Anybody have any luck actually selling a house?

Hmmm... only doom and gloom housing sales stories from the people I know, hunkytownsausage. I have several friends who have not been able to sell properties at a reasonable price, and one of the houses across the street went for 40 percent market value (distressed sale). And with buyers, the stories seem to revolve around the incredible bargains out there. One couple I know bought a $350K McMansion in Perrysburg for just under $200K.

So my anecdotal assessment is that anyone selling now faces quite an uphill battle getting market value for a house, and sellers should be prepared for either a long wait or a fleecing.

You can sell your house no problem. Whether you will get what you want for it is another story. My advice is to get an appraisal to see what you could possibly get for your house. Or look it up on ARIES to see what comparable houses in your neighborhood are selling for. But either way, prepare to be disappointed.

oof

Hunky - I am about to find out myself. It's time for us to move up as we have a small house and if we want to expand our family, we need to expand our house. Around my area, there have been a few sales which keep me optimistic that I will get something to cover the current loan on it (which is still $30k below what I paid).

Unfortunately, I'm thinking it's going to be a long process.

-Av

People say a house is like an investment. Never sell a stock when it's at it's low. Unless there are circumstances, I'd probably hold on to it another year or so till the market rebounds.

Instead of selling, my not add a room onto the house? The addition will prevent you from selling in a bad market and increase the long term value of the home.

I would love to buy a new house and upgrade but there is NO WAY I'd get what my house is worth. Not worth the heart ache

Depends on your reason for selling. We have ours on the market currently, but I went into it knowing that I was going to take a loss on it. However, when we buy I can get a house with twice as much sq. ft. at the same monthly pymt. (because rates are still incredible). My best advice is to have a realtor come out and take a look. Right now, it doesn't matter what an appraiser says, what Zillow says, what your tax value says, or insurance value is - buyers will dictate what your home is worth. And no one has as much info on the buyers in the market as a realtor that is working with many right now. Also, my house has been listed since October and I've had more showings in the last 2 weeks than I did from Oct - Jan. They are realizing that home values are stabilizing, but rates are slowly creeping so now is the time to buy! If you want a couple names of great people to get market values from, send me a message - dmilnar@danberry.com (I'm not a licensed realtor, I just work with many).

A friend of mine was able to sell his house $275K in 6 weeks. I was shocked of the quick turnaround and price was within 10% of asking price

I think it all depends if you are offering something a specific buyer wants. I know I won't even look at houses that don't have what I want in a home. That was at least 4 bedrooms for my family and at least an 3 acres of property because we plan on building another home for my mother and grandparents to move into.

My friends tried to sell their home and they were just asking a little over what they still owed on it. I think there problem was they were out in BFE and at least 15 min from anything.

The wife and I want to put ours up in a month or so.
Anyone have any strong recommendations for realtors?
I'm willing to take a bit of a loss, so long as we have an aggressive realtor. I had an experience with one who simply sat on his laurels and waited for prospective buyers to come.

If I could I'd buy a home, from a buy perspective this is a great time. But was hoping to be married and ready before I drop so much money for a down payment and go into debt for another 15-20 years.

But with prices like this, erg. Saw my dream home in Perrysburg for $119 last year, but learning more toward Oregon/Lake Township/Millbury area now for tax reasons.

I wish. We have expanded our family and have grown out of our little 3bed/1bath bungalow...but nothing in our neighborhood is selling. The house right next door has been up for over a year now and I don't think anyone's even looked at it. With all the renovations we have done, it would be way too much of a heartache to take a loss, so we'll just stay put until things show signs of improving. We are patient, and besides - I love my house (my kids' stuff is just taking up way too much space!). We're in the Beverly area, and are hoping that, with the new Beverly school going up, that will help bump up the neighborhood sales?

Sometimes you just get lucky & find an interested buyer quickly.

We have friends who just sold their Sylvania Twp home so quickly that they hadn't even found a new home yet. They're moving into a rental temporarily while they look to buy a new home.

I'd never have that kind of luck if I were looking to sell though. Sigh...

Thanks everyone for your input. I've had the same feeling that most of you have wrote.

Adding on is not an option as there is no space to add on too. Plus we kind of want a fresh start.

I don't necessarily mind taking a less, as long as it still pays off my remaining balance. Hell if I break even I'd be happy at this point. My only other option is to rent the house I'm in currently and hope I get decent tenants. It's all a guessing game. Maybe I'll get lucky with this one.

My personal instinct would be to hold out on selling for a few years. New housing orders were driving sky high by the Real Estate bubble and it's going to take a while for those housing stocks to clear out. Until then all home prices will be depressed. However, with the added stock and the continued sluggish economy, prices might not fully recover for a decade.

Peh with gas prices being what they are..and gas sales being 10% of all retail sales....our economy is gonna be lucky to recover at this rate.

Remember - you may take a hit on yours, but you should make it back and then some on your purchase once things turn around. Best of luck.

