Updates on houses that are for sale

[chiver78]

tomorrow's already slated to be a long damn day, I'm planning to work through the larger (less organized) closet spaces as best I can. I've got boxes in my trunk from the past week's office move (the movers weren't taking the boxes back, score!!) that I will be using to pack away the things that I might need in temporary housing as well as the things I won't. if push comes to shove though, I will happily my stacked towels and linens straight out into one of those boxes in order to make room for the temporary shit that is currently in a box on the floor of a closet, out of sight for staging. I may be a pack rat, but my shit isn't "too much" for this space. not by a long shot!

ETA: my realtor actually stuffed more shit into the closets and cabinets than I ever did.....granted, that was for pictures, but she hasn't said anything to me since Monday.

[Jaguar]

When is your first viewing Chive ?

[chiver78]

Sunday's open house, Sugi.

[NastyWoman]

I need a fingers crossed smiley, but since we don't have one just consider one given Chiver

[TheOtherMe]

Chiver, the photos are beautiful.  I do help this sells quickly for you.  It's beautiful.  Too bad about your neighbor.

[Blonde Granny]

This is an interesting article that sellers should read about the "buyers".

www.zillowblog.com/2011-07-26/sellers-guide-to-understanding-todays-buyer/

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2013 8:03:06 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

This is an interesting article that sellers should read about the "buyers".

www.zillowblog.com/2011-07-26/sellers-guide-to-understanding-todays-buyer/

I am definitely the "market feeler" in this case.

Hello home sellers, good luck to all of you, may your home find a future owner that will love it just as much as you did

[Deleted]

, find out everything you can about potential buyers. Why are they buying? What do they do for work? Where is their office? What is their motivation for purchasing? Did they just get a new job or have a new baby? How long have they been looking at real estate? How many offers have they already written? You can understand a lot about who you are dealing with, which will ultimately help you in your negotiations.

This is exactly why I limit the amount of information I give to my agent. I remain passive/nonchalant about every listing and don't get too excited.

I know he talks to the other agent because when my wife went to one of the open house to check something out, the listing agent knew who she was and the name of our agent, and she told my wife "just put in an offer".

Or how she let is slip to my wife that the home seller is looking to relocate and is dependent on him selling the house. I am not sure he wanted us to know that and to us that read: need to get out fast, willing to lower price.

[chiver78]

Apr 27, 2013 17:32:11 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Or how she let is slip to my wife that the home seller is looking to relocate and is dependent on him selling the house. I am not sure he wanted us to know that and to us that read: need to get out fast, willing to lower price.

that's exactly what that means.....and exactly why I don't have a "subject to seller finding suitable housing" contingency on my listing. I am actively planning to couch-surf for at least a few weeks while my crap stays in a Pod. my primary goal is to unload this place as soon as humanly possible. I'll worry about the rest later.

Monday morning, I will reserve my PO Box at the post office down the street from work. totally OT, but I was astounded to find PO Box pricing varied by location. whodathunk? luckily, the tiny little outpost near work is on the lower end of the spectrum - I can do 6 months for $65!

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2013 17:41:45 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Apr 27, 2013 17:32:11 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Or how she let is slip to my wife that the home seller is looking to relocate and is dependent on him selling the house. I am not sure he wanted us to know that and to us that read: need to get out fast, willing to lower price.

that's exactly what that means.....and exactly why I don't have a "subject to seller finding suitable housing" contingency on my listing. I am actively planning to couch-surf for at least a few weeks while my crap stays in a Pod. my primary goal is to unload this place as soon as humanly possible. I'll worry about the rest later.

Monday morning, I will reserve my PO Box at the post office down the street from work. totally OT, but I was astounded to find PO Box pricing varied by location. whodathunk? luckily, the tiny little outpost near work is on the lower end of the spectrum - I can do 6 months for $65!

Yep, the more information they have (buyers and sellers) the more ammunitions they have.

My agent has been pushing the location as a reason for the price and I turned it around: the location is exactly why I wouldn't pay the asking price, who wants to live that close to the train tracks?

Secretly we would, also we would rather have a garage vs extra living space or amenities that push the HOA to 300-400 vs the $110/month it is now.

But my agent does not need to know that. All he knows is I am currently interested in 5 condos and townhomes, which one we will pick is everyone guess.

