Ok

[dancerjodi]

Sort of caught up with LJ after skip 650! I need to trim some communities and some friends that aren't really friends off of the friends list. If I should know something important please let me know in person - I may have missed it.

VT was really very nice, I'm too tired and have to get working so I can't post a full review here. Notable experiences included spending time with a great group of women (its been a while), Nyla's cooking (as usual), and being in the hot tub late at night while the soft snow was falling. Pics are here: http://www.diabolis.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=198

I got my Arwen dress finally (backordered since December). I need to try it on and see how it looks and fits. It's really pretty and pretty accurate (from what I remember from ROTK). Here it is: http://66.0.193.113/cgi-bin/www11650.storefront (click LOTR link on main page and then look at the Arwen Coronation Gown).

We got the other market analysis report from the other realtor - it wasn't too helpful overall. She took a bunch of houses, some totally not like ours at all (some 2-families, some sold "as is") and averaged the prices together to get a price for ours. She also didn't fill out the sheet commenting on the particular aspects on our house (i.e. what was good, what was bad). She did note some properties that sold 1 block over from us that weren't on Ken's report in late 2003 that sold for much lower than he's valuing ours at and were on the market for a while - its something we should probably discuss with him.

I think we're just going to see what happens with the market in March. Things should pick up (so Ken says) and prices should climb a bit (so Ken says). It will all get figured out in time.

Which brings me to the quote of the day:
"Confine yourself to the present." - Marcus Aurelius

Comments

[dionysia.livejournal.com]

sheesh.

so much for a helpful second opinion.

maybe a third?

Market Analysis

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"So much for a helpful second opinion. maybe a third?"

I think we're just going to try to come to a middle ground between the ones in our direct neighborhood (high 200s) and what Ken said (315) - I assumed around 300 would be reasonable given the neighborhood, other properties and the work we've done.

We shall see. I'm thinking watching the market in March will tell us a lot. Of course we want to get a lot for it but we also want to be reasonable :)

Re: Market Analysis

[dragonvpm.livejournal.com]

This is just a thought, but why not go for the 315 that Ken suggested? You guys are always free to accept a lower offer. Granted if you wanted to go for 400k that might be a problem but given that 15k is only about 5% of the total price (but a nice chunk of money nonetheless) I think it wouldn't hurt.

On our various real estate dealings we've gotten offers on our properties for anything from full price to 66% of the asking price. It's nearly impossible to say exactly what people will decide to offer for any given property, but it is unlikely that they'll offer more than the asking price unless they end up in a bidding war.

If nothing else listing it at 315 gives you more room for negotiating. When you throw in all the various expenses, closings costs, realtor fees, points etc... I'd say go with his advice on the listing and just keep in mind what you guys are willing to accept. For all you know someone might offer you 305 and ask for no points etc... and they'd think they got a great deal because they "saved 10k".

I guess the bottom line is that 15k is unlikely to scare away anyone who seriously likes your house but it might make up a decent bit of the costs related to selling it.

Oh, and I second the suggestion for managing groups in your friends view. I took out communities from my default view so whenever I bring up my friends page I only see entries from actual people. The communities got relegated to groups based on subject matter and I only check those when I have time to kill.

Re: Market Analysis

[dionysia.livejournal.com]

"This is just a thought, but why not go for the 315 that Ken suggested? You guys are always free to accept a lower offer."

speaking as someone who recently (within the last year) put a house on the market in the boston area that was overpriced based on the market analysis given, what will happen is not that you will get lower offers, but that you will get NO OFFERS.

Re: Market Analysis

[dragonvpm.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that one agent (the one they seem to be leaning towards working with) did a fairly thorough market analysis that he thinks supports the price of 315k. The market analysis that doesn't support it is the one that seems to have been done a bit more sloppily.

I hope this doesn't sound rude, but I've been involved in and aware of real estate deals throughout the country and as a rule, if your asking price is close to the market analysis for any given property (i.e. within 5-10%) you will get offers if it's a good property that would appeal to a large range of buyers (e.g. ready to move in). I have no idea why your house didn't get any offers, but I do know some of what they've done to this house and I've heard (from people selling houses) that this year the Boston market is pretty hot so I think the 15k difference is something worth taking a chance on because their house probably would appeal to quite a few buyers.

Of course, there are no sure things in real estate but since there isn't a set time frame in which they have to sell the house, and they are hoping to buy the best possible house in their target neighborhood, I think the 15k risk is worth it since it could help them along nicely in buying their next place. Sure, it might not sell right away, but until there's a house that they're really excited about I don't see the point in rushing to sell this one.

As another thought (and this comes from personal experience) a real estate agent is often pretty well suited to suggest a good asking price (which may or may not be supported by a market analysis). They show houses all the time and they know what appeals to people. If they're good they can probably tell you what someone is likely to offer for a property and if they can back it up with a market analysis I think that's a pretty safe bet. They make their money based on actually selling the property so it's not in their interest to over-estimate the asking price. Given that they're thinking about trusting him to represent them, I'd be inclined to go with his suggestion.

Anyways, sorry if this was rambling and long. I guess I just wanted to voice my vote of confidence in what J&B have done to this house. I think they've put in a lot of good solid work making it into a better house and they've built up a lot of sweat equity and it would be a shame to give it away without taking a small chance on Ken's suggestion (i.e. the guy who does this for a living).

Re: Market Analysis

[dancer.livejournal.com]

From Victor's first post:
"I guess the bottom line is that 15k is unlikely to scare away anyone who seriously likes your house but it might make up a decent bit of the costs related to selling it."

What we're worried about is that nobody will come look at it. I don't care how nice the house is, if I were shopping for houses 2 years ago (like we were) in our neighborhood we wouldn't have even looked at a house over a certain amount - the area just isn't worth it (even if the place was amazing).

All other houses in the 3-4 block range of ours have sold for the high 200's. The one across the street has been on the market since early December and started at $309 (they are now at $279 and are just starting to get people looking at it). Its true we have done A LOT of work to the place, and its in better condition than a lot in our neighborhood. We want this to be a quick sell however (and having paid $250 for it, even getting "only" $300 is still a good deal).

Aside from this, there aren't a lot of houses on the market in our range where we're looking to move. Timing is going to be crucial. I have a feeling that we'll need to put our place up first and may end up selling before finding a place in Waltham. That will suck, but its preferable to finding the place in Waltham first.

I'm really hoping that the market will pick up in March and April and we can see what things are listed for. I know Ken got some good comparitive properties and that they are all <2 miles from our house - but seriously, even going a couple of blocks from our house makes a huge difference in neighborhood.

I'm biased against it (I hate it) so I'm not a good person to assign home value. I was hoping that this second analysis would come close to Ken's and then I'd be more comfortable. She didn't and did a crap job with the analysis. I'm kind of sick of talking to realtors (and wondering if calling another one would give the same crap analysis). I think at this point we're just going to sit tight and keep our eyes open. :)