What incentives would encourage a quick home sale in this market?

[LoveBWVVBR]

Honestly, you're probably better off raising your price 30k and adding the pool.

Really? It seems more risky to me

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Honestly, you're probably better off raising your price 30k and adding the pool. There was a home in our neighborhood that had an unfinished, rather than a finished, basement. Homes with finished basements in good shape (this one was) generally sell in a week or less. This one sat for 2 months. And the seller took a haircut, way more than the price to finish the basement. Buyers just don't want to deal with doing the work, according to my realtor. So if you're listing 30k under comps because a pool costs 30k, you may be over priced. As for closing costs, around here, credits towards closing is assumed, so pricing reflects that.

Credit towards closing costs def. isn't assumed around here. Most homes here are short sales or REO's, so no credit towards closing costs at all. Also, none of the comps had pools, so we're 30K under other actual comperables w/o pools.

 

[JoiseyMom]

Tell us about your new home?? Describe Is it in the same town?

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Tell us about your new home?? Describe Is it in the same town?

Same town, and it's FAB!! It's very, very close to the beach (we're only 2 blocks away now, but new house is much closer!). It's 4bdr/2bath, so the same as our current house, but it has a 3 car garage and a really, really great screened in pool. Of course, it has everything you'd expect a bank-owned home to have (brown grass, green pool, dead lizard skeleton in the bathtub), but it's nothing that a little elbow grease won't take care of. The finishes in the house are somewhat dated, but once our current house sells we can take care of that for the most part. Anyways, apart from selling our current house in the down market, we're stoked!!

ETA - Even with the stress of trying to sell a house in this market, DH and I wouldn't have passed up the opportunity to buy our new house. We still can't believe it!

 

[JoiseyMom]

Same town, and it's FAB!! It's very, very close to the beach (we're only 2 blocks away now, but new house is much closer!). It's 4bdr/2bath, so the same as our current house, but it has a 3 car garage and a really, really great screened in pool. Of course, it has everything you'd expect a bank-owned home to have (brown grass, green pool, dead lizard skeleton in the bathtub), but it's nothing that a little elbow grease won't take care of. The finishes in the house are somewhat dated, but once our current house sells we can take care of that for the most part. Anyways, apart from selling our current house in the down market, we're stoked!!

ETA - Even with the stress of trying to sell a house in this market, DH and I wouldn't have passed up the opportunity to buy our new house. We still can't believe it!

Congrats!

 

[FLAngie]

Indialantic

Um, the seller of our new house was actually the bank, and what we bought it for was probably not so nice in their book because the now-foreclosed owners paid twice that amount in '06 We about fainted when this house came on the market for what the bank priced it at. It's always been one of our dream houses!

What town is your friend selling in? There are some neighborhoods in Satellite and IHB that just make me scratch my head with their current pricing.

Her house is in Viera. Rental is Rockledge. I don't think that I would put in a pool. IMHO it is kind of a personal decision with all the choices available. Plus, there are so many people that don't want the maintenance, especially with so many neighborhoods having hoa pools or near the beach like you are.

Sounds like you bought a very nice house. Congrats!

 

[grammynelliebelle]

I think the statue is St Joseph. I also think they say it should be placed upside down and when the house sells the statue is to have a place of honor in your new home! At least its not an expensive strategy! Grammy

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Her house is in Viera. Rental is Rockledge. I don't think that I would put in a pool. IMHO it is kind of a personal decision with all the choices available. Plus, there are so many people that don't want the maintenance, especially with so many neighborhoods having hoa pools or near the beach like you are.

Sounds like you bought a very nice house. Congrats!

Viera is tough because there is just SO much inventory there, KWIM? If it's still zoned for Manatee even after rezoning and it's priced right I think that it will sell eventually though.

Stuff seems to be moving on the beaches as long as it's priced right. Everyone wants a bargain, that's for sure.

I agree with you about the pool. No HOA pool here, but it's just such a personal choice. Everyone wants something different in a pool, and then there are the buyers who really don't want a pool at all (where are they? LOL!!). Finding our perfect pool at our new house was amazing. I don't know that I've ever seen a house for sale with a pool that I liked before.

We're very excited about the new house. I will breathe a big sigh of relief when this one sells, though. I don't know if I can fully enjoy the new house until then. We really thought that we'd sell this one before even looking for a new one but when the perfect bank-owned home came on the market we had to jump on it. I'm usually soooo conservative about any financial decisions, so making this leap-of-faith has been tough for me. It will all be worth it in the long run, though!

 

[Eeyore1928]

Congrats on the new house....we are looking in the Vero area...wanting close to beach ...but in our budget will need to stay mainland side...I would love a 3-4 bedroom 2-3 bath ....pool does not matter.....but wanna stay 200 or under. I have been told to stay away from short sales....they are anything but short!

 

[crisi]

Would it make sense to talk to a pool guy and have some drawings and quotes for a pool done up. You could leave them out on the table for people to review with a "letter from the owners" stating that you never put in a pool because you aren't pool people (or whatever - had small kids when you moved in, husband is afraid of water), but understanding that people would like a pool, have provided some information and several drawings."

If you house is significantly below the comps - and the comps are also poolless - i.e. you can get an appraisal for $30k more - you could also say you'll take $30k more for the house and escrow $30k towards a pool. We did that with a roof.

 

[indimom]

I think the statue is St Joseph. I also think they say it should be placed upside down and when the house sells the statue is to have a place of honor in your new home! At least its not an expensive strategy! Grammy

I believe you are right. My sis did this and sold two homes in the past two years. Neither sale took more than a month from when she put the house on the market. Go figure.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

I work in the mass appraisal buisness, we bought our house 4 years ago. Our deal was we got the house appraised for $5k over what we paid, and had the seller give us $5k. Because of both, were were able to finance all but $36 (we got a nice check back at closing.)