In reality we have two favorites

Oh and I have an pre-approved letter in the amount of 240k while I was approved for 340k. My agent doesn't need to know that

[chiver78]

wise move. I intend to do the same next time as well. I just put my numbers into a bankrate.com calculator and was astounded to see it spit back the same payment I make now (when I include my condo fee) of $2100/month and a purchase price of $353k. no way in hell I'm spending that much any time soon, but it is good food for thought.

good luck with whatever y'all decide, I'm firmly of the opinion that things happen because they are supposed to. you and Mrs C will land where you should, and I will too.

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2013 18:24:27 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

wise move. I intend to do the same next time as well. I just put my numbers into a bankrate.com calculator and was astounded to see it spit back the same payment I make now (when I include my condo fee) of $2100/month and a purchase price of $353k. no way in hell I'm spending that much any time soon, but it is good food for thought.

That was our reaction too when he told us after we applied. No way in hell we are taking a mortgage that big. Our income would need to increase by another 50k lol!

We love having some breathing room and not feeling trapped. My boss told me that there was a house for sale by him for 550k if I was interested. I started laughing and just couldn't stop.

And the worse was: he was dead serious.

good luck with whatever y'all decide, I'm firmly of the opinion that things happen because they are supposed to. you and Mrs C will land where you should, and I will too.

Indeed

[Blonde Granny]

What we need is mid to upper middle management people who work for WMT at the home office.  We already have 3 on our street, maybe a little word of mouth might help.  Same goes for Tyson Foods and J B Hunt Trucking.

Time will tell.............

[Deleted]

For the sellers :

money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/real_estate/home-sellers.moneymag/index.html?iid=SF_PF_Highlight

[Deleted]

Blonde Granny, chiver78, @patstab... I'm watching your posts and trying to steal all of the ideas I can.

I met with my realtor this past week, and based on my relocation timeline, she recommended I list my condo in early/mid-June.

She didn't have too many items for my fix-up list, but I may try to post some pictures to get a second opinion from you all while I still have time to make the small changes.


But I also have a question for you guys... when I say I want to list my condo in early/mid-June, I mean that I want all the pictures up and ready to go on MLS then (probably 6/10).  How long does it take from the day you take the photos until the day you see your photos online?

[chiver78]

if you don't have pictures in your listing the day it goes live, you picked the wrong realtor IMHO.

my pictures were taken on Monday, and the listing went live on Friday. open house is today. the listing could have gone live as soon as the pictures were back, but we didn't do any showings until the open house today. delaying the listing means less days technically "on the market" without being available for showings.

good luck with your own sale, and I will totally offer an opinion on any pictures you want to post.

[Blonde Granny]

Sarah: We first met with our agent on April 13th.  He contacted the photographer on Monday the 15th, and scheduled the appt. for Tuesday the 23rd.  Well, the weather didn't cooperate for a hoot, so the appt. moved to Wednesday.  As of yesterday, the agent still hadn't received the photos,  he almost assured me we'd have them tomorrow and the listing would be online at that time.

In defense of the photo, we live in the forest, and if the sun ain't a shi'n the house doesn't lend itself to good pics.  There also seems to only one person around here who does it, and I know the weather has really slowed things up.   We have had days on end of rain rain and more rain....with usually 1 day every 3-4 days of sunshine (like today)!!!! Yea~!..

If it was me, I'd get the your house ready now and get those pictures taken ASAP.  Chiv didn't like some of her pics, and I haven't seen mine, that's why I suggest you get moving with them.

[chiver78]

yes and no, I think. the market right now, in this area, people are coming to the open house and feeling like they need to bid immediately or very soon after if they are interested. both of the open houses my realtor held last weekend are under agreement, with buyers that had gone to the open house. obviously, that is here. YMMV. I did also have a couple people that already live here, but I went to open houses for other units too - looking for ideas. I will say that the people that already live here let my realtor know that they've lived here a very long time and have never seen a unit that looks as good as mine does.

so apparently there wasn't a whole lot of traffic today, but every single person that walked in got all wide-eyed and said "WOW!!" so that's good. I guess one girl walked in and said "aw, shit. I didn't think I was going to like this place as much as I do. now the other place I just saw doesn't seem so hot." that's very encouraging

my realtor's going to follow up with the couple people that seemed really interested, and see if she can make this happen with one of them.

