We had a hard time settling on a list price for our house, as there are no perfect comps in our area for our home. We went out with a price, got an offer slightly below list within a few days, but then the buyer backed out (they had another offer accepted). We received another offer yesterday, but it was substantially below our reduced list price ($250K - so, a ton of money).
We attempted to negotiate with the buyers, and made real attempts to meet in the middle. We went down $50K in in our first round of negotiations. They went up $7K. It went on like that. They also would provide an offer & ask for a response within 2 hours. In the middle of the work day. On Monday, they provided their "final offer" at 10 pm, and it expired at midnight. I didn't sleep at all on Monday, waiting to hear back. We couldn't settle on a price, so agreed to not proceed.
The stress of not knowing what the true market value is, and understanding whether it's worth dropping the price yet another $30K to close is really, really hard for me. I constantly second guess my own decision. I hate the stress of the unknown! We're trying hard to be flexible, willing to negotiate, and be reasonable, but not all buyers are in this situation, clearly.
While we are not in a rush to sell, having a house on the market for an extended period of time in the Seattle market makes it less likely that you will get an offer close to your asking price, so it is a concern. We'll monitor the situation over the next few weeks & then make a determination on next steps. We've listened to our realtor at each phase, and the original list price & reduction were both at her guidance, so I hope we have the best possible information about pricing, etc.
For those of you who have sold a house, how did you decide to accept or pass on an offer? Did you second guess your decisions? How did you stay calm during the process??!!
I always freak out, calm down, freak out, calm down, freak out - I HATE it! I hate selling a house. We were lucky in all our sales in that our 1st, 1 offer only 2k below asking in 1st week. So that was fine. 2nd - major low ball before going on the market - I said no. Then we sat there for 2.5 months before getting an offer that was negotiable. The 3rd sold in less than 24 hours, but it was a small house in a very good neighborhood, so we knew it would. The fact that you do not have good comps is hard. Since you got an offer slightly below asking (which is normal BTW), then a low ball who have unrealistic expectations, which I would have denied, you have a realistic price. It is a tough call and I always defer to my husband since I tend to be a little more emotional.
ReplyDeleteI'm very much in that phase. I'm trying to be as rational as possible, but it is hard, and while we think we have a realistic price, the market will obviously make the final determination. So much stress! I keep second guessing my decisions, which is not helpful
DeleteYour house is worth whatever someone would pay for it. If anyone is telling you otherwise, I'd run. Some sellers today are putting their homes on the auction block because they just don't know what the value of their home is. Maybe you should try that.
ReplyDeleteFYI-when we sold our Rhode Island beach house last year, my husband went through so much stress he destroyed his heart and almost died. He was weeks away from having his heart just stop and die. Is this what you want? We certainly didn't. We lost $100K on the sale of our beach house. Was the loss worth dying, NO!
If you don't need to sell your house then why the heck are you selling it and putting yourselves under such stress?
When you need to sell, sell. The first offer is always the best.
I've sold over 10 houses in my lifetime. NOW? We have our NY home to sell and guess what? Because of all the stress, it's cheaper to keep her than die over it. So, we're not selling. We don't need the money. We have a vacation condo for the winter and an RV to travel in. Keeping everything is turning out to be life saving. For us.
Good luck.
What I meant by the not needing to sell is that we're not in a rush. Selling diversifies our assets, which is something I want to do given the cost of our primary residence. It also frees me up to consider another job, vs my current career.
DeleteWe'll see where we net out on pricing. We'll go lower if needed as things progress.
First, Cindi, I am so sorry that your house issues almost caused your husband's death. That is very stressful! And, I'm sure that you meant your comment to be passionate and not harsh as I initially read it to be.
ReplyDeleteHawaii....I haven't been on the selling end of a house yet but I don't imagine it's very fun. I almost choked when I saw your statement that a buyer tried to offer 250K UNDER your asking price! That is about 75K under what my entire house COST! They weren't looking for a bargain - they were trying to steal it from you! LOL
Try to take some deep breaths and trust that everything will work out as it should. This time next year this whole ordeal will be in the past and you will be able to laugh about it hopefully.
Hugs to you!
It's crazy, and you are right - focusing on big picture! Can't wait for it to be all wrapped up.
DeleteHi Hawaii Planner,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry that you are having so much frustration selling your house. We have done it many times and it is very stressful. I am sending prayers and hugs your way for a fast sale so that you will have it behind you.
