Prepping my townhouse for sale

I am in the middle of trying to sell the townhouse we lived in for 22 years. We've done about 6k in renovations (painting, redoing hardwood floors, etc). We bought an unattached house 2 years ago and have been carrying 2 mortgages, so we have very little $ for anything thing else. The townhouse is in a complex that's 30 years old. We redid the kitchen back in 88. All agents we interviewed it came up with from 199K to 225K and we split the middle. However, we've only had 1 offer and that was for 160 (finally going to 180). Our listing is up in

Reply to
JD
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It seems to be a buyer's market now. Our area now has tons of homes listed and people are picky. I just sold a home and what separated it from those nearby was that it was in move-in condition. An agent bought it on a 1031 exchange and already had a renter lined up to move in. The home inspection had only six minor things needing attention and were completed in a day.

Buyers are spending most of their money buying and simply cannot save some for upgrades, especially first time buyers.

Bottom line: you need to get the "right buyer".

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

Have others in the complex sold recently? If so, at what price? At 30 years, it should not need much more than cosmetics to look good, maybe a kitchen or bath floor if dated looking. How about new shiny knobs and pulls on the cabinets?

Have you watched any of the cable TV shows like "Sell This House"? They give some good ideas on what looks good and what is a turn off to buyers. For minimal money, ($250 to $1000) the take a dead listing and get it sold quickly.

Yes, lots of unimaginative and lazy people that have no clue what to do with a solid home themselves.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

With Condos/townhouses it's easy to determine the market price. You should have other virtually identical units that have actually sold. If they have sold for 199-225K, and yours is priced in the middle and you haven't even had any serious offers, something is wrong. I'd find out immediately what similar units are selling for. If it's priced correctly, then I'd get a new real estate agent when the listing expires.

Reply to
trader4

Ours is the only unit for sale of about 90 units. Most residents have been there for awhile. I can easily change the pulls on the drawers in the kitchen. Will go look for new ones for that. Kitchen was totally redesigned in 88 to do away with a lot of dead space that the original had. We added a 250 sq. ft deck in 99. Granted, we haven't upgraded the bathrooms (everything is still original there) but had intended to had we not bought an unattached house in 2004. We don't have the $ now to do anything else major than we've already done. I'm so tired of all of this.

As for the price, we interviewed 4 agents. Gave us a range of 199 to

225; we split the middle. However, agent isn't marketing right and we've dropped the price 3x already. At least the listing is up in
Reply to
JD

On Mon 08 May 2006 09:15:13a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it JD?

Given all that you either can't or won't do, you should be prepared to sell it for what you can get.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

Being the only unit for sale should work in your favor if the development is a desirable one. Anyone wanting to move to that development should see you as their only option.

Is your development more upscale than the area around it? How is the market and economy in your town generally? These are factors that would also affect moving your townhouse.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

If his agent would market it he could at least get some offer. He may need to give some incentive to the new agent ($$). Do the obvious cosmetic things mentioned earlier, reduce clutter and have an open house.

Give up the money now, take all tax advantages later, but get out.

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

As a recent first-time buyer, here's my opinion:

You have very little $ for changes because you are paying on 2 mortgages -- not my problem. Either your house is equivalent to others I'm looking at in the same price range or it's not. If it's not, it doesn't matter to me why not.

You're "constantly being told to update this or update that." Maybe this and that need to be updated for you to get the price you're hoping for. If you're constantly being told that, there's probably a grain of truth in there, whether or not you and your wallet want to hear it.

People are "too lazy to look past the superficial and see what's underneath." Hey, I'm saving up to buy a house -- I don't have extra $ to pretty it up, either. Odds are also very good that I'm looking at a townhouse because I don't have the desire to do a lot of maintenance myself. Am I lazy? Or just inexperienced? Or working two jobs? Or...?

Superficial is what's going to attract me initially and even get me to look at what's underneath. I have to live with the way it looks starting the day I move in. If I can see that despite being a sound, well-built home, it's going to need another $10,000 to look nice, I'm going to go look at houses that are priced at $10,000 more and have already had the work done.

