WWYD- Selling House

[StregaNona]

When we sold our last home, I wasn't particularly excited about the offer, but our friend/lawyer asked me, "How seriously do you want to sell your house?" We really wanted to sell, so we took the offer.

 

[Arielle22]

That whole industry is a mystery to me. We have a friend who was Business manager of a European dealership. She said that a competing dealer was losing money on every car they sold. That competing dealership also sold a domestic brand, and we took an ad for $7,000 off sticker from that dealership to another dealership that sold the same brand. They looked at the ad, said they would match it, but said the same thing, "that price is below both wholesale and dealer cost".
But as our friend put explained it, you never know what kickbacks the dealer is getting from the auto maker. They got like $30,000 in money for advertising if they sold 30 cars of a particular model in a month. The lost money on the original sale of each of those cars. She also said, even if they make a profit, it's not uncommon for them to make only $25 on a $50,000 new car sale, and $5,000 on a $10,000 used car sale. But service is where they make their money.

Service is where money can be made. During the recession, dealerships were hurting because people held off on repairs or went somewhere cheaper.

There is a lot of back end money from manufacturers. Also volume sold can determine how many hot new cars you get. For instance, when BMW released their sports car during my tenure, we got a couple. Dealerships that sold more cars got more sports cars and some dealerships got none. We did sell one of ours to a man in CA who paid 100k over list price and paid to have it shipped. That was a boat load of profit.

Salespeople may also be eligible for bonuses. So they will try to get you in a car even if they don't make a lot so that the car counts towards their bonus.

Different car lines offer different incentives so if a dealership has several lines, the office has to keep everything straight.

I don't miss that job.

 

[FLCyndi]

When we sold our house in CA the realtor had the buyer and the seller so lowered her commission by 1%. When we bought in FL there were some cosmetic issues that we wanted fixed and both realtors split the bill to get them fixed.

 

[jgreco]

More often than not in these scenarios, the sellers let the buyer walk and wind up holding onto the house longer and selling it for even less. Meet them in the middle or ask the agents to deduct from their commission. As another poster mentioned, how bad do you want to sell?

 

[AJKMOM]

In my opinion, everyone watches all those shows on HGTV and then think they can do the same thing. Get a great house for little money (and no down payment). The network has a bunch of shows like that, but they sometimes don't even tell you where the transaction is taking place, and that's key. In some areas of the country, you can buy real estate for half or less than what the owners paid years ago.
In some areas, there has not been any depreciation, or even appreciation.

People don't realize those shows are "rigged", and think they, too, can ask for all sorts of things when they buy a house, and all sellers are desperate enough to comply.

 

[amberpi]

In our area, the market for houses in our price range has a 16 month inventory but starter homes less than 200k are flying off the market. Its not just about location, its also inventory, they way overbuilt in the McMansion ($400k-$750k here locally, but we don't live in a very high cost of living area) market here. Not only is the inventory huge but a lot of those new neighborhoods have some serious HOA fees. Thank god we live in an older neighborhood with normal HOA fees...

 

[dawnball]

People don't realize those shows are "rigged", and think they, too, can ask for all sorts of things when they buy a house, and all sellers are desperate enough to comply.

IMO, a house that's been on the market since October is stale. A house that's dropped in price twice since it was listed was clearly initially overpriced, and may still be overpriced. A house that's been on the market since October, had two price drops and still needs Radon remediation? They've set themselves up to attract bargain hunters. It's not about finding desperate sellers - it's about finding people who made sub-optimal choices. That's what we did when we bought our house, and I have no doubt that the family we bought from felt ripped off. That's why they didn't accept our first offer. Our second offer was lower.

If I were selling in that situation - I'd consider the reasonableness of each individual item. Was it something that the inspection revealed? Was it blatantly obvious when they toured the house? How much will it cost to fix? What messages did you send when you accepted the offer? I'd personally err on the side of giving them what they want, but I can't fathom having a house show-ready for 7 months without going insane - clearly the OP and I come from very different perspectives here.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Any updates OP? It's been almost a week so I'm guessing you have had to give the buyers done sort of an answer...

 

[mm1971]

Hi folks. Here's the scenario:


-Listed house for sale at 168,900 in October
-Dropped price to 164,500 in February
-Dropped price to 159,900 in April
- 2 weeks later accepted an offer for 152,000 plus up to 3500 in closing costs and 500 home warranty.

Inspection came back and they have a laundry list of things they want done. The only thing we have to do is do radon remediation and re-test. Everything else is cosmetic. This was our first ever offer, but there are no houses in the area we are interested in for sale. Should we comply with all if their requests or just do the radon and refuse everything else? We aren't in a rush since there aren't any houses available that we are interested in.... but who knows if we would run into the same thing with another buyer.

We feel like we are being ripped off. What would you do?

It really depends on how quickly you wish to sell your house.

First, I am sure they know it is a negotiation. Start with the Radon remediation and nothing else. Let them then choose the most important remaining items from the list and push back. Then you can eliminate anything that they are not insisting on. Yes, it is nice to move into a home with everything you want done, but reality is that when purchasing there is an expectation that some work will need to be done to make it what you want.

If you truly have no pressing need to sell the house, I would offer to do what is needed (radon) and nothing cosmetic. If you want it sold or you feel it will be difficult to sell otherwise, I would think about what requests are easy and less expensive and offer to do those.

You may also run into similar issues with a different buyer, but if you say no and they back out you would have time to work on the cosmetics yourself over time and eliminate them before the next offer is in the works. As with anything, some buyers won't care about cosmetic changes while others will ask for everything. Good luck.

 

[LuLuO]

Has anyone done a pre-listing inspection to head off potential issues?

 

[Darcy03231]

Has anyone done a pre-listing inspection to head off potential issues?

We're putting our house on the market next spring and plan to do one before we list it. There are some things that we know need to be done and we're spending the next year taking care of them. Anything else to be done shouldn't be major because we've already done the siding, roof, windows, deck, and heating system and are doing the kitchen and two bathrooms over the next year.

 

[SDSorority]

Hi folks, OP here. We decided to do everything the buyers asked for, because we were scared we were going to lose the sale and we found a house that we liked enough to want to move in to. Still waiting on most of the repairs I be done because the companies are so back logged right now- tis the season to sell a house I suppose! So, we are grinning bushes and trees, taking out 2 stumps in the back, fixing a quarter size carpet hole, replacing a window, fixing the radon, fixing an electrical cosmetic thing in the back of the house, and replacing the asphalt driveway. $$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[Karlzmom]

I know it was a tough decision, but you'll be glad you just pulled the ripcord when you are all moved into your new house Wishing you good luck for an easy closing on both ends!

 

[SDSorority]

I know it was a tough decision, but you'll be glad you just pulled the ripcord when you are all moved into your new house Wishing you good luck for an easy closing on both ends!

Thanks!!