Home Sweet Home, Insider-Tips on Minnesota real estate.

Don't expect home prices to rise this year

A growing number of economists are less optimistic an annual gain is likely in 2010, or even 2011.

It looks like the waiting is far from over for sellers-to-be who have put their plans to sell their homes on hold until the market picks up.

• It's now up to home sellers to offer incentives

According to The Wall Street Journal, a growing number of economists aren't expecting home prices to increase this year, or even in 2011.

To read the rest of the story go toMSN Real Estate

 

Why Some Houses Sit While Other Houses Sell

Even in the hardest hit markets, there are still properties priced well enough and in good enough condition to interest buyers. Those houses attract offers and sell. Houses that aren’t priced and staged competitively sit. It’s not complicated. It’s really that simple.

For your house to stand out from the crowd, you’ll have to listen to what buyers are telling you and make sure your house is priced well enough and in good enough condition to stand out from the competition.

Watch the video

Published by Jay Papasan, VP of Publishing and Executive Editor Keller Williams Realty

Less Than Half of All Home-Sale Attempts Successful in ‘09

A survey of seven major housing markets found that less than half of all attempts to sell a home in 2009 had, as of last Wednesday, resulted in a sale.

The analysis, conducted by Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based brokerage that operates in nine states, shows just how tough the housing market has become–and just how many sellers are unwilling to lower their prices.

The survey looked at how ..... to read click on, "Less Than Half of All Home-Sale Attempts Successful in '09

Exerpts:

Many sellers aren’t willing to reduce their prices because they don’t want to sell their homes for less than the amount they owe. Those “short sales” typically take much longer to complete because a bank must sign off on the deal.  Banks are less likely to approve short sales for borrowers who can’t demonstrate hardship or imminent default.

Others simply think that they shouldn’t have to reduce their prices, often because .... The buyers may be happy to pull their homes off and wait for the market to come back.

Already, there are some signs that this year could be worse than 2009

Growing open-house trend: No shoes allowed

Sellers have various reasons for asking potential buyers to take off their shoes, but the request turns some guests away at the door.

Posted by Mai Ling at MSN Real Estate on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 10:59 AM

 

For many sellers, preparing your home for an open house is no easy task, from staging your home as well as your yard to hiding your valuables from sticky fingers.

But some sellers are taking their home's appearance to the next level, asking buyers to also help them maintain its pristine condition by taking their shoes off at the door.

Falling home prices

We already know existing home sales collapsed from May to June. The number of sales are reported but specific prices aren't known until closing typically months later.

June and July home sales typically don't close before August or even September and reports may lag until October or November.

Home sellers may feel the financial pinch when selling but if you're buying "up" this is a great opportunity as typically the higher the price the bigger the price reduction. 

And remember today's great interest rates.

Need to Sell Your House? Cut the Price

Home sellers learned a painful lesson in June: if you want to sell right now, lower the price.

June marked the second month with no more $8,000 tax credit for home buyers, and some 24% of all listings that were on the market as of July 1 had experienced at least one price reduction, up from 9% of all listings one month earlier, according to real-estate website Trulia.com.

The average price drop—at 10%—was unchanged from one month earlier.  But more markets saw bigger price reductions, led by Minneapolis, where 40% of listings had been reduced in price since listing. One third of all homes in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., have had their prices cut.

So when does it make sense to lower the price? Read Trulia’s Tara Nelson offers the following five tips By Nick Timiraos and published in the Wall Street Journal

Similar articles: 

• "Be prepared to slash prices if you want to sell" appears in MSNRealEstate.com
• How to price your home to sell fast appears in WSJ MarketWatch

Housing Discounts On The Rise Again

In a further sign that the housing market recovery is stalling, more home sellers are once again being forced to cut their asking prices.

San Francisco-based real estate data firm Trulia.com will release a survey Wednesday showing that, as of July 1, asking prices had been discounted on 24% of for-sale homes, a return to a level that was common in 2009.

Minneapolis
Homes discounted: 40%
Average price cut: 9%

Read more in Forbes.com

Should you reject an offer? Here's what happen to one such rejection.

Here's a great article which every home seller should read. 

 

For those sellers who think their property is worth more than it is, those who are waiting for the just the right buyer, or those who reject offers thinking the next offer will be better.

 

This seller rejected a $2.75 million offer because he thought his property was worth a lot more; he's now facing bankruptcy. Recently he put the proprty up for sale for $1.5 million, nearly half of previous offer.  Since then, no offer has been made.  He's missed his moment by wasting a tremendous opportunity because he had too much emotional attachment to the property.

 

Click here to read the complete article by Paul Schwartzman published in the Washington Post

 

 

5 stress-beating tips for home sellers

Are you desperately clinging to an unrealistic price for your home? Running through worst-case scenarios like a broken record in your head? You may be suffering from clinical stress induced by the real-estate market.

By Jay MacDonald of Bankrate.com

Want stress? Try selling your home today.

Two years ago, home sellers had it all. Multiple offers drove record-high home prices ever higher. Buyer financing was little more than an afterthought. The world was a seller's oyster.

But the housing bust changed all that. In what has been termed a buyer's market without buyers, home sellers find themselves trapped in extended servitude to the place they once called home. Sellers must keep their homes spit-shined, sanitized and stripped of any personal effects that might turn off picky buyers.

Read how to beat the home selling stress in MSN Real Estate

Are you the reason your home won’t sell?

Many homeowners are losing money because they’re determined not to sell for less than they paid, but that faulty logic can be costly.

Many home sellers are losing money -- precisely because they're determined not to lose money. So why won't your home sell?

One reason homes are languishing on the market is that owners are suffering from “sunk cost fallacy,” says Ohio State University economist John Kagel.

This fallacy describes the reluctance people have to sell for less than they paid or put into a home, even when hanging on and waiting for the right price will ultimately prove costly.

Read the complete article By Marilyn Kennedy Melia of Bankrate.com and published in MSN Real Estate