People are going to try to get the most house for the money, and whether you like it or not, that includes getting the most UPDATED house for the money. If yours is not competitive with whatever else I can look at in the price range, you really have only two choices: Make the changes so your house competes, or put it into a different (lower) price range so I'm comparing it with a different (cheaper) group of houses.

Jo Ann

Reply to
jah213

As a 2x buyer (the last one being 2 years ago), I wouldn't have even dreamed of demanding upgrades. Things like a leaky toilet or cracked glass or broken seal in double thermal pane windows, ok. But new stove, new carpeting? My taste may well not be yours.

Yes, we all try to get the most value for the least amount of money. But when you buy a 30 year old house, you should realistically not expect it to be the same as one that's just been built.

I can only do so much.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Reply to
JD

Here's the reality: there's a nationwide housing glut. 40% of the homes sold last year went to speculators and folks buying vacation homes. The speculators have run out of suckers to re-sell those homes to, and builders caught in the middles of this market flux have no choice but to continue building the homes they've begun, adding to the glut. Add in all the folks in the next couple years who will no longer be able to afford their mortgage payments once their ARMS adjust and will thus be forced to sell. Prices have finally reached a point where most people can't afford to buy unless they take out a suicide mortgage, and more and more folks are disinclined to do that. As a result, sales have dropped substantially while buyers are waiting for housing prices to drop. They can afford to wait because of the rapidly-growing inventory of homes for sale.

Therefore: if you want to sell your home, price it to move. Cut that price substantially. If you bought it 22 years ago you can afford to sell it for far less than current comps. Because current home buyers are looking at the comps and saying, "Nah....I'll wait for it get cheaper." You want to move it _now_, you have to cut the price _now_.

Those of us who lived through the housing bubble of the 80s are familiar with this cycle. We'll see home prices drop across most of the US over the next several years, before they finally plateau and start rising again.

This isn't a good time to sell or buy. Sellers are having a hard time finding buyers. Buyers are prudently waiting for prices to fall further yet.

HellT

Reply to
Hell Toupee

In my area 2 years ago it was a sellers market. I sold one in two hours with multiple offers. Of course I accepted the buyer with cash. He didn't demand anything, but there were no cracks/broken anything. You seem to think people are demanding things from you personally. They don't. Buyers are in a pinch with money to get in and have a reasonable expectation to not have to fix a bunch of things.

After 22 years in the house....buyers think you are making a killing on equity without knowing your finances.

I would expect it to be pleasurable, clean, comfortable and not needing any major structural work.

I would expect you to consider my offer and that you escrow 10K for me to have the work done.

Some first time buyers will never by a 30 year old home if a newer one is just blocks away.

Defeatism......

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

I can fully understand that. And when we bought our unattached house 2 years ago, I did ask that certain things be fixed and we took credit for a lot of the rest. We're doing upgrades on a bathroom (the typical

70s master - shower/sink/toilet) and tearing up the old carpeting ourselves.

Re; the townhouse, we've taken out old wallpaper, painted, fixed plumbing, redone floors. We took a tree in the roof during Gaston and the insurance fixed all of that, so in a strange way, it was a silver lining 'cause it helped with some of the repairs we were going to have to do anyway. But things finally get to wear on a person and we only have so much budgeted for this. We're leaving the townhouse is way better shape than it was when we bought it 24 years ago (lived in it for 22 of those years).

And that's what I'm trying to do. I can't do anything re: the outside because that comes under the purview of the Association. The building has natural wood and they paint it. They have to say yea/nay re: door color, windows, etc.

I have no problem with that at all. I think my biggest thing in all of this is that there is no way I can do 2006 here.

No, I feel like it's finally come down to the fact that we only have so much and we're maxed out and tired.

Reply to
JD

While it is correct that a buyer's taste may differ from yours, an outdated stove or worn-out carpeting are flaws, no matter how you look at it. A cash-strapped buyer isn't thinking about whether his taste in carpet differs from yours; he's thinking about having to live with whatever carpeting is there until he gets some money. That being the case, odds are good he would rather live with new carpet that's not quite to his taste than with old carpet. Same for the stove -- all things being equal, most buyers would rather have a nice stove right off the bat than an outdated one.

