Purchasing
- Your first home
- Your next home and move
- An investment property
- A vacation home
Refinancing
- To tap your home equity
- To save money
- To avoid rate increases
- To lower monthly payments
Home Equity
- Loans and lines of credit
- Finance major expenses
- Consolidate Debt
- Invest
Sell Low, Quick
During the recent
status
of the real estate market, homeowners
are having difficulty selling their
home. When they do sell, it usually
takes much longer than anticipated.
Columnist Dan Miller of The Patriot
News illustrates how to sell your home
quickly in an article written July 16,
2006, “Demand Remains Strong for
Lower-Priced Houses.”
Miller begins describing a fixer-upper
house with “greenish-gray tint”
that looks to be in no condition to
be in any bidding wars. Gwen Wallace
and Deb Faley, agent partners with RE/MAX
Realty Professionals Inc., decided to
put the house on the market on a Thursday
night for $80,000.
"By Friday, we had people standing
in line,’ Wallace said. By Tuesday
night, the seller had 22 written offers.
She chose an offer of more than $100,000.”
Prospective buyers are looking
for cheaper homes to invest in and
eventually sell for more.
“To Wallace, the experience illustrates
the frenzy that can occur in the midstate
residential real estate market any
time a property priced at less than
$165,000 becomes available, even those
clearly in need of at least cosmetic
improvement.”
This real estate frenzy relates directly
to lower-priced homes. The
market is still not ready to support
a boon of higher-priced homes. “Meanwhile,
sales of luxury houses have slowed,
mostly because of rising interest rates.
Mortgage rates fell slightly last week,
to an average of about 6.74 percent
for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan, but
that's still low by historical standards.”
These lower-priced homes are most desired
by parents, or empty-nesters, whose
children have left home, and if they
are operated by a homeowners’
association, because they do not have
to worry about size or maintenance.
"They [empty-nesters] can't afford
or they don't want $300,000 and up.
They are looking for houses on one level
that they can afford to buy. List anything
between $125,000 and $165,000 and you
just know it's going to sell quickly,’
Wallace said.”
Viola Thompson, president/broker at
Prudential Thompson Wood Real Estate,
predicts that high-end houses will soon
experience the same success lower-priced
homes are experiencing.
“K. Hovnanian, a national home
builder based in New Jersey, sees no
signs of a slowdown at Bella Vista in
Silver Spring Twp., were single-family
houses start at more than $400,000.
Sales of new houses in the development
are exceeding projections, sales associate
Amy Berkley said.”
Although there is hope that higher-priced
homes will begin to sell as quick as
less expensive homes, the current trend
indicates that if you want to sell a
home quickly, you have a better chance
if you have an asking price under $165,000.