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T O P I C     R E V I E W sellingmarykay We are in the process of building a new home and are very excited. However, our current home is not only NOT getting any nibbles, it's not even getting any traffic at all. It was a beautiful weekend and we didn't have one single person show our house. Now, I know the economy has slowed and the war is making buyers a little more conservative, but I would just like to hear a little feedback from others in the area who are trying to sell right now about your experience. Our home is under $200K, which I've heard is the price range that's having the greatest success right now, and it's only 3 years old. It's in a nice neighborhood, listed online, and not priced at the higher end of the range for our area. So I'm just curious...is this truly indicative of the market right now and are the rest of you home sellers seeing this yourselves, or have we missed something here? I sure would appreciate any input! allensince1979 We sold our house on the west side last July. It took 10 monthes and several price drops. We were really getting desprate because we had built a new house and were facing two house payments. The winter monthes were bad maybe three showings between Oct. and March, it picked up in April but not like we expected. We endup selling for 50,000 under the appraised value. I have some friends here in the neighborhood that put there house up for sale a year ago and went to Houston. Their house here is still for sale, 4 bdrm. with a pool in Twin Creeks for less that 250,000!. I would say things are really slow!. my_opine HOMESELLING 101 1. All properties are saleable regardless of market conditions. 2. Homes which don't sell are those which are: overpriced, not in saleable condition, or poorly marketed. 3. Correct these conditions and your home will sell. IN A HURRY?? Price it below market value. Buyers don't care how much you have invested it the property, how much you need to get where you want to go, or your emotional attachment. Wasergroupcom You are correct as far as the market being a bit sluggish, especially over $200K. My team (Realtors) traffic has picked up over the last couple weeks, so there is hope! Putting a sign in the yard and putting on MLS isn't generally getting the job done like it did a few years ago. There needs to be additional marketing effort. The telecom sector layoffs have smacked the Allen and McKinney markets pretty bad. Additionally, many sellers are not moving because they're building new. They are selling because of job loss. As a result, many are willing to sell below market rate just to sell before the bank comes to take it. That being said, Spring is coming quickly, which will provide more buyers (and sellers) than any other time of year. Good luck! jenniferd quote: 1. All properties are saleable regardless of market conditions. Of course that is true, if you don't mind giving your home away for next to nothing and paying someone to take it. We had a home on the market for months with beautiful upgrades, spotless at all times, not cluttered in the least...We ended up having to rent it out because our new house was finished and we had not gotten one single offer on our home. Our home was the cheapest per square foot to homes in the same neighborhood that were not half as nice. Allengram Our house has been on the market since November.. We may have to find renters soon as our new build in CA will be finished next month..Good Luck to the rest of you. Hopefully Spring will bring the buyers... my_opine Renters love absentee landlords. imitationlife If you decide to rent instead of sell, please call a good Realtor that can help you with the process(sounds like you will need a property mgmt person). Renting involves some very specific issues that will need to be addressed, down to rekeying the locks and batteries in the smoke detector. You can also place your property for sale OR lease at the same time. Feel free to email me if you need any referrals or have questions. AllenResident2 Okay, we are putting our house on the market May 15. After reading this topic, I am a little scared to say the least. We also are building. OUr house will be ready in November so we are trying to hit the summer prospective buyers. Has anyone sold in the Shadow Lakes area recently? LocalRealtor Relax. You'll be fine. The market is extremely busy right now (last 2 weeks). The best Season for selling is ahead of you. If it's priced right, it will sell. Good luck! AllenResident2 LocalRealtor, thanks for the words of encouragement! Our realtor thinks it might sell within 3-4 weeks. He keeps saying we have nothing to worry about, but it's just not that easy after reading what seems to be horror stories of not selling homes. We have been busy making the house picture perfect so when it does hit the market it looks close to brand new. Personally, I think whoever gets the house is going to be one lucky person. We have spent alot of money and time on that house. Again, thanks and make sure you bring some of your clients by when it goes on the market. : ) AllenResident2 Our house goes on the market May 15. Just curious, for those out there with your house on the market, how is it going?? allensince1979 I have a friend who's house has been on the market since last Novemebr for 10,000 less than they paid for it new.. There getting pretty desprate. And, no it's not a "fixer upper" I don't want to give anyone false hope because I would hate to see anyone in the bind we got into last year. We ended up selling for 50,000 under our appraised value because our new house was ready. bullseye A lady on my street sold her house in 2 months, but well below appraisal value. The market is just not good right now. We actually looked at selling too, but was discouraged by the realtor & current pricing in my area. bear We have a contract and our house was on the market for only a month. I was really suprised it went that fast. We didnt have to come down on the price we just agreed to pay their closing. Its a buyers market right now which i guess is good for us since we're moving to Austin and its very expensive there, but we've noticed even their prices are going down. allensince1979 I will say that I've noticed several houses in my neighborhood have sold in the last few weeks. There are even a couple of houses that were taken off the market last year and put back on recently at a lower price and they sold pretty fast. I think things may slowly be getting better, I hope. icemanwbb My house went on the market three days ago in plano, we have had 8 people (realtors) look and no offers yet. Anyone interested. my_opine You are correct Bear, it is a buyers market. A seller needs to understand that yesterdays market value has no bearing on todays, except to his pocket. AllenResident2 I hear that homes under 200K are selling pretty good. And anything over 200K is standing still. Ours will list under 200K, so maybe there is hope! : ) Allengram Mine sold yesterday!!!! I think the market is picking up... GOOD LUCK TO ALL