This is not California or Virginia, and I would not recommend this approach because the main competition in Houston for used homes are new homes. Simply put, new home builders typically offer more per square foot. So for a few thousand more, a buyer can buy a spiffy new home instead of a used dump. Here's the template I follow when I sell my personal home: 1. Move out. This means everything. Yeah, its a PIA, and you might have to pay storage or rental fees, but you will make many thousands more when selling your home. 2. Spend a week or so spiffing up everything in sight: new carpet (don't offer an allowance), paint, new cooktop, if you don't replace the window treatments, at least take down the old crap, fix the faucets, put flowers in the yard, and so forth and so on. 3. When the house is ready, and only then, select 3 or 4 Realtors@ (if you can, check MLS to see who is really moving inventory and never, never, never use a friend of your wife) to tour the home and give a 90-day selling price. (BTW, open houses are a huge waste of time). 4. Pick your Realtor@. My preference is ReMax due to their commission structure. I also prefer dumpy-looking ladies or a good looking guy. (Remember, women buy homes. Guys pay for them.) 5. Once listed, never drop the price because every price change shows up on MLS, and Realtors@ will think the house is a dog. Also remember, the more the house sells for, the more money the Realtor@ makes. 6. Don't waste time on lowballs, and you will get them. Be patience. Your buyer is out there. 7. If the house doesn't sell, pull it. Let it sit for a month or two and then relist at a REAL MARKET PRICE. This starts the MLS clock all over again. Realtors@ get turned off when they see a house sit for months. 8. Personally, the longest I have had to wait is maybe two months. If you clean it up, price it right, and market it correctly, it will sell. This might seem harsh, but you need to understand that almost all homes in Houston are sold through a Realtor@. And here is how they work: 1. Every Monday, they scan the new MLS listings and decide which ones they want to see on Tuesday or Wednesday. 2. If they see a clean spiffed up house, they're seeing dollar signs. If they see a dump, well... 3. When they have a prospect, they will take them to no more than 3 or 4 homes. The last thing anybody wants is to overload a potential buyer. Also keep in mind that new homes go first on the list because it is easy money for a Realtor@. I used to have Realtors@ pull up to our models, dump the customer, sign in for the coop and take off. It is the easiest 3% they will ever make. I could go on for hours and hours. Just remember, we ain't talking about art here. We're taking about moving inventory. And, the new home builders are much more highly motivated to move inventory than you. But if you understand how to market your home, you will do well. Good luck, Dale
Look out by Lake Houston, 1200 new home sites...in the IAH flight path though....the shadows were going over as we poured the streets!
Dale is pretty spot on. If you want to sale quickly price it so, if you want every nickel then be prepared to wait. I am seeing homes here in the Woodlands that are sitting for 4-6mths now all because of being priced too high. You can always find when a home has been pulled and relisted too. That is not a bad thing and much better than a drop. Too many agents out there do not know what they are doing. That is why everyone is a realtor damn near.
+1 Also, don't forget that the Houston market is fundamentally different from other major markets in that supply is very elastic. Granted, builders and developers got caught short when Houston boomed a couple of years ago. Most of the available lots were expensive/near-town dirt. That's changing as we speak. The whole Northwest/Bridgeland/Katy area is getting ready to explode in terms of supply. The Woodlands, on the other hand, is finally running out of lots. (The Hughes Corp just brought 5,000 acres in South Dallas, just kidding, but not by much.) This means two things: (1) We are starting to see $1 million dollar push-over homes, and (2) upscale used homes are taking off, particularly due to the demand by wealthy Mexicans who are trying to escape the kidnappers. Dale
Hey, as a licensed broker, you guys need to be nice! Want to see something scary, take a look at the number of completed specs in Bender's Landing. Go to the Woodlands Mall. More people are speaking Spanish than English.
I know. The interesting thing we are seeing up here is the high end market is moving for resales and the middle is sitting awhile. Some of these people are pricing the $sf out of site when you can go get new construction for a lot less. I would not advise anyone to buy $186/sf house that sold two years ago for $130/sf. But that is what they are doing up here. Therefore they are sitting.
I think it's a little high but the agent said start there then drop. We'll see. PM me if you want to see the listing.
^ Probably the wise thing to do. Good luck with everything. Cheap Oil Is Squeezing Property Owners in Energy Hubs - Bloomberg Business
House is jus 7 years old with nice pool backyard and spiffy inside. We have a lot of interest I just think our price is high. I personally don't think agents drive things as much as zillow. It's so easy to figure out a house from the Internet than waiting for an agent to do it. If we price it low enough it will sell.
Having just bought a house long distance, although in Austin we spent a lot of time on Zillow and Trulia. We often did not even look at houses that had been on the market long and multiple price reductions. Gave the impression something was wrong and seller not real about price. We'd bust a gut getting here to see a house that just hit the market. I agree in total with Dales advice. Also from selling California house I agree about moving out. Buyer doesn't want to see how you live, they want to imagine how grand it will be with their stuff. Your stuff spoils the dream. No offense but most people consider your stuff ugly.
Meanwhile, oil closed a bit above $56 today and has been climbing lately. Maybe that bouncing cat isn't dead after all?
"Create a false sense of urgency." That's one of the reasons I got out of residential sales. It takes a certain personality-type to do this convincingly, with a straight-face. I couldn't do this.
Maybe... ^^This, for sure...it's not over yet, may not see $30, but it will be a while before the moving average stays over $55-$60 for very long...
Friend just bought inside the loop. $200/square foot. I thought that was CRAZY, but she's been in town longer than I...
Oil currently at $61.37 now. Looks like the cat had a few of it's nine lives remaining. Will be nice if it continues on this upward trend ... at least for those of us in the oil biz!!
Tomorrow marks, to the day, that I've been in the oil business for thirty-four years. I just bought my Prancing Horse a couple of months ago, and we are currently having a house built (with three-car garage, vis-à-vis the "park my Ferrari outdoors" thread) and I am not worried. Cognizant but not worried. We don't have a bank account with excess zeros at the end, we are just ordinary folks. However one spins it, these so-called work force personnel adjustments are cyclic in nature, occurring every six or seven years.
It been almost a year since I first posted. Just sold the house for what I paid almost exactly two years ago. 100k less than asking price. I thought it was too high but the realtor insisted we could get that. The second realtor was more practice. House was on the market for about 4 months before we got a serious buyer. A few tire kickers before that. Houses in the hood similar to ours have given after seeing us lower our price so much. I guess they don't have to sell like we do. As for oil. Been up and back down since my first post. I still think we will see 40 before we see 100. Off to Phoenix. Thanks to all who posted.
funny, I was thinking about this thread as I look at the screen and see WTI below $45. all the guys who expected it to bounce right back to $100 have been sadly disappointed. earlier in the year, consensus was that this would be a V-shaped recovery and oil would be back at $75 by year end. I've been saying this will last much longer than most expect and the market is just now coming to that realization, which I believe at least partially explains this latest leg down in both the commodity and equity prices. we need to see one final capitulation...unfortunately that may mean more pain and more failures. we're certainly closer, but not there quite yet. Stu, best of luck in Phoenix with your new gig!
I worked for edf the French power monopoly. We mostly did nuke and renwables with a trading desk too. A little oil and gas. Now I'm fully back in renewables.
