Weekend Open Discussion
Since it's pretty quiet on the housing front today, I'll open up the weekend thread earlier than usual.
Observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing bubble, Open House reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week but never posted them up, let's have them.
For readers that have never commented, there is a small link on the bottom of each new message that reads "# Comments". Go ahead and give that a click, you might be missing out on a world of information you didn't know about. While you are there, introduce yourselves to everyone. For new readers that have only read the messages displayed on the main page, take a look through the archives, a substantial amount of information has been put online in the past 6 months. The archives can be found at the bottom of the right hand menu and are categorized by month.
As always, anything goes!
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
Observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing bubble, Open House reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week but never posted them up, let's have them.
For readers that have never commented, there is a small link on the bottom of each new message that reads "# Comments". Go ahead and give that a click, you might be missing out on a world of information you didn't know about. While you are there, introduce yourselves to everyone. For new readers that have only read the messages displayed on the main page, take a look through the archives, a substantial amount of information has been put online in the past 6 months. The archives can be found at the bottom of the right hand menu and are categorized by month.
As always, anything goes!
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
24 Comments:
Be sure to give the new message board a try!
New Jersey Real Estate Forums
grim
I am new to Open House scene.
However I have noticed that there are a lot less open houses after Memorial Day weedend.
Any comments???
Inventory climbing:
Currently, there are 30,564 properties advertised for sale in NJ on our site. For Residential Properties that are Multiple Listed with Garden State, 99% are available to be searched on this site.
http://www.gsmls.com/
GRIND!
No bids No NOTT"ing
Babababba
Boycott Houses!
Ripoff prices.
Bob
This is in todays Star Ledger business section.
"A strong economy will spark a housing market rebound after ex cess inventory from speculators is shaken out, perhaps very soon, the chief executive of the nation's largest luxury home builder said yesterday.
At a meeting with analysts in New York, Robert Toll of Toll Bros. said pent-up demand will drive the housing market after the current housing slowdown passes. Demand will be driven by buyers who are biding their time waiting for better incentives or lower prices."
What is he smoking?
Chatham flipper in trouble:
Jan 29, 2006 - $910,000
April - $899,900
June - $849,000
http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1059225175
This was a tear down/rebuild and all houses for blocks are tiny $450K (bubble price) cape cods.
It would take a considerable fool to spend $800-900K to live on a street filled with houses that cost half as much.
On the market six months and counting...
Found this forum site recently and think it may help if you want information on specific towns.
In each County forum, there are links to town forums. Good place for asking specific questions regarding town issues.
http://www.nj.com/forums/
Karen
Here's an e-mail newsletter that a Montclair realtor sent out. Now that the market is collapsing it seems realtors want to talk about the virtues of compromise. Where was that "kinder and gentler" attitude when they were gleefully pitting buyers against one another in rediculous bidding wars for overpriced properties?
Here it is:
"The Lost Art of Compromise"
It all started several weeks ago.
I bumped into an acquaintance who had just sold her home -- for nearly $100,000 over the asking price. She wasn’t happy -- with the buyers, who were asking to repairs she thought were frivolous (after all, her home was perfect!); with her agent, whom she said wasn’t attentive enough; and with the selling price, (which she thought was too low). She was even thinking of canning the whole deal and putting the house back on the market. When I suggested she had done extremely well with her property, which is well-located and well-appointed, if just a tad in need of updating (it looked as if most of the work had been done 10 years ago), she seemed surprised!
This woman was netting hundreds of thousands of dollars from her home sale.
Let’s think about that for a moment. If she had put her faith in various Wall Street financial options, given the ebb and flow of the markets over the past half-dozen years, she wouldn’t have done nearly as well.
But she felt short-changed. Sellers’ desire persists to have their homes continue -- in what economists say is a cooling market -- to explode at the finish line with crazy competitive bidding. If a house does not sell in the first weekend, sellers are embarrassed, angry, perplexed, annoyed: Their right to more has been compromised. Economists right now are not saying that houses will drop significantly in value, only that prices will stabilize. Expectation adjustments must necessarily follow.
When I am invited to sellers’ homes to present their market analysis, which is the first step to obtaining the listing, I precede my comments by suggesting that, with double-digit appreciation for the past few years, their investment has been, by any standards, a hugely-profitable one -- even if it doesn‘t go up more than the predicted 5 or 6 percent this year, or stays the same. I counsel that their expectations must be revised. (Homeowers who helped their houses along by investing in new kitchens, baths, systems, landscaping and the like, are likely to get the most “bang” of all, and achieve more, given sterling locations and without major negative factors.) I also provide, upon request, a punch list of improvements to make the house more attractive to buyers, and worth more.
And yet, grim sellers still ask me: You mean I won’t be getting even more than my neighbor did six months ago? I might not have multiple offers? You mean should paint my kitchen? Take off that highly toxic asbestos in the basement? Buy new appliances? When I propose that at the right asking price they might still attract multiple offers, many sellers say, no thanks, I’d rather price higher, just to make sure I won’t get low offers.
Over the last several years, the “pricing lower to get higher” strategy has been successful; however, sellers are now worried that they actually will get less by pricing lower. The impulse is to price higher, sometimes crazy higher, to send a message to buyers their house won’t be “given away.” And this impulse, in turn, has led to slower-moving inventory.
