Sold a home lately?

I've been reading the seller's board for some time, and I strongl beleive the answer to your question is NO.  Many sellers have gotten offers that were higher than their final selling price, but those deals fell through for a variety of reasosns after they accepted the offer. 

There are many sellers who just happened to want to sell their houses at this time (not because they are in foreclosure or have an ARM coming up) and have either given up, stayed put or rented.  We just happen to be caught in this mess.  And I'm not saying that they wanted outrageous prices for their homes, but just could not compete with the foreclosures and short sales.  My deal fell through, an I do understand why buyers are very cautious right now.  But if I found a house that I really liked and planned to stay in it for awhile, I would buy it right now.  Someday, all these buyers, who are backing out and causing many problems for the sellers, might be sellers themselves.  It is not fun to be on the selling side and have people trapesing through your house, have children jumping on your bed, (It happened to me) and people looking in your closets etc and generally treating your home without respect.  Buyers beware!  It may happen to you too someday!

I see it all the time, especially in this market.  A client will get an offer early in the listing that is under what they are asking.  The seller thinks they are trying to steal it and the house is worth more, so they reject the offer.  The house sits and the market declines.  If they are lucky another offer comes in but it is now well below the first.  The sellers decide to accept.  There are plenty of sellers out there that are kicking themselves for not taking the first offer.

what kimberlee said happened to us - we got offers the first day listed & countered because it was too low in our mind but both walked.   Hindsight, wish we would have taken it.  It would have saved us 60 thousand dollars and a LOT of heart ache.  They say the first offer is always better and it is true.    My advice to sellers is list aggressively and work with the first offer you get - time is money in this market.  This market isn't turning around anytime soon too - sorry for the reality. 

On the flip side - we went to purchase another home after we sold.   Put a contract in on a home but the buyer wouldn't fix his leaky roof or deck.   We walked and he sold for at least 40k less two months later (-any money back for closing too).  We were forced to rent and its been a HUGE blessing.

FYI :  we sold this summer.

We sold in February.  We were having a new house built so we worked with the builder on pricing.  We did not get our listing price but never did our builder.  They dropped their price to match the difference between our listing price and the offer we received.  If they had not done that, we would not have accepted the offer.  We moved into our new house on August 8th (this year).  We intend to stay put until we die............................ha.

D

Had an offer at the end of last February for $980,000.  It was well below asking at the time (a 5 year old McMansion on a culdesac in the most prestigious part of town in a desireable northern NJ town).  Countered and the buyers walked.  Got many offers after that, but all much lower.  Now many months later, this week we closed for $867,500, which was above all other offers we were ever able to get in all those months after we turned down that first one for $980,000. 

Had ours listed for the appraised price of 410K, got an offer for 350K and turned it down.  My mother had justed passed away and I received the notification of the offer on my cell phone on the way to the state where my mother had been living.  It was my first offer but I was not thinking clearly, if I had been I would have countered.  My next offer was for 385K contingent on the buyer's home selling.  Waited for four months then they changed their mind about buying ours.  Next offer was for 340K by an out of state couple who were in a FEVER to buy our house.  Struck me as too weird and I was right.  After all the negotiations, offers, counters and back and forth BS, what stays and what dosen't, and etc, all of which I resisted, asking for them to just come see if before they decided to make an offer..........they finally came to see it and walked out in less then 15 minutes because they thought the front courtyard should have been on the back of the house, then cancelled the offer.   I'm still not sold and who knows what my house if worth now!

We sold our condo last March. We tried our best to drop our price agressively and accepted our first offer without a counter. We sold $22,000 under our original price.

Three neighbors in the same condo complex had similar units up for sale at the same time, all priced higher than us. We were the only one that sold in spring. Just recently another unit finally sold at $80,000 less than we got.

We realize now how lucky we were to get the offer we did when we did.

Thanks for the input guys, hopefully those trying to sell can learn from this!

We sold our McMansion last June for listing price.  It was a record price for the neighborhood. We were being transferred out of the country for a couple of years but the daughter was staying behind for college.  We bought her a little 2100 sq foot house to live in while we are away.   We picked it up for considerably less than the 2006 new sales price.

Its hard to justify a price even by the last one sold. It is a number's game and Buyer's know it. Those Buyer's that are serious are still going to be there. This is where an agent is able to shine if they know how to pick through who is and is not serious for themselves and their Seller's.

No question - this is common.  And oh, the regret looking back at the one you let go.  In the flurry of early interest and possibly an early offer, the headiness and sense that it will continue can cause the seller make the mistake of not entertaining a qualified offer.  Bad move.  I recommend that any qualified offer be responded to - remembering it is not where you begin the negotiation but where you end it.

Incidentally, I can't tell you the number of times that that early flurry of activity is followed by near silence.  Fact is that a home is far more likely to sell when it is first listed, or after a price reduction. 

Ah, the regret, this is very, very common.

I had sellers list with me over a year ago.  First 30 days we had three offers!  They only wanted to budge by $500 dollars!  All three came in at $340 on a $375 asking price.  Got one up to $356,500.  Sellers "didn't want to give it away" so all three deals died.  In the fifth month of no new offers, tons of showings, I sat down and advised they had to sign my paperwork - either a cancellation or a price change.  We had already lost our best marketing and pricing time frame.  They agreed to cancel and expressed they would call me "when they were more realistic" offered me a "going away gift" and we were done.  This was ok, as I had advised them well on their pricing, brought them offers from qualified buyers, and knew when they needed to stop their marketing.   My opinion is we have to remove property from this market if sellers are not ready to sell.  The only factor that determines what a home sells for is the offer that is negotiatied.  Our role is to bring buyers and sellers to agreement, not argument.  So what I am getting to is then, 4 months later, I got the call, they were ready to relist again.  This time however, they had to list at $325k!  Several months on the market, regular showings and no paper offers we had to compete with price again.  $299k - 4 weeks later a full price offer!  The great news...the house they wanted to buy was significantly lower than when we first started looking.  The best investment is on the buy side.  We cannot control selling prices.  We must look at market value and homes typically move in market value range, based on what a buyer is willing to pay.  If we can match that to the seller then it goes forward. 

The moral of the story...only work with motivated clients...nothing worse than over abundance of product not willing to sell (or buyers not willing to buy)...make your home available and prepared to sell...typically your first 30 days are the best market results...don't let buyers walk away...if you outbid the buyer then you get to keep your house and if you want to keep your house that is ok...just don't put yourself through the prep and challenge if you are ok to keep it. 

Being a home seller is much different than being a home owner.  It is much like the process one might take when trading in their car...the first thing you do...spit shine it so it sparkles, take out your personal items...gather information...negotiate a great price...sell it so you can get your new car! 

My husband and I had our home on the market for 4 months. He was in Colorado and I in Virginia and we were miserable. He was able to come home two times; each for short 1 1/2 day visits. We couldn't hold out any longer and were forced to accept a deal for MUCH less than our home was worth.

We paid $210K for it, put $35K into it. It was appraised for $225K. But NONE of the offers were near $225K. We finally accepted a $220K offer (but the buyer was participating in the Ameridream program), so we had to pay their downpayment. It was that: OR keep waitng for a better offer that may/may not come.

So, at least we were out from underneath, and moved on to a different chapter in our lives. Would we liked to have recouped some of what we put in to the home? Sure. I take comfort in the fact that someone has the nices home on the largest lot on the block. We closed THE LAST DAY THAT THOSE DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS WERE ALLOWED.