Sales history indicating something is wrong?
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Anonymous
| You know how you can see the sales history of a house by using Zillow? I checked out a house I’m interested in but now I’m concerned about the sales history. Original buyer owned home for 6 years, then sold it in Spring 2010. This next owner only had it for a few months before listing it Fall 2010, for the same price they purchased it for. It was on the market for an entire year and taken off in Fall 2011. Now it’s been listed again in Dec. 2012, for just a few thousand more. It looks very nice and there’s nothing obviously wrong with it. I’m going to ask my realtor what they think, but I think the sales history is strange and I’m curious what other people think. Would your gut reaction be that there’s something wrong with this place? |
Anonymous
| Divorce or bad neighbor would be my guess. |
Anonymous
| Doesn't seem to be divorce. This is a little creepy, but I looked up the owners using an address reverse lookup. It was quite easy to find the husband's blog and they look pretty happily married in the current postings. But now I feel creepy. |
Anonymous
| Maybe they moved away and rented it for a while, then realized they weren't coming back? |
Anonymous
| That doesn't seem odd to me. They could have overpriced for the market, and pulled it when it didn't sell to try again later. Or they could be overseas workers (which, since you have the blog you'd be able to check). Or anything. Investigate, but I wouldn't worry too much. |
Anonymous
Why don't you ask them? |
Anonymous
| I knocked on my future neighbours door before we submitted an offer. After having a crazy neighbour we swore we'd never move to a place without meeting the neighbours again. I realize it may have made me look weird but I didn't care. So if you are serious, knock and ask what's the neighbourhood like, services, amenities, etc. Our neighbours were happy to share; they really wanted a young family next to them. |
Anonymous
|
It's possible they overbought and realized after a few months that they weren't comfortable with the mortgage payments and tried to sell. Or possible they moved from a condo to a SFH and underestimated how much more work that can be, and tried to unload it. Or one spouse had a job offer in a different state or country, so they considered moving.
A house in our neighborhood is for sale only a year after purchase. The family living there always said hi when we passed the house - I hope they're selling for happy reasons. |
Anonymous
| (PP here - another possibility - they found out they were having another baby or twins and needed more space?) |
Anonymous
| poltergist? |
Anonymous
|
They're not overseas workers and I don't think they rent the place out and live somewhere else because the recent photos on the blog were taken in this house. I just think it's weird they listed it so quickly after buying, it didn't sell but they kept it on the market for a year, then took it off for a year. And now they've re-listed a year later at a slightly higher (but not much, just $6,000 more) price. Seems like if they'd done big renovations they'd be trying to recoup the money and list for a lot more than they purchased.
I don't think asking the owners would help, what are they going to tell me, don't buy it? I like the idea of asking the neighbors. Thanks. |
Anonymous
| Were they the original new owners? I ask because I am in the process of selling a condo that belonged to a relative for only a few months before he died. This transfer of ownership wouldn'thave been recorded in a sales history on Zillow. |
Anonymous
Smart. I will do this from now on!! |
Anonymous
| This is not creepy or weird! Im so surprised at some of the responses here. This is DC, a super transient area. People move all the time. Could be a job loss, a divorce, change of heart...but none of it tells me that something sinister is going on. |
Anonymous
| OP this is not sinister at all. I agree with all the pps. |