Hunky - you made me giggle :D

It was my pleasure OHK!

Yeah, there are still people out there that have, or can get, money, so give it a try. we bought a house AND sold a house in 2010, so go for it. The sold house was only on the market 6 months and the buyer found us without an agent. we were able to borrow what we needed from our credit union, they're still in good shape. Luckily, we only needed a small amount to get this house and then paid it all off when we sold our old one, so yeah, we were in a unique situation, but still, without us optimists, we all really WOULD be in the shitter. :D

JBRV, our house was too small for 3 kids, too, and we couldn't add on, but we remodeled the inside to take advantage of what space we had and the kids, all adults now, were devastated when we sold it. we all loved that house and it was good to us and for us, so maybe give some of the kids stuff, and yours, away and carry on. it won't matter to the kids a whit what size house they're in and you'll have a nice-size place when they're gone. :)

Speaking as an "adult kid", I hope my mom never gets too old to live in the house where I grew up.

It's amazing how emotionally attached one gets to places that maybe aren't the fanciest on the block, but mean so much. My dad has been gone 5 years now, but when I'm in the house, I still feel like he could come home anytime.

But time moves on. Good luck with your house hunt.

It's amazing that people are still so brainwashed that they believe that "market value" is their wishing price, not the selling price. Oh well, lots of people will have to cry uncontrollably into their beer before we flush those delusional people from the system.

The market is not stabilizing. Even with bank credit, the basis for buying a house is income. Incomes are falling and will continue to fall in the Toledo area. Therefore the ability to buy homes will fall. Average prices will continue to fall. This is, after all, the Second Great Depression.

it was only a matter of time till Mr. doom and gloom showed up

The ghost of Ronald Regan torments Woflie at night, give him a break as I just heard Nixon's grandkids are partying on his lawn.

Mike Crouse of ReMax Realty sold our home in 2 weeks...not the price we wished for, but very aggressive salesman with many contactws....419-283-6453

Nana, we have definitely embraced the fact that we'll still be there for a while, and have completely remodeled the outside and inside (we gutted every single room, from floors to walls) over the last 9 years we've lived there....it's a beautiful house on the inside, and I do love it, but I can say that it is getting to be just too cramped square-footage wise, even though we have a finished basement where the kids' toys primarily go, and we keep up with donating toys they grow out of to various charities and hospitals in the area, etc. 1 bathroom is getting a little ridiculous too. However, the neighbors are nice, overall it's quiet, and we're even contemplating putting in a nice little swimming pool in the next couple years if things still don't look like we can sell it for a decent price, especially with all of the sweat equity we have put into it. I'd love more square footage, and a bathroom for the kids, and a nice big open kitchen (with the basement where it is in our current house, we can't knock the walls between the kitchen and living room down, bummer), and a neighborhood with a few more kids in it for my kids to play with, but overall I'm happy staying put if I have to. Also, small house = small mortgage payment, which I can also live with. I would never rent my house out due to some really horrible experiences that close friends of ours have had doing just that...would never want to live through that nightmare!

Jesus christ.... I get that jobs and housing are linked. I just don't give a fuck in this instance.

I asked a simple question: Has anybody sold their house? Not the politcial/economic climate and how it the affects housing market.

wolfman and GuestZero, do NOT comment in this thread. If you do, I'll remove the comments and deactivate your accounts for a while. I removed wolfman's last two comments. Start your own housing thread, assign it to the politics forum, and blab all you want. Others can join you there. If you disagree with my decision, don't complain in this thread.

I am looking for a house to buy, not for an investment but to live in. A family member wants our current home, so essentially its already sold. Even though its a buyers market right now we havn't found exactly what we want. We've been looking and viewing homes for over 8 months. I can attest to the following:

Comparing the Lucas County's Auditors office most recent 100% real estate appraisal value, to the price that the same home sold for, the discount has been about 33% on average. Foreclosure homes sold for about 40% less than the County's "appraised value". Non-distress sales fared better, with the discount about 20%. There were far fewer non-distress sales. I atribute the difference in the discount to the fact thtat every foreclosure home we have viewed was badly neglected. Some even made worse by the foreclosing lender's carelessness. In one particular case the foreclosing lender turned off the utilities on an Albon Rd home which knocked out the sump pump and let the basement flood. When we viewed it there was black mold throughout the home, up to the first floor. This was a $325,000 home. We had a contractor and a mold remediation company look at it and they estimated $80,000 worth of mold remediation work. The home is still unsold. Its been on the market since last November.

All homes today are worth considerably less than the market peak of 2006. But if you can absorb that, and negotiate the same reduction on a new home, then technically you could argue its a wash if you feel that eventuallly home prices will rise and you will occupy your new home long enough to achieve it. Make your home stand out and look well cared for and in good repair. You've got a shot at it. With careful pricing and careful negotiating this might actually be a good time for you to try. Good luck!

