Selling a house quick....

[moliver]

I am in a situation where I own two homes....well the bank owns them and I am paying the mortgage. Recently lost my job. One house has been on the market for a while two months...only two people came to even look at it.

So the question is....has anyone ever used one of those "we will buy your house" kinda places?

It would really be a relief to unload one of these houses...

Mike
Home in Lombard, IL for sale.

[Rick Lee]

I inquired about that back in 2004 during the boom and was severely lowballed then. I can't imagine how insulting their offer would be in this market.

[moliver]

Thats kinda what I figured....might give it a try to be amused by their number.

Mike

[stomachmonkey]

Well two months really is not a while.

Take a hit and price it to move.

I know you don't want to hear that but do the math on what it will cost you to sit on for another 4-10 months and then have to take the hit on price reduction to move it.

Talking from recent experience here.

Had a similar situation to yours, had two properties, sold one relatively quick and got a reasonable price for it. Sat on other one for 22 months. Had turned down an initial "lowball" offer. Fed $45k into it over the 22 months. Was thrilled to stop the hemorrhaging and take 70% of the original lowball offer when I finally unloaded it.

[Jims5543]

I recently sold two homes. One in late 2005 when the market was falling here in Florida. I sold to a buy ugly house guy, I needed to sell fast, I knew the market was crashing and he agreed to buy it for the balance of the mortgage. I lost nearly $50K and felt I got off easy, he rode it the rest of way down loosing the other 50K on the house.

The other was my vacation home. I was in no hurry to sell just wanted to circle my wagons and get ready for bad times that are coming. This was in October 2007 and I sold my 911 the same month I put the house up for sale.

I sold the house exactly 1 year later mostly due to crappy realtors that had no clue what they were doing and were advising me to price the house too high. (this was in hindsight) I was trusting their "professional" knowledge and it was flawed.

I finally found a good realtor and she gave me a competitive price that would move the house. It sold 4 weeks after I listed with her. I sold it for $40K more than I paid for it and was very happy with the results.

Cliffs:

Used buy ugly house guy to get out of house fast, it will get rid of the house but you may take it up the butt.

Used crappy realtors and wasted a year waiting to sell (multiply the mortgage payment x12 and I could have listed lower a year earlier and still been in the same boat.


If you need to sell fast be prepared to take a hit.

Good luck and sorry about your situation. This is exactly why I sold off the toys and got ready for this mess over a year ago. The worst is yet to come.

[Tishabet]

Are you upside down on either property?

[moliver]

Nope...not gonna lose money.

Was thinking about renting it.....

[crustychief]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Well two months really is not a while.

Take a hit and price it to move.

I know you don't want to hear that but do the math on what it will cost you to sit on for another 4-10 months and then have to take the hit on price reduction to move it.

Talking from recent experience here.

Had a similar situation to yours, had two properties, sold one relatively quick and got a reasonable price for it. Sat on other one for 22 months. Had turned down an initial "lowball" offer. Fed $45k into it over the 22 months. Was thrilled to stop the hemorrhaging and take 70% of the original lowball offer when I finally unloaded it.

My Divorce lawyer told me to sell my house about 5 months before the bubble went "pop" and I ended up paying mortgage payments for a year on an empty house, after I turned down a lowball offer, that was 30K more than what it eventually sold for. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by moliver

Was thinking about renting it.....

Yeah, went down that route myself. Sounds good until you realize everyone else that's in the same boat is thinking the same thing and available properties go through the roof causing rental prices to come down.

If you are way equity positive/can rent for more than the nut then go for it.

Do the math pessimistically. Do it on 8 months not 12 and see if it works. When you do get someone into a 12 month lease you want to hold 25% in reserve for things like unexpected vacancy, repairs, etc.....

And do a thorough background check even if you need to pay an agency to do it.

Nothing worse than getting the down/security and the tenant stops paying and you need to let the azzhole live in your place for the 6 months it could take to get rid or them.

[HardDrive]

How much do the tax records say this house is worth?

[TechnoViking]

Walk. Everyone else is doing it.

[Halm]

Originally Posted by Martin Smith

Walk. Everyone else is doing it.

Ok, how does he do this since he owns TWO houses?

[moliver]

Originally Posted by Halm

Ok, how does he do this since he owns TWO houses?

I think his comment was supposed to be in GREEN.

[911Rob]

Hire the best Realtor in the area; it doesn't cost you anymore!

Offer the buyer an incentive; like seller will pay your mortgage for one year. (of course you calculate that in the price).

If the market is coming down still where you live, you must be priced "under" the current market to pull in a buyer; don't make the mistake of following the market down, get under it now if you must sell.

If you can afford to hold out, rent it out and wait; cycles can be from 7 to 10 years to recovery.

Hope that helps?
Cheers,
(No1 Realtor in MY Region! ha, ha.)

[911Rob]

Our market is currently dead; with very little sales in the past 6 months. This marketing campaign launched in January has brought 6 deals to the table in just one week!
(I'm also a developer/builder)

[svandamme]

damn that's a sweet deal
then mortage the thing at a fixed 1 year mortage

[tiwebber]

Originally Posted by 911Rob

If the market is coming down still where you live, you must be priced "under" the current market to pull in a buyer; don't make the mistake of following the market down, get under it now if you must sell....

We sold our house last year. It took over 1 year and lots of price drops. My realtor said "dont want to leave anything on the table". I cant believe I listened to that crap. The market was falling and we were pricing at the top of the market and as it dropped, we were too high by the time the price changed on the listing!!! When we first listed it I figured it was worth alot less than we initially asked. It was a $25-$75k lesson. Ouch.

[Big Ed]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

How much do the tax records say this house is worth?

Irrelevant. Tax data is always outdated and rarely has any reflection upon market value.

Rob is right, as usual. If the market is falling, price below your competition to sell.