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Upstate NY Babies
House Selling
How long would you give your house on the market before dropping the price on it? Our house has been up about 4wks now with no offers-DH wants to drop the price already. Our house is in a very, very desirable neighborhood and houses typically sell pretty fast. Our neighbors listed 2wks before us and it sold in under a week (its smaller than ours, but has an updated kitchen and garage (we have no garage) and it was listed 60K more than ours and sold ABOVE asking price). Based on that, you could easily put less than that into our house and get a great kitchen and a garage. DH says we need the money on this house to close on the new one, but his parents did offer us a loan for closing. So, WWYD?
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Re: House Selling
well if you took the closing loan from his parents how long could you float the 2 house payments? I think that is the main question- if you are firm on your price- and can handle both payments maybe take the loan so you can move...but that is no guarantee that you wont have to drop your price in the future if you have to unload the house.
I think a month-6 weeks is a decent amount of time to see some kind of interest in your home before dropping the price...
Buying a house is such a personal thing- what one person likes is awful to another (I know that doesnt answer your question)- Good Luck!
It's a tough decision... like a pp said, home buying is so personal. A bunch of houses on our street have sold (or been on the market) in the past 6 months. One house next door was on the market for almost a year before it sold, and the house next to it sold in a 2 months. Another house went down the street in 4 days (with multiple offers) They were all similar size, style, updates etc.
You could try lowering the price just a bit and see if it gets any draws. I know you mentioned you've had open houses... what has the feedback been? What does your realtor think? Have you tried to change anything to stage it? I would do a really good staging before lowering the price... even if it meant having to spend a few hundred dollars to make some minor changes/updates.
My dad is in real estate, and I work for him a bit. I can tell you that outdated kitchens/bathrooms are big turnoffs to buyers for some reason. For me, I'd rather see good bones to a house and get to gut a room myself to my personal taste (as long as the price was low enough that the remodel would be worth it) Oh, and no garage is probably a turnoff too... especially in WNY w/ the snow we get. Do you guys have any type of outdoor storage? A shed?
Are you close to another price point that might draw in buyers? I would start thinking about it if there has been zero interest expressed. How many open houses have you had?
I wonder too if people put as a requirement that a place has to have a garage, perhaps that is narrowing the selection for people.
I don't think it could hurt to lower it a tiny bit. You could see how it goes and I think it refreshes the MLS listing so realtors see it again. But if you won't let the house go under a certain amount for sale, I don' tknow..
Nest Bio ~ ~ Baby Food Blog
Have you had much interest in the past month? If you're not even getting many people in the door I'd consider dropping the price.
Updating a kitchen can be a total pain, is there anything you can do to yours to make it look more updated? Painted cabinets? Painted counter tops? I have a friend who painted her outdated laminates recently and they look awesome.
Just to warn you, the gift letters for borrowing money for closing can be a total PITA and feel like a complete and utter invasion of privacy for everyone involved.
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18
Totally this! We "borrowed" $40k from MIL for two weeks so we didn't have to close on both houses on the same day and had to do a gift letter. We didn't mind doing it because the house was sold. You also have to speak with your lender to even see if this is possible for your types of mortgage and situation. We just barely were able to qualify for both mortgages for those two weeks and had to create a pretend lease to make it work. Once apon a time, these things were easy, but then the mortgage industry crashed. So you may need to find out if it is even an option to borrow money.
As for your house, have you had a lot of showings? Open houses don't count, open houses almost always people browsing and not serious buyers. There is less than a 1% chance of selling a house from an open house. Agents do them to find new clients more than to actually sell the house. I think your biggest down fall is that you do not have a garage. When buyers set out to look for a house, they make a list of things they want. Like 3 bedrooms, more than 2 baths, basement, garage. Most buyers want a garage, so not having a garage knocks your house right out of a LOT of buyers' searches. If you are not getting showings, I would say this is your downfall. And even if you are getting a lot of showings, it could still be your down fall. A very popular showing technique for agents is to take their clients several houses in the same price range but only one or two with all the features the client is looking for full knowing the buyer wont want the first couple houses but then make the last house seem like such a great deal because it has more than the other houses in the price range! Shadey, but so is the real estate industry.
Oh, I just got you message. I am going to look now.
The price dropped today-I thought we were waiting until 9/1 but I guess DH had a different idea!
I just wanted to wish you Good Luck! We are currently going through this ourselves. We put our house on the market June 1 for what we paid for the house 6 years ago. We had no bites, we dropped the price 5k after 4 open houses and 4 realtor showing we just had our first offer for 15% below original asking price. We accepted because we are ready to get out, but it was hard to swallow at first!