your local areas... some are down more then others. Regardless of the market, look at homes. Take a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial in "Town A," move it to "Town B" and the price can go up or down by THOUSANDS of dollars.

That, my friends, is the truth.

Andrew, many parts of NJ are still above historicals and need to come down more to fall in line w/income to price ratios....If you are in Northern NJ, goto njrereport dot com it will give you data from the GSMLS......also sales are way down up there and prices are following.....

Also, don't think realtors aren't at fault. Many did not price "ahead of the curve". Many didn't have the vision to see what was going on in front of their face and suggested prices for yesterday and not for tomorrow...there is alot of blame to go around here....