Real Estate Q&A

Sam's column appears weekly in the River News Herald

July 2, 2008

Real Estate Q & A

TIMING ISSUES

Q. Since the summer is upon us, and slow winter months to follow, when is better to put my house up for sale; March or April? G.G. Rio Vista

A. Well, let’s look at this dilemma; March it’s still raining, April has Easter and school breaks, graduations and weddings in May and June, and so on.

Believe it or not, we sell houses every month of the year. Statistics for the last 5 years show our largest number of closings have been in June and December, and a respectable consistency in the remaining months.

The opportunity to sell is not limited to seasons, but rather how the home is priced and marketed. The biggest problem with lingering listings is a seller wanting to “try” a high price to see if they can snag an imbecile, then reduce the price later to get it sold. Here’s the problem with that: buyer’s today are knowledgeable, and if they aren’t, their agents are. They have run the comparables and can see your home in not in the price range, so they offer on someone else’s home. After a couple of months with no action, you reduce your price. By then your listing is stale and buyers figure you are now desperate, so offers come in ridiculously low.

The first two weeks are critical to establish your home’s position in the marketplace and to develop feedback from broker tours and at least 1 open house. From this feedback you adjust and comply, with selling your house as a result.

No buyer is going to forsake all other homes to camp out in your yard and wait until you decide to bring your price into focus. It’s the principle of substitution; that you will not pay more for something you can find for less elsewhere.

You should chart the 12 months of sales prior to your listing date and determine the rate of decline, then build in automatic price reductions with your marketing plan.

Q. I have a friend who is an agent in Discovery Bay, he told me the market will recover to previous levels this spring. Based on that I think I should take my house off the market until spring. What do you think? N.B. Isleton

A. What I think is that Discovery Bay is suffering from the largest real estate depression it has seen since its inception 30+ years ago. Inventory there is quadruple of normal and agents are quitting right and left. We are all hoping for a fast market recovery, and opportunists tend to surface to feed during these times. When prices are falling and homes are just not selling in most areas, it would be easy to predict a better market to gain favor and possibly a listing he would not otherwise have had.

I have to go with Data Quick, a national real estate statistical analysis firm that reports regularly on this market. From standing inventory of homes, rate of new listings coming on the market, rate of sale, average price on sold homes, and number and amount of reductions to achieve sale tells them that 2008 could experience another drop in prices due largely to foreclosures. The market is not dead in all communities, and it could be entirely possible that Rio Vista/ Isleton could get the better or worse of it.

What we are seeing here is that inventory is staying level and sales are moderate. As of today, we are still in a buyer’s market with double digit appreciation only a memory. Our home prices have fallen back to the 2002 level, but eventually will creep back up.

The time to sell is now, price it with today’s values, and remember where ever you buy you’ll get a reduction as well. The margins stay the same.

Confused about real estate values?

Call for answers at 707-374-6491

or visit

www.richards-realestate.com