My wife and I love our house right now, but it's time to move on. We knew we didn't want to be here for more then 10 years. We definitely have our expectations set low, so I'm hoping to be surprised. We have a finished basement and put a lot of money into it. It's a great home, but the yard is kinda small and it's just not what we want to be in long term. I don't expect to get what I paid for it, pure and simple. I think the media makes it more doom and gloom then it really is. They are only publicizing the bad numbers instead of the good cases that have been shared on here. It's good to hear there is hope.

- Av

My husband and I are looking into buying, long term renting, or land contracting a home that is not in Toledo or that is in Sylvania Township if anyone knows of anything. Our credit is looking pretty good but until we can get out from under our current home in South Toledo they will not give us a loan for a new home. We have put our house for sale, but no one buying. We are looking to move into a home that we have the potential to buy in the future after the housing market recovers, or we sell our current home.

There is a glut of foreclosure homes yet to come on the market. Various real estate experts give an average number of 2.1 million foreclosed homes that are not yet up for sale. How long lenders will carry them on their balance sheet before they put them up for sale is anybody's guess. That will certainly depress home prices. The longer a home sits vacant the worse it's condition gets which further lowers the price. So the banks/foreclosing lenders are sitting on a mountain of depreciating assets. There won't be any real healthy turn around in housing prices until this glut is reduced. I do expect private home sales to perk up some. Some of this foreclosure stuff is so bad and of deteriorating quality that it makes private sale, well kept homes look pretty darn good by comparison. There has to be a shake out sometime soon.

There is a glut of foreclosure homes yet to come on the market.

Well, the headline from today's paper doesn't lead to confidence that foreclosures will be a thing of the past anytime soon:

Jobless Rates Soar in Metro Toledo

12+% in Fulton County and 18+% in Ottawa County (granted, a good proportion of that might be seasonal unemployment). Yikes.

Good luck to all trying to sell in this environment.

Your'e right OHT. There isnt a lot of good news, but after traipsing around from house to house and trying to buy, I see a little glimmer of hope. Keep your house up, price it right and sit tight. Most of the homes we would have considered buying were overpriced by the owner. The owners had not yet come to terms with the new market reality, expecting to get the 2006 valuation. Realtors don't want to accept the new market reality either. One house we viewed, nice but no palace, was priced $35,000 over the County's 100% appraised value. That's nuts!

Just make sure when you are checking AREIS that the attributes listed on there (SF, bed, bath, etc.) match up with the MLS listing.

Good advice wahhutch. On this particular house there had been no additions or improvements which could have increased the value. Another thing to be careful about too, is the selling price of the most recent sale on a foreclosure. If its to the lender at a sheriff's sale its 2/3 of the appraised value. You sure as heck can't use that as a comparable sales price.

I found one very interesting scenario on a piece of property at 1026 S Crissey. Public foreclosure documents indicated that the bank had lent $203,000. The property was appraised on Aries at $139,000. The appraisal for the sheriff's sale was $110,000. The sale was cancelled on the sale date 03/02/2011. The owner had filed a motion to cancel the sale with documents proving that they were current on their mortgage, albeit a bit late, in the foreclosure process. Kind of an American microcosim of the whole real estate lending mess right in our own back yard.

I know right now things seem very bleek, but I'm optimistic that the real estate market, after one more dip, will turn around. People have to live somewhere. Well cared for homes will begin again to appreciate in value. Just my humble opinion.

Also, small house = small mortgage payment...

Which bears repeating.

The last home I actually know of that sold belonged to the Pastor of my church. He had it on the market for about three weeks and got the asking price for it - and the selling price wasn't below the appraised value, either.

Homes are literally worth what someone else will pay for them. A home might have been valued at $500,000 a few years back, but if no one is willing to buy it at that price within, say, 90 days, then I'd say it's clearly worth less. At the same time if someone buys it at $600,000 then that's what it's worth.

All that said, I have seen more than a few 'for sale' signs come down in Sylvania and Sylvania Township. I just haven't seen many moving vans in the street.

I read Guest Zero's last comment, and after not seeing an offense, I had to break my rule of no toledotalk and ask what the hell exactly is your complaint? Honest debate leads to honest solutions.

Maybe that's not your goal? Just asking and saying good frigging bye to you control freaks in Toledo.

Nighty Nite.

"Just asking and saying good frigging bye to you control freaks in Toledo."

It's interesting how a few politically-charged users believe their views are being squashed in this thread, but they see no problem with their hijacking of this thread, which is a form of squashing a discussion. They whine about my admin actions with this thread, but they post derailing comments, which are rude to users who are interested in the non-political aspects of this thread. Sounds like the political bullies want it all their way, and when it doesn't happen, they throw a hissy fit. I would think political brawlers would be tougher than that. The political fanatics will not ride roughshod over this site. The rest of my response is posted in "their" forum. The politics forum.

Thanks, jr!! <3