So, my home is up for sale. Just went up about one month ago. Had about a dozen showings the first 2 weeks, the response was great, but no offers. No showings in the last 2 weeks. My realtor has the home on HAR (of course), flyers in the sign-tube, ads in realty trade mags... Planning on an Open Home soon... The home was originally priced on the slight high-end of what similar homes are going for in the area - but still within the comps. Since then I've come down a bit in price, but still no bites! The house is in the Briarforest/Kirkwood area, updated, clean, huge yard. Well-maintained, so I don't know what else to do/add to it, especially since I don't want to blow thousand's more in upgrades while I'm trying to sell it. Any advice? Anything I should push the realtor to do? Is it possible to lay out a financial incentive to buyers' realtors/buyer that would give a bonus to whoever does buy it? Any advice is appreciated.
http://www.har.com/search/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=2429531&class=1&leadid=6&sTYPE=0&backButton=Y Here it is. I'm guessing the best solution will be to come down in price, of course. Max, I'm either going to head to Boston, NY, or D.C. The complicating thing about it is that when I got out of law school I delayed practicing law for about a year & a half. So, I won't meet the 5 year reciprocity standard for NY & MA until 01/2007... So, I'm looking at non-legal options, contract work, or something federal-heavy, like bankruptcy until then. I sent the paperwork for my D.C. license away back in June, so that shouldn't be much of an issue. I never take the easy road, lol!
Thanks man! I'm taking a big risk - that things will work out with the house, with the career, with my girlfriend... but I guess nothing good comes without taking some risk. Here's to keeping the faith and hoping for the best!
Hey, we are neighbors! I live on Woodland Park Dr, right off of Briar Forest. We bought our house back in June, and it's the same style as what yours is. Just for comparison, we bought ours for $149,000. It's only a 3 bedroom though and 1,700 sq feet so a good bit smaller than yours. We just had a 4 bedroom next door to us sell for in the 160's I think, but yours appears to be in much better condition. It was on the market for a while, even before we moved in.
Yeah Harrisment, I sometimes think I am asking for too much, but then again, I added in quite a few updates over the last couple of years, the house's value HAS appreciated, and not one person has complained about the pricing so far... Well, maybe it is a silent protest they are conducting by not making any offers! Wow! No sooner did I post this than someone scheduled a showing! Go Clutchfans karma, go!
Your price range is in direct competion with almost every tract home subdivision in the Greater Houston area. A lot of people go after new cookie cutter houses. They get new appliances, new carpet, plus more square footage. It might be a matter of dropping the price...but I don't know. Do you still live in the house? Is there still furniture in it? Houses tend to show better with furniture still in it. Nice trees, by the way. Oh...and a realtor friend of my Dad's always says that a couple thousand dollar investment in some fresh landscaping can often tip the scales. Put in fresh beds and plants...maybe something down by the curb. Gives a good show. Sometimes spending $2-3 grand on that can be better than lowering the price by $2-3 grand.
I closed on my house in November. Sometime during the approximately 4 months it took to build it, I noticed the neighbors directly across from me put up a "For Sale" sign on theirs. I closed last November. They finally sold the house less than a month ago. In that span, I saw the signs of at least 3 realty companies in their front yard. This is what's so misrepresentative of things like property values and price appreciation. People see their property values go up and automatically assume they can sell the house for that amount. All that means is your property taxes went up. The true value of your house can't be determined until you either sell it or have a real estate agent do a comp of similar housing sales in the area over the past several months.
if you're in an area surrounded by new development...new building...it is very difficult to sell your home. why buy the used house when you can buy the brand new one that you design?? where you pick out all the amenities you want??? last time i checked, in my neighborhood the average time to sell a house was under 60 days. but it's all homes built in the late 60's.
My wife is a realtor and said that houses in your subdivision are closing at an average of 79.57/square foot. Now yours could be worth more or less then that, but that should give you a good base as to what others are actually closing for. Tell your realtor to give you a CMA on your house, you can see for yourself.
I wish that were the case over in the med center. My folks are getting contract bids for a house they're building over on a lot they own. The construction bids are coming in at between $100-160/square foot. Considering that the house is close to 5000 square feet, that means the bids are coming in at $500,000-800,000 just to build the darn thing, before any profit is realized. The lot has been appraised at $235,000. That seems awfully high. I would have assumed somewhere around $80/sq. foot, myself.
Does anybody know an easy way to find the going mortgage rates here in Houston? Does the Chronicle list these numbers once a week in biz section?
Not to knock Sugarland, but well - it's in Sugarland. You could probably get a 7 bedroom 5000 sq. foot home for the same price in Wharton. Sugarland is a good 25 minutes past where my house is if you're commuting from downtown. I think it will be a matter of coming down more in price + adding some shrubbery.
Check out www.bankrate.com If you are interested my wife is a realtor & has an awesome mortgage banker that she works with. Let me know if you need her info & I can give it to you.
This is true except that they were selling the house (according to my real estate agent) with upgrades for less than a not-so-much-upgraded spec model of the exact same home. People still weren't biting. It was a 2 year old house. I think the average time to sell in a built-out area here in the Dallas area is about 30-90 days. Although I'm not positive about that, I think that's what I read. I've read several people trying to sell homes for unrealistic prices due to the magic property value number.
One thing that really helps your house is decorating....I noticed your walls are kind of bare. It might help to get some wall decorations. DD
