If you've listed your house lately...

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

did you have any ethical problems with listing it at the price you chose?

I know about houses and mortgages...I worked in mortgage lending for a long time. But I've never seen houses go for the kind of profits I'm seeing recently.

Houses in rural Mississippi have gone for anywhere between $75/sq. foot and up over the past two years. But two houses in my neighborhood that will become comparables on my house have just sold between $107 and $117/sq. foot. That's still probably lower than most of the country...but I'm also looking at a huge profit for a house I've had for only two years.

At what point do we draw the line between a well-earned profit and absolutely making a killing on a house? I ask this because there is such a huge housing shortage in my area, and there are only 2 houses listed in this price range even available. I know that my house will probably sell to one of the first four people who look at it, and I also know that I don't have to sell it through a realtor.

How do I properly price my house? The realtor I've been talking to is conservative and tells me I can pretty much list at whatever I want to list at...and it will sell. Do I take a huge profit, or do I take a modest earning and hope I can find one that isn't overpriced in our next city?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You take the huge profit. The worth of something is what people will buy it for.
107-117 is a little above average but nothing outrageous.

Plus after you go thru the process of the buyers you will be grateful!!!

 

[rayelias]

Try building a new house for under $100 sft (including options/upgrades).

Very hard to do. So, asking $100+ sft, IMHO is not unrealistic.

But, it all comes down to this... your house is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it, not a penny more, not a penny less.

 

[scifihippie]

We just listed our home for $95 sq foot. It's the typical rate in our neighborhood. The house across the street went for $115 sq foot. We talked to the new owners. The reason being was that they upped the price over the original offer b/c the owners financed as part of the house all the closing costs and a new pool and hardwood floors. So in essence, they added another $34k to the original asking price to cover these things. Keep that in mind when you see a out of line price like that.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Thanks for the pointers. We've done quite a bit to the house--a major renovation in the master bath plus minor renovations in the three other baths; granite and a new backsplash in the kitchen, a new fireplace, and fresh paint throughout the house.

I know you can't build for under about $110/sq. foot here, and lots in my neighborhood are $80k. No one can afford to build a new house--even if they can find a builder!

I think we'll list at about $120k higher than we bought and see what happens.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Take the money! You will need it to buy a new home if you are buying in the same general area.

I bought my home for 209K..... average around here at the time. Put in about 80K in renovations and upgrades. Now, 7 years later, we just had a realtor tell us that our home would sell for 400 - 430K...... and would we like to list it with him?

I said, "no thanks, because I would now need to buy a 400 - $435K home just to replace the one I already have". What sense would that make... unless I moved where homes were drastically cheaper.

 

[annegal]

But if it doesn't appraise for what the buyer agrees to purchase it for, there may be problems getting a loan-right?

This happened to us once & we had to drop the selling price.

 

[MoniqueU]

Things are really slowing down in my neck of the woods in Southern California. We live in a nice newer subdivision in a top rated school district.
The house across the street from me was for sale since Christmas time. I think it may have gone to foreclosure. There are a ton more for sale signs up and not many if any say sold. They have been for sale for awhile now. Perhaps people have finally reached an asking point past what people are willing to pay around here.

 

[barkley]

mine closed last week. bought it 7 years ago for 202K, did maybe 14K in landscaping and new carpet over the years-sold for 619K. it's crazy how much housing prices have gone up here, but it's starting to cool down-many houses that were listed prior to ours (at comparable prices) are still for sale and a ton have hit the market in the past month or so. there are also lots of bank repos happening in adjacent counties and the trend has begun to creep our way.

take advantage of getting the best price you can-check out the comps and price accordingly (we actualy priced a bit lower than the going rate because we wanted to be in a rental before school ended). your concept of outrageous may be someone else's "steal".

 

[ZachnElli]

We sold our house at the end of January. We bought it not even 2 years earlier at $123/ sq foot and sold it for $150/ sq ft. We had no problems listing it after we looked around for cheaper houses (my dh lost his job) and found the cheaper houses weren't much cheaper anymore! We didn't have any problems with the appraisal either.

 

[binny]

think about replacement values. You wont be able to replace what you have now for what you paid for it back then.


Supply and demand really. One house in our old neighbourhood went for $135 SF I was flabbergasted!

There is NO WAY it was worth that not in that neighbourhood.


BUT somebody paid it so it was worth that much to them.


Dont feel guilty, nobody buys a house in the hopes of losing money. Its an investment.