Has the market cooled down drastically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to tell without an actual location. By 10 minutes from the highway, it sounds like you are pretty far out. Homes in my neighborhood in DC aren't lasting more than a week.

MoCo, MD

WTF? That is to generic. Bethesda vs Clarksburg is 20 miles but both in Moco.

[Anonymous]

This is a slow time. You missed spring market, OP. Stuff will linger, stuff will be delisted and then sold in February.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's as simple as you're priced too high. There are some homes listed at the moment (I'm looking in N. Arlington), and I just laugh at the delusion of some sellers.

Ours was based on neighborhood comps and the upgrades we had compared to the last sold house..I wouldn't say insanely priced..The house is very recently built and in a decent school district. Wouldn't people still want to come view it an open house? We went to open houses even when they were 50K over our budget just to get a feel for what a home that price had to offer when compared to the homes available in our budget.

Unless your house is at a high price point, my guess is that you overvalued your upgrades.

House is at high price point and houses in that price range in the same zipcode have been sitting on the market for 2 months and more. The last sold house was built by same builder same time frame..We paid 27K more for a large sun room upgrade (with a room beneath it), 15 K more for an expanded and upgraded kitchen (they had standard kitchen), 15K more for backing to trees, 10K more for walk-out - all these features the other house didn't have. Their additional options were a family room expansion (10K), tray ceiling (3K), hardwood stairs (3K), hardwood in one room (4K) totalling 20K which we don't have. Difference between ours and theirs 67-20=47K. We priced it 30K more since buyers won't care about how much we paid for premium lot backing to trees etc. I would say we priced it competitively, but listed at the wrong time.

There is also another 30 yr old house in nearby neighborhood, same schools, less sq.footage, kitchen upgraded, no sunroom, listed just 20K less than ours and been sitting on the market 2 months without any price reduction. We also saw another house 30yrs old, same schools, priced 30K more than ours and for sure thought anyone in the market would prefer ours over that (it has an outdated kitchen, outdated everything,tiny rooms,apartment like closet space and baths, no upgrades whatsoever). The only redeeming quality was a huge backyard and a nice porch. That has been sitting on the market too.

Like PP said, it may be just better if we pulled it off market and relisted in Jan/Feb. Forget about getting an offer..The fact that no one even showed up for an open house tells me the market has really cooled off..

The only good thing is we are not desperate to sell and can hold on till the market picks up..

[Anonymous]

Everything seems to be selling for about 10% less than what is was listed for. I think it is the leftovers from a hot spring market that listed too high. After seeing that, anyone who has been following the market will want a good deal.

[Anonymous]

Decent houses in Takoma Park are still going over asking within 2 weeks of listing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Townhomes in my DC development seem to be sitting, probably because there are new homes being built right next to us. I may just keep my home empty and list it in February.

Townhouse development in DC?

There are a small handful of these in the city. There are some in SW DC, close to Fort Totten and Brookland, and I can think of a few EOTR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, I wouldn't go only by the open house, but by how many showings overall you've had since the price drop. If very few--you are either still overpriced or poorly timed or both. I'd take it off and relist next spring (March) and reassess your price point then, if you don't absolutely need to move. People with kids (and I'm assuming that may be your target market in MoCo) are generally looking to be settled before school starts, so mid-July is late in the game for that.

Yes, in my zipcode,people move mainly for schools and kids..I guess we just have to relist since its too late for the school market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to tell without an actual location. By 10 minutes from the highway, it sounds like you are pretty far out. Homes in my neighborhood in DC aren't lasting more than a week.

MoCo, MD

WTF? That is to generic. Bethesda vs Clarksburg is 20 miles but both in Moco.

Right in the middle..Think exits 6-10 on 270 , to the left of 355..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's as simple as you're priced too high. There are some homes listed at the moment (I'm looking in N. Arlington), and I just laugh at the delusion of some sellers.

Ours was based on neighborhood comps and the upgrades we had compared to the last sold house..I wouldn't say insanely priced..The house is very recently built and in a decent school district. Wouldn't people still want to come view it an open house? We went to open houses even when they were 50K over our budget just to get a feel for what a home that price had to offer when compared to the homes available in our budget.

Unless your house is at a high price point, my guess is that you overvalued your upgrades.

Obviously this. Can you put a number here and itemise there upgrades?

I quoted another post and listed upgrades above..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a slow time. You missed spring market, OP. Stuff will linger, stuff will be delisted and then sold in February.

I think you are right..Probably the houses that are sitting there are just there till contract with agent runs out and sellers don't want to pay $500 to cancel it..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to tell without an actual location. By 10 minutes from the highway, it sounds like you are pretty far out. Homes in my neighborhood in DC aren't lasting more than a week.

MoCo, MD

WTF? That is to generic. Bethesda vs Clarksburg is 20 miles but both in Moco.

Right in the middle..Think exits 6-10 on 270 , to the left of 355..

So you are really pretty far out where the housing stock is all thrown up new build that is not very frequently on the higher-end. The lack of density of high-end houses like yours probably means that it will sit and you will need to price it aggressively next time.

[Anonymous]

Market is traditionally slow in summer as people take kids away and vacations, weddings, life events

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So you are really pretty far out where the housing stock is all thrown up new build that is not very frequently on the higher-end. The lack of density of high-end houses like yours probably means that it will sit and you will need to price it aggressively next time.

The problem we have is that most homes here are about 30yrs old, and other than a few homes that have been upgraded, many are available for 100K less. Ours is a new community smack in the middle of old homes..Obviously, we cannot sell a new home for the same price as a 30yr old home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So you are really pretty far out where the housing stock is all thrown up new build that is not very frequently on the higher-end. The lack of density of high-end houses like yours probably means that it will sit and you will need to price it aggressively next time.

The problem we have is that most homes here are about 30yrs old, and other than a few homes that have been upgraded, many are available for 100K less. Ours is a new community smack in the middle of old homes..Obviously, we cannot sell a new home for the same price as a 30yr old home.

That's only "obvious" if people perceive your house to be substantially more valuable than the older house. That may not be the case.

Your house is fairly new, but is not a new build at this point. People who pay a premium for new probably won't value your house that same way. People may also be worried that you are moving so soon because there is a problem with the house. More generally, a lot of recent construction is pretty shoddy, meaning older houses can be better if well maintained.

Those other houses may be more accurate comps for the value of your house than you would like to admit.

[Anonymous]

I think the market has cooled significantly. Houses that were selling in 7 days at full ask where I live in NOVA are now sitting for a month for those that listed in May/June. And when they do sell, Bette selling for 10% less than ask. Some are even taking a loss! We are in a new townhouse community built in 2015.