Is there a thread for people selling their house?

[BriarfoxinWA]

Well we went and looked at a house in the neighbor -new construction that they just can't sell. It is for rent and Dad made an offer of $1,200/mo but the owner countered with $1,500/mo. I think Dad is going to take it - I told him he better jump on it. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and an office on the main floor along with the kitchen. Best of all no steps for them to have to negotiate. It will work until they can build. This house is really pretty nice but it is really overbuilt for this neighborhood. They want $399k for it and it has several issues that would cause me not to buy it. They used chip board / plywood for the stairs to the basement and just stained it really dark. Some of the painting was poorly done and you can see where it must have been sprayed on and drifted. It has a daylight basement that they put down slate tiles but it is already cracking. It's also built on a lot that is supposed to be "view" but all you really see is the neighbors back yards.

So keep your fingers crossed we may get them settled yet!

 

[binny]

Best Wishes getting them settled!


Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring contracts for us all!

 

[luvflorida]

Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring contracts for us all!

Yes, may 2009 be a better year for real estate than 2008.

Our house has now been on the market for 8 months.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yes, may 2009 be a better year for real estate than 2008.

Our house has now been on the market for 8 months.

Good grief.

You are still renting, right? I will think good thoughts for you and binny.

 

[binny]

well my realtor was here last night for my NYE party and she was blown away by all of the changes! She said that Master suite was perfect and that everything we've done is great. We are going to do the cabinets this weekend and then beside sthe regualr stuff I think we are done. We have pushed back our list date to Monday.

 

[luvflorida]

Good grief.

You are still renting, right? I will think good thoughts for you and binny.

Yes, we moved out here in August and signed a year's lease on a rental home. Nice house, but much too small, around 1200 square feet. I wish we had looked around more before deciding on the house we have, but we were in a hurry to get out here and get established in order for our daughter to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at the U of A, and we wanted to be out here for the arrival of our grandchild. We rented the house through an online rental home website.

We really thought our house would have sold by now, and we'd be able to buy or build by the end of our rental lease. It's bad enough paying for two houses, we certainly don't want to (and can't afford to) pay for three houses!

 

[Mellie2162]

Well we had another showing yesterday afternoon. We also had one right before Christmas. At least now we are getting some activity on the house. The people who came before Christmas left feedback and said the layout was too confusing. The couple who came yesterday stayed for about an hour in the house and outside looking around. I know because we were parked just down the street waiting for them to leave since my dh had to go to work just after they left so we didnt want to be far. They seemed interested, looked inside then went out in the yard then went back in the house, but who knows.

 

[binny]

Ok I have painted the cabinets, stripped paint off hinges, cleaned doorknobs, and depersonalized all but one picture.

We still have to finish my closet, Cams room and the rest of the office but we FINALLY got the ok to sign the listing papers so hopefully today we will have a "coming soon" sign out front. Countertops will be done this week.

Whew.

 

[phorsenuf]

May I join in? I spoke with our Realtor today and we decided that we will list our house in March. Try to beat all the spring listings by a couple weeks (hopefully). So I have a March 1st deadline to get things in order. After 10 years here it's going to be quite a project! Where do you start???

 

[binny]

Hey Phors! Welcome to the madness.

Start with little jobs first. One room at a time. You have some time. As you conquer more and more you will feel better about it.

Are you cleaning out or remodeling anything?

 

[phorsenuf]

Hey Phors! Welcome to the madness.

Start with little jobs first. One room at a time. You have some time. As you conquer more and more you will feel better about it.

Are you cleaning out or remodeling anything?

Starting with cleaning out. We have a few project that need to get done that I will probably have to hire out (ugh) because DH won't be back up before than to do them. Nothing major though. The outside needs a coat of paint but we are going to just do an allowance because we don't want to deal with it.
I need a dumpster...a great big dumpster!

 

[Mellie2162]

Any new updates? We are still on the market. Our last showing the folks liked the location but felt like they would need to update all the bathrooms, so I guess they werent really interested. Our contract runs out in May and I think we may take it off the market if it hasnt sold by then. Anyone else having any luck out there?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

May I join in? I spoke with our Realtor today and we decided that we will list our house in March. Try to beat all the spring listings by a couple weeks (hopefully). So I have a March 1st deadline to get things in order. After 10 years here it's going to be quite a project! Where do you start???

Oooh....We always had ours on by FEB, not March. I would shoot for the last week in Feb.

Imo March is too late, because April is a dead month.

 

[phorsenuf]

Oooh....We always had ours on by FEB, not March. I would shoot for the last week in Feb.

Imo March is too late, because April is a dead month.

Not possible. House isn't ready and we will be gone until March 1.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Not possible. House isn't ready and we will be gone until March 1.

That stinks. People are already looking now. Just make sure you get it early because April is a dead month.

 

[phorsenuf]

That stinks. People are already looking now. Just make sure you get it early because April is a dead month.

Well my real estate agent isn't too concerned about it because of when we would need to be out by. And from being in the business either I'm not worried. RE is different in every state and April here really is not a problem. Here in NH it's dead now.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Well my real estate agent isn't too concerned about it because of when we would need to be out by. And from being in the business either I'm not worried. RE is different in every state and April here really is not a problem. Here in NH it's dead now.

That is true. We sold in TX and MO and both were dead months in April.

Good Luck to you.

 

[phorsenuf]

That is true. We sold in TX and MO and both were dead months in April.

Good Luck to you.

Thanks. Our goal is to get it up by April because that's when it starts getting busy. I can't be out anyway until after July 1st.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Thanks. Our goal is to get it up by April because that's when it starts getting busy. I can't be out anyway until after July 1st.

Funny huh? The market has started already here, due to the interest rates.

 

[barkley]

is'nt it interesting what are 'dead months' in different areas?

in california (at least northern) february was'nt all that popular because it was usualy raining (noone wanted to slog thru it to see homes, sellers did'nt want people slogging in mud and muck to mess up their newly cleaned carpets ). march was pretty much the kick off time with april being HUGE. with 45 day escrows being the outside time most sellers were willing to wait, most family buyers (those with school aged kiddos) wanted to time everything out so the kids could finish up the school year where they currently lived before they moved into a new district (so you were s.o.l. if you tried to book movers or rent a truck the first 3 weeks of june unless you reserved it with a big deposit by the first week of may).

i'm wondering if the california market will be even slower this year-used to be that march/april were big because first time buyers were using their refunds towards down payments and closing costs. if california ends up doing what the 'guvinator' is saying and issues i.o.u.'s on refunds those buyers could be waiting months before being able to purchase.