[Blonde Granny]

Chiv...overall it sounds like it was a good day for you!!!  It'll be hard tomorrow to keep your mind focused all day & waiting for that phone to ring or the text .

Good luck!!!

[Jaguar]

Apr 26, 2013 21:05:31 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Sunday's open house, Sugi.

How did it go chiver78 ? I just read Post #21.

[Blonde Granny]

Pat, take it easy and get well soon.  You can't be of help to yourself or anyone else if you feel like you would rather have been hit by a truck.

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2013 6:24:01 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

Pat, take it easy and get well soon.  You can't be of help to yourself or anyone else if you feel like you would rather have been hit by a truck.

[Deleted]

Good morning to everyone. 

We have a agent coming in this evening she sounds real nice and knowledgeable in local market over the phone.   I would like to least interview 3 of them to find a best pick for us.
Another day of stress free for all of our home seller. If that's possible.

 

[Blonde Granny]

I just want my pictures!!! I went to the agents website just now, you can certainly tell which ones were taken by this professional compared to the ones taken by an agent.  I've taken enough photos of the inside of our house to know these will be terrific...when we get to see them.

Stress? Who is stressed around here? 

[Deleted]

Granny,

Just thinking about it give me a stress.

We are going to rent it for a while after we sell our home.
This is my fourth time in selling a home just to thinking about it make me cringe. 

Have a great day.

[Deleted]

Granny,

By the way, thanks for the link for that article about the "filler".
 
It make me think about how to minimize unnecessary foot traffic coming through our house.  

[Blonde Granny]

Before our house was actually listed (agent #2) she met a guy at an open house.  What he said he wanted was exactly ours.  She called, we said sure, show it the next morning.  We really weren't ready, but what the hell, right?

Anyway, she the couple here at 10AM and at 11:30 when making the last turn to get to our house the cell phone rang.  The coupld after 1.5 hours in our house had just left.

......they were just getting a "feel" for everything.  Its absolutely a waste of time for the agent(s) involved, and especially the sellers to have to put up with people like this.  If you want to get a "feel", only visit open houses or houses that are vacant.

Leave me out of your drama "feeler', I've got enough of my own.

[Deleted]

I hear you! I don't intend on doing so....Granny

The one thing I liked it about this agent coming to my house this evening. She said all of the buyer agents has to go through  with her first to get a approved by her.They are not allowed to contact me directly. It's something to think about as an seller.

[Blonde Granny]

This is the 10th house we're sold in 49 years of marriage.  We've never had an outside agent contact us directly.  Offices now usually have office staff contact you for appt.  but the listing agent is also contacted by the outside agent.  With luck, if a buyer is honest about things, neither of us will have the "feeler" problem.

[Opti]

My agent has been pushing the location as a reason for the price and I turned it around: the location is exactly why I wouldn't pay the asking price, who wants to live that close to the train tracks?

Secretly we would, also we would rather have a garage vs extra living space or amenities that push the HOA to 300-400 vs the $110/month it is now.

But my agent does not need to know that. All he knows is I am currently interested in 5 condos and townhomes, which one we will pick is everyone guess.

In reality we have two favorites

Oh and I have an pre-approved letter in the amount of 240k while I was approved for 340k. My agent doesn't need to know that

Carl, a couple things to think about. If your agent isn't a newbie and has been working in this area for awhile the odds of you fooling him with the location issue are basically zero. Really you would believe someone would buy a condo near a train he hated, less amenities than he wanted, less square footage, all for a garage?

Second, while the pre-approval letter will help you with a lowball offer it will likely hurt you
in any negotiation situation where the final price is higher than $240K. If you have several offers on the table and they both offer $250K. If one has a pre-approval letter for $260K and one for $240K odds are high the buyer will go with the one with the higher pre-approval letter even if there are small contigencies. The assumption from the seller side will be that it is iffy that the $240K approval letter person will be approved for more than $240K and also buying at the top of your range you are more likely to bail on a agreement to buy the house and then put a stink on it when you bail.

I admit, if you actually buy one I'll probably be surprised. You remind me of someone who only shopped big homes he could get a severe reduced price on. In the end he never bought one. It was however, 6 plus months of interesting drama.