I would say offering $5k in closing costs or $5k in cash is a good option, but you may consider raising that a bit. Our closing costs were $10k because we had to pay 2 points for our VHA rural loan (but that ment no PMI!

So I would definitely say offering closing cost and cash would be a better incentive that anything else. Honestly, you might raise your price $5k and offer $5k in cash and $5k in closing costs.

 

[cseca]

I have absolutely no idea what the housing market is like in your area but from what we see here (mid/south MI) if you price your house right it'll sell in a split second.

DH scans our area for house deals regularly to see if we can upgrade our home and everytime there's a house that looks really good for the listing price it'll be sold before we could even see it. Absolutely maddening.
But then there are houses that looks really really great and priced just so so, will sit around for 6 months or more. Or houses that are crappy (and I mean REALLY crappy - smelly, wallpapers on every room, pink carpet, green appliances, etc.) listed for really cheap and will be sold relatively quickly.

All that tells us is that bottom line people are looking for excellent deal. Regardless if the house is a fixer upper or not.

At least around here.

Good luck selling and congrats on your new home!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I have absolutely no idea what the housing market is like in your area but from what we see here (mid/south MI) if you price your house right it'll sell in a split second.

DH scans our area for house deals regularly to see if we can upgrade our home and everytime there's a house that looks really good for the listing price it'll be sold before we could even see it. Absolutely maddening.
But then there are houses that looks really really great and priced just so so, will sit around for 6 months or more. Or houses that are crappy (and I mean REALLY crappy - smelly, wallpapers on every room, pink carpet, green appliances, etc.) listed for really cheap and will be sold relatively quickly.

All that tells us is that bottom line people are looking for excellent deal. Regardless if the house is a fixer upper or not.

At least around here.

Good luck selling and congrats on your new home!

It's the same in our area. Our new house was a screaming deal, and it had 4 offers on it w/in the first 4 days that it was on the market We tried to price our house to be the same kind of screaming deal, but I'm not sure that we hit the mark It's SO tough to know because the prices around here are all over the place. Also, we're in FL where pretty much everything is a short sale (nobody wants these because they take 2-8 months to even get a response from the bank!) or bank owned (can be a great deal!), so an owner-occupied non-short-sale house should go quickly. I'm frustrated and I think that our price must be off. If we don't get a LOT of traffic this weekend I want to look at reducing again. Even w/o a pool, this house should be selling quickly.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Congrats on the new house....we are looking in the Vero area...wanting close to beach ...but in our budget will need to stay mainland side...I would love a 3-4 bedroom 2-3 bath ....pool does not matter.....but wanna stay 200 or under. I have been told to stay away from short sales....they are anything but short!

Good luck with your home search! Are you SURE that you can't look beachside? There are some deals to be had. Don't rule it out! Also, why not also consider South Brevard? There are some fantastic deals in south Melbourne Beach. If I worked in IRC I'd look in MB for a house

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Would it make sense to talk to a pool guy and have some drawings and quotes for a pool done up. You could leave them out on the table for people to review with a "letter from the owners" stating that you never put in a pool because you aren't pool people (or whatever - had small kids when you moved in, husband is afraid of water), but understanding that people would like a pool, have provided some information and several drawings."

If you house is significantly below the comps - and the comps are also poolless - i.e. you can get an appraisal for $30k more - you could also say you'll take $30k more for the house and escrow $30k towards a pool. We did that with a roof.

Oh my, I really like BOTH of these ideas!!! Is it even possible to do the second w/o looking shady, though? I'm about to call my agent and ask! That is a darned good idea because it completely solves the problem of a buyer not having the $$ to put in a pool!!!!!!!! Our house should appraise at 30K more than asking because we are asking 30K more than the 2 most recent comps. I have heard that appraisers don't like to appraise for more than the selling price these days, though. Anyways, I'm looking into this idea...great, great idea!

 

[kathie859]

CASH! I am not kidding. I saw on tv a couple that included $5,000 cold hard cash to the person who bought their home. I think people don't worry about a higher mortgage because they can pay it off over time but to have $5,000 in cash, they can pay bills or whatever.

If the buyer is getting a VA or FHA loan, that would have to be disclosed since there's a document that asks if there's any "behind the scenes" (meaning outside of the contract) exchange of money or goods. Be sure your realtor knows your intent and she/he should know how to handle it.

If your buyer needs closing costs, say something in the contract "Up to $5000 in closing costs and prepaid items". That way you can pay for their first years' Home Owners Insurance, for example as a prepaid item.

Good luck selling your home. I just closed a mortgage for snowbirds on a FL property which was a short sale and it was tedious and painful!

 

[dimimi]

So, just offer 5K in cash back instead of saying "seller will pay 3% towards closing costs"? It would be about a wash either way...which sounds more appealing?

We just bought a house and sometimes the listing would say: $2000 carpet allowance or seller pays closing costs. So, I would think you could say $5000 cash bonus for own pool or just $5000 cash bonus

I would not give the realtor a bonus. In our case, our realtor could have showed us anything, if we didn't like it, we wouldn't have bought it. Now most people look at houses on the internet and have an idea of what it looks like before they get there. Does your listing include pictures? That was helpful to us.

 

[mdezot]

When we were selling our first house and purchasing our second home we invested in buyers insurance. Both on the property for sale for the new buyes and for our new house. It is a nice little peace of mind that if anything does go wrong in the first year- appliances, heating/cooling system, electrical, etc. it will be covered by the insurance - that way there is a little safety cushion.


Good luck selling.

 

[lyonking3]

CASH! I am not kidding.

Offer them cash


I think people don't worry about a higher mortgage because they can pay it off over time but to have $5,000 in cash, they can pay bills or whatever.