Well, some people are starting to think so when they look at the selling prices of some homes lately. However, I think the market is just dropping quicker and people are noticing prices.
GONE are the days where we would barely see a home for under $200,000. It's common to see them for less! I see homes that sold for $200k or more that have foreclosed going for slightly over 100k. (Yikes)
It's scarey. Unfortunately none of us have a crystal ball where we can see just how bad it's going to get. At the time of this blog, I have 45 Active listings in MLS and another 18 Listings that are under contract. Yes, they are selling! But the prices we are seeing are staggering.
A 3-Family home I was personally viewing for a family member 2 years ago was listed at $309,900 at the time. It was common to see 3-familys priced at around the $299k mark & noone though twice about it, it was the price in the market at the time. That SAME house, was sold for $175,000 a few months ago, in pretty much the same condition it was in when i saw it a few years back.
Are bank starting to budge? Yes & No. They are trying to "price it right". It's been my experience that when a seller reviews the comps provided to them from the agent & decides on a price that fits & is competing with the other active listings... it WILL sell.
My advice to a buyer that really wants the home is: Make an offer. If it's reasonable, the bank will more than likely at least counter your offer if they feel it is still too low. Banks don't want to keep the house forever,, but they don't want to take a further hit (at least worse than most of them have already).
I know many look a them as "the big bad bank".. but many of these are owned by investors. put yourself in their shoes. Would you take an offer from a buyer who is offering you HALF of what the MARKET VALUE is? ... or would "budge" instead of waiting for a potentially higher offer? Chances are you'd take your chances & wait... It may take a month or 2 but another offer will come along. What's a "TEAR-DOWN" for one buyer is a palace for another...
Here's a story:
We had a contemporary colonial in a neighboring town that we listed. There was a burst pipe in the ciling that caused water damage to the living room & the ceiling had collapsed. Buyer's agents were outraged & felt the house was in horrible shape. It was a complete REHAB, some of them claimed. (*Sigh* ok, i get a lot of exagerations when gathering feedback sometimes, i guess because they think they are doing their buyer a favor.. thinking they can get me to maybe feel that it's priced wrong & get me to encourage the seller to take their low-ball offers? Hmmm... Nope. To make a long story short,, within just a few days of listing we had several offers.. and the house sold for $20,000 OVER asking price. you read right, no typo here. twenty-thousand over asking! Now remember, this is a tear down! We were getting offrs a hundred thousand or more UNDER asking!
Ok, back to "budging".... they are willing to "budge" and negotiate. But c'mon let's be reasonable, they're not going to GIVE you the house for Free. If your serious, we'll know it & we'll work with you. If your not, we'll know it & the seller knows it too.
Want me to elaborate? Ok.... If the ASKING price is $230,000 and your putting in an offer of $90.000 ummm.. chances are the seller is going to tell me that you can go fly a kite. Unfortunately I cannot tell you that in those exact terms (even though sometimes that's exactly what they say,, giggle..) I have to be professional & say "we're sorry to inform you the bank has rejected your offer, there is no counter offer at this time"... C'mon some of you out there have heard these EXACT words.. ;-) But seriously, this kind of offer won't be taken seriously. But, as you know all offers MUST be presented. & They will be, but i think everyone involved can see an obvious problem with this type of gap in offer VS list price.
Does this mean you can't offer considerably less & get the house? NO, I've seen it happen. just not often.
Happy house Hunting :-)
Comments (0)Subscribe to CommentsComment