Thank you! Looking very forward to having this process in the rearview mirror. :-)
DeleteThat's so frustrating! I'm crossing my fingers that it's been priced appropriately and that you just need the right buyer to make an offer, and that that'll happen soon.
ReplyDeleteI won't know how I'm going to be able to stay calm when it's our turn, we aren't even close to listing yet and I'm already battling down flurries of worry!
Is it worth getting it appraised to help you set the price? I don't know if that makes any sense, the appraisal is generally reliant to some point on the comps too.
Our house is in an unusual location. Our realtor has 30 years of experience & actually lives in our neighborhood. So, I trust her opinion, but agree that it's hard to price. We've been going with her guidance, & at this point it just really comes down to finding a buyer who prefers the particular location. From a price per square footage perspective, we are very competitive & under the rate for our market, so that's helpful.
DeleteJust good luck and try to stay calm and on course.I think good homes do find owners at the right price. Easy for me to say right?
ReplyDeleteIt's super rough, but we will hang in there. I need to practice more relaxing & less laying in bed, second guessing my decisions. :-)
DeleteSelling a home is stressful - there's no way around it. And it must be particularly difficult in your case since there are no good comps.
ReplyDeleteHaving just gone through a somewhat stressful home sale three years ago, the two most important thing we learned is to know upfront how low you are willing to go. This is why having an agent you trust is so important. By law they have to present you with any offers you receive, but if someone begins with a lowball offer, you can counter-offer (like you did) and see what happens. But you don't have to play with them if they're not serious (which is what those buyers sounded like). If you get several low offers, or no offers, then maybe your house is overpriced. Also, know how much you're willing to budge on repairs or requests from the buyers. When the first offer on our house included a demand that we replace all the siding (and our crappy agent said we should do it), we said no and got a new agent. She knew how to price and market it correctly, and we had a solid, full-price offer before the house actually listed. We initially wondered she had priced it too low, but it turned out the first agent had overpriced it, and if we had gone through with the deal as she wanted us to, we wouldn't have done as well (the worst part now is that our house is worth half again what we sold it for).
Hang in there - the right buyer with an offer you can live with will come along. The waiting is difficult, but at least you don't have to sell it immediately. Fingers are crossed, and good thoughts being sent your way!
We definitely have a price in mind, and are very flexible compared to what we think is competitive. Of course, as I mentioned, it's been super hard to determine, so we're willing to make adjustments based on that. It's more of a question of what will happen to the quality of the offers the longer it's on the market, and how that will erode our negotiating power. It's sort of finding that sweet spot between holding strong on pricing while not letting it linger on the market forever.
DeleteI don't stress over selling a house. I have a whatever attitude. Of course I want to get the best price I can but I will be flexible if it means a reasonable quick sale. I am fortunate to have never been emotionally invested in a house. I have always said a house was just somewhere I lived and I can always live somewhere else
ReplyDeleteYou're so detached - love it! Wish I could adopt more of that attitude. That's definitely how my husband has approached this. I've tried, and am doing a good job (given my temperament), but it's not a science & I don't like the uncertainty. ;-)
DeleteWe sold two homes and had very smooth transactions both times, but I still found it stressful. Hopefully you find the right buyer soon and can move forward with your plans.
ReplyDeleteIf Seattle is anything like where we are, Orange County, California, the market is sizzling hot at the entry price point of approx. $650,000 and less, very hot between $651,000 - $1.2 million, than lukewarm starting at the $1.2+ mark, what is generally deemed as the luxury home market.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a cascade of escrow closes currently, with our home receiving a multitude of offers within week one. Our current home is in the middle grouping, the very hot bracket. I will say the bulk of the offers came within $15,000 of each other, so I do think the market will quickly communicate as to the perceived value of your home.
Conversely, we purchased our new home in the lukewarm bracket, and found homes there seemed to move fast if turnkey, but appeared to stagnate if they were fixers, or had an inherent issue like room layout/size or lot location. We bid on a fixer, and we're able to negotiate the price downward by about 4% given that the home had been on the market for over 30 days, an eternity for a home with a partial ocean view in our county.
I hope that helps! (And PS, I've stressed throughout the entire process, and might even have descended into tears a couple of times. 😕 )
I am sorry to hear about the issues you are having selling your home. Perhaps do you have the right realtor? Are they marketing it properly? Tough to say when you are not there to monitor it. Good luck to you guys, its always stressful buying/selling homes.
ReplyDelete