Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

I'd love to buy a house, but getting tired of looking. Half of the "new listings" I see aren't new at all. I've seen sellers steadily drop the price of their home, then turn around and move it up 10%. Not what I expect when I see an update to my favorites list. And the houses on the market for several months with no price change aren't even on my radar anymore.
What frustrates me most is new listings priced well above recent sales of similar homes in the same neighborhood. I noticed a new one today. Nice looking house. One just around the corner finally got a sold sign after months and months of price drops. Similar sq ft, same size lots, exteriors and yards are pristine on both, from what I can see the interiors are also in good condition. The newer listing is 21% more than the last listed price for the one that just sold.
Every time I open up Redfin and look at what's out there I just wanna turn my head and bang it against the wall.

Count your blessings. At least you aren't that seller who NEEDS 21% above going rate for their house.

Bill, your frustrations are shared by a lot of people IMO. My friends who are looking for new homes have already stopped looking for new and considering 5 yr old. Well nothing is in that category for them either. Now they are changing areas, etc. etc...

You could always lowball (read, offer a fair price) but it may not be worth the time. One house I liked sold for 11% off list, which surprised me; I would've been a lot more interested at that price. Such discount seems more common now, so it might be worthwhile to make an offer at 15% off, for a house you think is ~10% overpriced.

Hopefully the dam will break this fall/winter. It should be a psychological turning point if/when selling prices resume a downward slope after the spring bounce and some folk--esp. those with enough equity to avoid a short sale--have been on the market (whether officially or not) for 1+ years. Then we could see more realistic list prices.

This stuff drives me crazy. I asked a friend today if there's something I'm missing. Actually, my words were, "Am I the retarded one here? Seriously, just tell me if I have the problem, because none of this shit makes any sense to me."
I say let the 8k tax credit expire and bump rates to 7%. Then maybe we'll see sellers come down to reality.

Well at least as a seller someday you can hope for a bubble so you can sell quickly at a realistic price. Those who have fair list prices today sell fast.

I've noticed that some of the homes with increases prices now say that a short sale is pre-approved. Maybe the bank made them increase the price, though it seems pointless since they've been on the market for months at lower prices.

housing is seasonal, like clockwork. be patient and wait for winter.

Lamont is right.

When the weather turns, desperation will start sinking in. Those idiots that mispriced now will begin to realize that as each month passes, the situation gets more dire. Then the fun begins. Unleash the hounds on them.

Sometimes with short sales, the listing agent has not been told, and will not be told what the lender will approve. So you might see a short sale stay on the market at a lower price, but what you don't know is if/how many offers even at the list price were made, submitted to the lender, and then rejected.
What I've also seen is a listing for a short sale at a seemingly pretty good price stay on the market for a while, not get sold, get foreclosed on, and then ultimately sell as a bank owned property many months later at an even lower price. The banks don't always seem to act in their own best interest.

One reason for the price increase on a short sale listing is that the bank/lender ordered and received a BPO (Broker Price Opinion) which is like a CMA (comparative market analysis report that's typically done by the listing agent) or like a mini appraisal. If the BPO comes in higher than the current price, the real estate agent knows the lender will say yes to that price so they relist at the higher price. Not all will sell at that price, even if it does say "lender approved."

Another potential red flag to watch for in those "lender approved"-promoted deals is where the sales price has been raised because a third party has jumped in to take over negotiations. If they can get the lender to say yes to a certain price, they pump up the price in order to try and take the difference between the lender-approved price and the now inflated price. The price the lender has approved is of course not the new, inflated price but a much lower price.

I've been all over the state this month and these scammers are everywhere. I've also been to Coeur d'Alene and Sun Valley/Ketchum and Realtors there tell me the scammers are now making the rounds in Idaho.

If the home doesn't sell for the higher price, the 3rd party negotiator just walk away from the deal and the homeowner is left to fend for themselves, if facing foreclosure.

Buyers who think purchasing a short sale will be a "good deal" might end up buying at an inflated price to cover the cost of the middleman.

The problem, as an individual looking to buy, is that you are competing with a vast number of "professionals" who got in the biz over the last 10 years during the run-up.

Their strategies for making "easy money" have dried up, and they are constantly looking for new ways of making money, ethically or unethically. Probably plenty of both.

So, on the low end, you are competing with investors with much more experience than you. They are far more likely than you to find the bargain, and extract as much value as possible, either through resale or rental.

On the medium to high-end, the playing field is a bit more level, as these properties aren't as likely to cash-flow. Even so, there is just too many eyes and dollars in RE right now, desperate to make money, for a novice looking to buy their own home to compete.

or just causing them to wait more