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We are selling our home in the US (MI) and hope to be closing on one in Costa Rica when that happens but looks like we may lose out on the home we want as there is another buyer.
It has taken nine montyhs so far and our Realtor who is one of the best in the areas tells us that we’vbe priced it right but it still isn’t selling even though we lowerd the price quite a bit.
Is anyone else out there haveing the same problems we are?
Don’t suppose anyone out there in Costa Rica wants to buy a home in a good area of Michigan?
We have many VIP Member in the same boat as you… Unfortunately, I do not believe that it is going to improve any time soon, I believe it will deteriorate.
Good luck!
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comIf you really want to sell your home I would suggest that you lower your price. I don’t know what your situation is but in todays market I would lower it be low your competitiors. Many of the homes that expire on the market is because they are maybe only 10,000 more that what the market is willing to bear. I have sold many homes by just droping it be low the market by 5,000 you would be supprised on how that works.
Again I don’t know much about your market but even in the worst of markets homes do move. Todays market is only different because most sellers have a mind set that their neighbors sold for such a price a year ago. Well todays market is different than a year ago.quonaroi,
Scott is right, there are alot of us in the same boat. My husband and I have had two of our rental properties up for sale since March and April. They are both multi-family. We listed both of them with a realtor/friend that we had dealt with many times befor. We lowered as well many times. Befor we left for our trip to Costa Rica in Oct. of last year I went very low on one of them, and told him that when we got back would we dropping him, if no sales offer. That’s exactly what we did and we put up for sale by owner signs. Within a few weeks I had a call, and we just closed on one of the properties last Friday! The buyer’s brother is also interested in making an offer on our other rental which has been up for sale since March with NO tenant’s to help pay the mortgage and the HIGH cost of insurance. We are in Florida. We will be coming back to Costa Rica in March to close on our property. If you haven’t allready, you may want to come up with some creative idea’s such as paying for cosing costs, first years premium on hazard insurance( may not be alot in Michigan but it’s exteremely expensive in Florida) Pay a bonus of an extra $1000.00 to the selling agent. Most of the time the listing agent is not the one that sells the home anyway. That way if the realtor has several propeties with their client in same price range, they WILL push for yours because of the extra $1000.00 above their commission.
I wish you the best!We’ve dropped the price of our house by $80,000 then finally got disgusted with the realtors and the market and just took it off the market last Fall. I’m just not willing to go any lower and take a complete bath when the market would’ve supported our price two years ago. We now have one of the realtors who showed the house interested in buying it for herself. At this point if she gives us the price we had it listed for, minus what we would’ve paid for a RE commission, she can have it. I’m sick of the markets being manipulated by the vultures.
I can tell you what I know about the market in the Northeast US. Supply and demand….Too many homes on the market… too few buyers. I have customers who are brokers and almost all of them say inventory on homes is way up in the past year. Teaser loans have driven prices way up in the last few years. People who bought and thought home value increases would never end are getting stuck now with higher interest loans. Many want to bail out because when their rates readjusted they found the house unaffordable. Recently prices have dropped to more realistic levels, but with as many homes as are on the market and less buyers, it is taking much longer to sell them. Even people who have lowered their prices 10% or more are finding it difficult to sell. Unless you want to give the house away, You have to wait until things stabilize. But no one seems to have an answer for when that will be.
On a positive note, one broker in an urban area told me 2006 was his best year ever.
the markets have changed across the US if you figure the carrying costs
of the property ,taxes,insurance,repairs,mortgage payments etc.and
lost opportunities in costa rica you are effectively discounting
the price allready so this is not about vultures its about supply
and demand more supply less demand means lower prices .It is also
about sellers who expect what could have been two years ago.By the way
there are homes selling in all markets if the price reflects market
valueI have to agree with Scott Oliver, Alfred and Larrypaul. The market seems to be worsening, it is driven by supply and demand, the local economy, area job growth and another driving factor is interest rates.
If people want to sell their homes in this market; price it in accordance with the current comps sit back and relax. What once took a week to sell is now taking 6-9 months.
The other good advice that was given here; is be creative with your marketing be it following one of these examples that were given paying for closing costs or salesperson bonus.
Another option is to refinance your current home with a 30 year fixed mortgage if the rental market is strong in your area and you have sufficient equity in your home. Then lease out your house without negative cash flow until the resale market rebounds. The one definate in real estate is given enough time all markets rebound. While that would be the last option I would take just to avoid having to deal with renters.
Just curious . . . Where in Michigan are we talking about?
Probably the best way to accelerate the sale of your home is to price it very aggressively and then to be equally aggressive with the marketing. When we sold our house in Lansing in 2002, I called the managers of three of the top local real estate agencies and told them I wanted their best, most experienced, agents to come to my home with a marketing plan. We chose one of them and gave him a 90-day/no renewal listing. Either he brought us an offer in 90 days or he was out.
We also did not quibble about the commission. Where 6-7% commissions are typical, offer 7% (or maybe 8%). When real estate agents are looking through the Multiple Listing book,they’ll look right past the discounted commissions and never show your property. They don’t care which house their buyer buys; they care about their commission. With lots of inventory, why sell Chevrolets when you can sell Cadillacs?
You might also try some more agressive marketing once your house is listed. Make up a fact sheet about the house and deliver twenty copies to every real estate agency within ten miles. In it, offer a sliding scale incentive to sell the house. If you get an acceptable offer in the first 30 days, you could pay an additional $1,500 commission; in sixty days, $1,000; in 90 days, $500. You have to get everybody thinking about your house and showing it to as many potential buyers as humanly possible. And you have to create urgency.
