From the Asbury Park Press:
Before Brick resident Vicki Aebischer put her home in the Herbertsville section up for sale at the end of June, she tried to figure out how to price it.
She used the Internet to check prices for homes in her neighborhood. Aebischer also went to a few area open houses to help get a sense of the housing market in her community.
The price tag was set at $424,900 before it was raised to $439,900 after two real estate agents told Aebischer the price was too low. After she didn’t get any offers, she dropped the price back to $424,900.
“The market is always fluctuating,” said Aebischer, 39. She and her husband, David, are buying a house together, having married in March. “I think the house will go eventually.”
When you’re looking to sell your house in today’s market, your price is where it all starts.
“Your price needs to be right,” said Jeffrey G. Otteau, president of The Otteau Appraisal Group Inc. “In today’s market, pricing right means pricing for less than your competition.”
…
“You have to look at what their competition is and how they want to position their home within that competition,” said Banasiak, a broker associate at Weichert Realtors in Marlboro. “If a buyer can really look at two houses that are virtually the same and one is $10,000 or $15,000 cheaper, which one would you buy?”Sellers have to be flexible in thinking what their home is worth.
“Just because a neighbor got X doesn’t mean they’re going to get X-plus today, they might get X-minus, which again doesn’t mean that they will be losing money on the house,” said Tom Stevens, president of the National Association of Realtors. “They will still realize a pretty hefty gain because they probably owned it for a couple of years and the appreciation the last few years has been higher than normal.”
…
It can be difficult. Brick resident Lisa Walsh checked the Web site Realtor.com and newspaper advertisements to help choose a price for her three-bedroom colonial-style home in Brick. She set the price at $349,900 in May, and has since cut it to $329,900.“It is hard to compare within that area, because there are not many houses that are the same as it,” Walsh said. “A lot of them are older. A lot of them are smaller. I think it is a really saleable house.”
…
“You have to make your home stand out,” said Diane Turton, owner of Diane Turton, Realtors.
…
“Put an apple pie in the oven. Have fresh flowers in the house as well,” Turton said.
Diane-More with the pies baking? Save them for flippers. Oh, “WHAT flippers?”
I don’t want pie. I want a single family home, in a great school district, using a hard earned downpayment, at no more than few multiples of our annual income.
“Sellers. Get realistic – you may not match the jaw-dropping price your neighbor got a couple of years ago. With more competition, use time and money to make the house look as good as it can.”
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15260227.htm
Pat
You know the market is getting turning sour when the apple pies come out.
grim
Get the bread in the oven too! Oh and don’t forget the Saint Francis mini idol buried in the yard. Smells like desperacy to me!
sellers are still too smug. friend of mine tried to buy a house that was last decorated in the mid 70’s in a top union county town. agreed on a price and found out there was a buried oil tank over 3 decades old and just fixsed for leaks. told the sellers to pull it out and they said no way. house is still sitting. i hope they enjoy that bridge loan and get $25k or more less than they bargained for.
tim
forget it’s overpriced by 30% and taxes are $15k/yr, there’s apple pie in that there oven! And look, fresh flowers to boot! I’ll take it!!!
Good for you Jeff Brown!
Tell it lakh it is, especially in my Metro area of Philly!
You know the market is about to take some serious pounding when you start getting pricing advice like this from columnists in major regional dailies. You can just see the movement going across the market like a worm boring holes in the ground. Reality is dawning now, slowly, the 4 stages of psycology are working their way through the sellers head….the cocktail discussions are changing…..I love it!
But that last piece of advice is a bit of a stretch, no? Having others pay your mortgage? Fraught with a lot of potential issues
Apple pies?!@ I thought the signature cake to sell your house was cinnamon crumb cake!!
It REALLY is different this time.
-Richie
Your kidding, 15k taxes on this
house in Brick??
Oh and don’t forget the Saint Francis mini idol buried in the yard,
Your getting your saints mixed up it’s St Joseph. It works ! (-:
KL
Sacrilege..
I looked in the paper this morning and I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out why the prices are still laughable. When will they come down?
same here, pricing holding
a few motivated sellers, but
the prices still semm out of site.
This is going to be interesting
as we move into the fall
selling season.
I do not believe the sellers get
it yet.
This is NJ, close to NYC,
You pay for the privledge.
I dont get it.
The light bulb will eventually turn on for the sellers.
Buyers always determine the prices.
She should rent some happy Faux kiddies and buy a gallon of milk for that hot apple pie and the next bigger fool !
I wonder whether this mortgage gal was late to client meetings or running from the bubble chasing her!!
http://tinyurl.com/kruac
Hey Diane…..You think baking an apple pie and having flowers is gojgn to make a buyer overpay by $100,000 or $200,000 Goodluck all the suckers are in.
Crash.
Apple pie? No way is that enough to convince me to enter debt slavery for life. Now, strawberry rhubarb, on the other hand…
I saw a property in Fairlawn today, MLS 260550- brand new colonial, over 3000 sf with lots of high end features (the builder spared nothing). Asking price 839,000. It has a low MLS #; probably it is sitting for a while. If anyone has access to full listing, please provide the original listing price and Days on Market.
I would buy it for 750k but would like to know how desperate the developer is.
Appreciate a response
Anon – 8/13/2006 09:28:04 PM
Re: Fair Lawn listing, just ask the listing agent by email. They’ll tell you anything.
anon
9 :44
Thanks for the tip. But, I don’t want to get in touch with a broker (not yet). That’s is reason I am asking for help on the blog as I know some poster have acceess to mls full listings.
((((I know some poster have acceess to mls full listings.))))
Correct MLS # is 2605550 listed since 02/16/2006
((( I don’t want to get in touch with a broker (not yet).)))
Most of the posters with acess are brokers/agents (-:
KL
Besides public libraries is there anywhere to go to view homes that were for sale in 98, 99 and 2000 to see what % houses are overpriced in certain areas?
Thanks