Outdated appliances and worn-out carpet also cause the potential buyer to question whether other, more important things may also have been allowed to wear out or become out of date, such as electrical and heating systems. Obviously, this can be revealed in a home inspection

-- but we're never going to get to an inspection unless you have made your house appeal to me enough to put in an offer in the first place.

Again, all other things being equal, the buyer is looking for the most house for the money, and this includes how the house looks.

Jo Ann

Reply to
jah213

Yeah, but we were told by one agent to remove new carpet that put in 4 years ago.

All appliances work fine, but granted don't 'look' new. I simply cannot see the necessity of taking out something that works perfectly fine to put something newer in. That's wasteful, imho. I was always taught to replace something ONLY when you needed to.

We put in a complete new heat/ac system 3 years ago. The kitchen was redesigned back in 88 to maximize use of space in a small kitchen. There was a LOT of dead space prior to that and we lived with it for 6 years before redoing it.

Yes, I fully understand looking for the most house for the $. However, I do have to be honest and say, even as a buyer myself, there are somethings that I do have to question and would never expect as a buyer. Maybe that's me, but as I said, we only have so much $ and I can only do so much here with what I have. If I have to offer $ incentives for decorating, so be it.

Reply to
JD

Depends on the market. If it's a buyer's market full of young buyers, you get more of that. IF it's more a balanced or a seller's market, no so much. If you tend to have middle-aged buyers, by then they're as happy with old carpeting as with some cheap new ivory-colored pile because they know they're going to replace it anyway.

Even in a buyer's market, as a first time buyer I bought old but perfectly functional appliances with my home. Replaced them over time as they reached end of life.

So it depends, depends, depends. And there are tradeoffs and tradeoffs.

It's a perfectly viable choice to sell as-is, possibly taking a lower price in a buyer's market, and considering covering old appliances with a homeower's warranty to offer the buyer. Depends on how much the seller values the agita and time he'd have to put into upgrading.

Some realtors would rather only show what shows well, maybe another realtor is what's needed here.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

You still have emotions involved in this home since you lived there many years. I bet your spouse is already past the emotions and thinking current home.

Way better shape, compared to what?

But your concerns are inside and a buyer will have the exact same concern.

2006 prices are what hurt. Speak to any new agent and discuss alternatives for an allowance to fix/upgrade. Get some local written estimates as if you were going to make the house changes. Consider that price when you look at the offer(s).

You are now disengaging your emotions and soon you will feel the relief. Think about the taxes "you don't have to pay" to Uncle Sam, since you lived in the place 2 of the last 5 years.

I know the feeling....I've owned seven homes, but I'm up for another challenge.

Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

The fact that this is the only unit in 90 that is currently for sale is a definite plus. What amazes me is that you don't seem to have any reference points for other units that SOLD. It seems likely that in the last 12-18 mths there would be a few that did sell. Did you ask these 3 realtors for comps? They should have sat down with you and showed you the actual sales of units either in your complex or similar complexes that actually did sell and for how much. That's the only way anyone can come up with a fair price for yours. The fact that you have had no legitimate offers means that either it's priced too high, the realtor is doing a poor job, or both. Is this a full price commission realtor? What's the % commission? Another factor is if the similar units that sold for $210K had much newer kitchens, appliances, tile/hardwood floors, etc, then you can't expect to get the same price for yours. A kitchen from 1988 could still be functionally fine, but it is 18 years old and depending on the style could look dated by now compared to other kitchens.

Reply to
trader4

If I were you, I'd just choose a realtor who is happy to show your place as-is just cleaned up.

Go to some open houses yourself and get more of a feel for what condition places are showing in.

I dont' exactly know your market, of course, but a kitchen dating from late '80s and 4 year old carpet should be just fine.

Folks who would have you watch "Designed to Sell" should also have you watch "Buy Me" to see what some plain old fasioned waiting for the right buyer and patience gets folks.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

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