The other thing is that the house must be pristine. There are shows on HGTV about staging a house to sell and books in the bookstore. Spend $50 and buy every book on the subject that you can find. Then do everything (I mean EVERYTHING) they recommend. Unclutter. Depersonalize. Clean. Lighten. Neutralize. Look at your house as a potential buyer might. If there is anything at all that might make a buyer hesitate, change it.
Buyers want houses that are ready to move into, so re-paint, re-carpet, repair, etc. Don’t give ’em anything not to like. And that goes for the outside, too. And the neighborhood.
maravilla,
I want you to do somthing for me. Take the net sheet that your realtor gave you and put a piece of paper ontop of the listing amount.Then look at the last line where it will shows net to seller.
Ask your self is it worth to wait out a market for 6 months or longer for 10,000? 20,000?, 40,000? Are you making engouh money to purchase your next investment? Ask your self am I making more than what I put into the house? If you have owned your home more than 5 to 10 years you most likely are still making a lot of money on your investment.
Regarding the market, well I know of a lot of buyers that would have called the seller vultures for purchasing a home and fliping it in less than 6 months to make more than $100,000.
Personally I am glad that the market it correcting itself because the inflation was getting too much and over heated. Today is just a normal market like when I came into the biz in 93. Except the rates are not double digits!
This posted in the wrong place and reposted here by Scott
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Posted Jan 17,2007 6:47 AM Steven
There are alot of unknowns as to our economy in the U.S. and they do vary some in different states. But basic supply and demand does rule along with obtainable finacing. My experience is some sellers and realtors do not directly address issues. Some may lack the knowlege base and or they are to emotionaly involved.Definition of value’what a willing buyer would offer and an accepting seller will take”
Price,value is a leveling factor to unemployment ,glut of inventory ,High interest rates, condition of property and any other variables even timing.
As to what the future brings nobody knows unless they know what events will happen in the future that said it also applies to our wishes and desires act now tommorrow may be to late and money will have had little comfort.
As to now in southern California bussiness has picked up.
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, guys. I’ve done all the staging, etc. that one can reasonably do. My house looks like a perfect Martha Stewart set, but with 8 feet of snow still on the ground and subzero temps, every real estate broker i’ve talked to said things are really slow right now. Tomorrow the broker who wants to buy it for herself is coming to look — for the third time. The good news is that my house and everything in it in Costa Rica is paid for — and I have no outstanding debt of any kind but for the mortgage here in Colorado. But taking an $80,000 hit was hard to stomach, and I know that based on comps in my area, that the house is priced right and if we were to list it now on the upswing in my neighborhood, it would surely sell this summer (if this broker doesn’t buy it). I’ve had this house 18 years, so yes, I’ve made a substantial profit and taken out a lot of equity in a refi to make improvements, and at this point I’m willing to take whatever loss I have to just to get away from here and be in Costa Rica.
I’m in the same position here in Rochester Hills, Michigan. I have two houses to sell. One is rented and I may end up keeping it until the market stabilizes a bit, but I would rather not have it hanging over my head. I’m already a bit negative on it right now, but I bought it thinking it would be a good investment….timing, timing, timing. I now wish I had the money to invest more in Costa Rica. I am taking steps to prepare my primary residence to put it on the market in the spring. I am going to invite some realitors over to suggest any changes I should make to get the best price that I can. We hope to be living in Costa Rica at this time next year. Shaun.
Interesting:
It seems all the blog’s have a strong correct point in this topic. Everything is about demand and supply. In the trade world of stocks you have the ASK price (willing to sell) and BID price (offered to pay). Am I correct Scott?, you used to be a trader. But the markets change. Gas prices were almost $3,50 a gallon 10 months ago in the US, they are $2.00 average now. The housing industry is in a mess right now thanks to the lenders making adjustable mortages. You qualify for a $200,000 house but the lenders have loans that make you buy a $350,000 house. After 3 to 5 years the mortgage payment baloons from $1,500 a months to $1,750, then in 6 months $2,000. Now your head is way under water financially. So what do you do, you try to sell. But so are many in the same boat. Now we have 1 in 250 houses in foreclosure in the Tampa/St. Pete area (we are # 30 in the US in foreclosures) when 1 year ago it was 1 in 2,000. There are close to 800,000 new houses in the market for sale which is a huge inventory and the selling time went from 3 months to 9 months with the building companies giving %40 discounts. It is a buyers market now, sellers cannot expect to receive the same amount of profit the guy next door did 10 months ago, people were flipping properties like crazy and making a ton of money. This correction had to happen. I am sitting in an empty gold mine right now, Why? Because I did not sell 10 months ago, then it was a real gold mine. Now I have to wait for the glut of homes to sell. And it is even worse for those that bought condos. Seven new highrises (1 from Donald Trump) were cancelled already. The original investment money for these projects was lost by the investors since the plans were scrapped.
However, the silver linning for me is that my home in CR is paid off and being rented and I have to wait 2 more years to retire. If the housing market stabilizes in 12 months, I sell. And then it is 12 months for me to move to PURA VIDA.aguirrewar,
we must be around in the same area. If you see my earlier post, the property that I spoke of is in St. Pete. That is where our other property that is still up from sale from March is with NO tenants! If we were not planning a permanent move to C.R. next year they would most likley not be up for sale at this time. The person that bought our property is from Hawaii, and his brother who lives here is a realtor/investor. Trust me when I say there was alot of creativity done to close. There seems to be alot of people from California also still buying in this area as prices are still alot cheaper than they are there. Thank-God I have great credit to cover the mortgage payments(with low interest) so we don’t have to go into foreclosure. Our personal residence is in Safety Harbor a few blocks from old Tampa Bay. This is still a very desirable area. We have not put our own home up for sale as of yet, will watch to see what the market does, and I have till the end of this year befor I retire.
Buena Suerte,
Debbie
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