Think of the price-lower-to-get-higher strategy as similar to an auction, where bidding often begins at a low figure and then escalates as bidders compete for the prize. It’s all done rather quickly and efficiently. The price-higher-to-get-higher strategy might eventually result in a sale, but there will be extended days-on-market and, eventually, a negotiated selling price, often under the asking price. Furthermore, many sellers are thinking maybe they should just rent and wait for a brighter day -- and that’s another newsletter topic!
Meanwhile, buyers sensing the stabilizing market are acting much more deliberately. If they can’t get out to see a house the first week on the market, so be it. They’ll try to fit it in when they can. If they miss it, so what, there will be other houses to see…whenever. Lack of immediacy, possibly caused by several factors aside from higher asking prices -- i.e., rising interest rates; relentless media coverage of the housing market; spring weather and its preoccupations; confusing messages from Wall St. and the Fed -- have all impacted on this spring’s sales.
So, let’s face it: Lower offers are coming in. This past week, a national TV news program had the temerity to advise that buyers offer no more than 10 percent UNDER asking. Although I haven’t experienced that yet, I have seen several cases of 5 percent under bids -- which were summarily rejected by sellers.
With conflicting expectations, compromise is what it’s all about, on both sides, in order to make the deal work."
GMB, that "newsletter" can be summarized as follows:
"I need deals to get my commission."
richie,
I am in summit. I normally look at
www.burgdorff.com and www.loisschneiderrealtor.com.
annon @ 12:58
Something to lighten up our mood...
This sex researcher phones one of the participants in a recent survey of his to check on a discrepancy. He asks the bloke, "In response to the question on frequency of intercourse you answered 'twice weekly'. Your wife, on the other hand, answered 'several times a night'."
"That's right," replies the bloke, "And that's how it's going to stay until our second mortgage is paid off."
fb literally...
don't know about you, but when did the selling agent have the unilateral right to decide what to present to a seller or not?
The agent is required by law to present all offers to the seller, right?
BTW, did you go back after the price was lowered?
Is their a pastor / church (like Joel Osteen) in Northern NJ area? Thanks.
Can i find realtors who are dedicated to buyers? These realtors should never work with a seller.
I feel there is a conflict of interest when realtors work for both sellers and buyers.
@rymingrealtor
Thank you for responding.
What does the binding agreement cover?
I have an older ranch house which is in good condition and on a wooded acre and half lot, low taxes etc. Over the 13 plus years I have lived in this area the surrounding area has now new McMansions starting at 900k and up. I put my house
on the market as a great buy for a young couple for under 5ook. My biggest problem is said realtors. They don't want to sell my house...its not enough bang for the buck in commissions for them. This property has a greenhouse and a root cellar , stone walls etc. Very pretty. But people here can't see natural beauty anymore. My realtor said I need professional landscaping etc. What happaned to Stickley and the NJ woods. Thank God I didn't spend a fortune renovating all I did was update. When I moved to NJ in late 1993 you could buy a great home for 150K on a huge lot.
"When I moved to NJ in late 1993 you could buy a great home for 150K on a huge lot".
I knew NJ RE 1993.... I lived in NJ RE in 1993.... Anon 1:36 AM your no NJ RE 1993
Not @ 150K for decent NJ RE, even in 1993. Let's be real.
Bill
Here goes the panic and confusion in Jersey City
check this board
Anon 1:36,
Is your home still on the market? If so, please post a link.
Thanks!
Some friends bought a house recently in Riverside, CT. Having no idea what the market is like there, I checked out homes in in the area in the price range that we bought in ($800K-$1.2M).
HOLY MACKEREL!
You can buy something decent in Short Hills for what they're asking for an amazingly tiny POS in CT!!!
I was galled!
One other comment (lots of coffee this am)...
This may be glaringly obvious to some but I just kind of realized it recently.
We closed on our house in late Feb and are really thrilled about it, but it's just in my nature to keep looking. I set my price parameters in all the towns we were intereted in (all the usual midtown direct yuppie suspects - so shoot me). I put in parameters that go from just under to 40% over what we paid just to see what's out there.
The theory there is that IF the market dropped 40%, how much more could I have gotten for my money?
But what I realized is this: even if we paid 40% less than current asking for a property, we still would have to pay the taxes as they were most recently assessed. In most cases, that represents a 50% increase over the already high taxes we pay now. In dollars, our monthly nut would increase about $700 for addl property taxes alone.
So basically, our comfortable purchase price DECREASES if the market goes down because the total monthly payments go up. If the market declines we couldn't spend what we spent in February - we could only comfortably afford to pay about $70K LESS.
Just an observation....
Anonymous at 1:36
I'm interested in your house too, and love Stickley by the way. Where is it? Can you provide more details...
K
So what should I do?
Bought this place in 1975 for just under $200K. Mortgage long since paid off. Took out a home equity line to make some improvements over the years (kitchen, baths), but that's all paid off now, too.
Last year at this time, a house very similar to mine sold for close to ten times what I paid for mine. Yes, you're reading that right--10 times more. The town I live in has great schools and very restrictive zoning, and no more land to build on.
I'm starting to think about retiring and moving south, but there's no rush. Do I sell now, as you folks are urging? Or do I just plan to hold on and hope things recover?
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