Selling a home harder than ever

By Melissa Wirkus

The housing market is slowly but surely losing its steam and hundreds upon thousands of Americans are completely fed up. The people that are up in arms about the housing market are not the ones looking to buy a home, but the ones looking for a buyer for their home.

There are tons of homes on the market right now without a buyer in sight for many of them. Sellers are either forced to drop their prices drastically in order to attract buyers, or just wait and hope someone comes along if they don’t want to or can not drop their price any further.

A September 8, 2006 article by Les Christie of CNNMoney.com, “Help! Home for sale,” looks into a Minnesota couples struggle to sell their home.

“Travel agent Terry Likens and his partner, contractor Duane Przybilla, own a three-bedroom, four-bath townhouse in Eden Prairie, Minn. They would rather have a single-family house with more space and a backyard. So they want to sell - but these days, that's a problem. When they bought their home for $294,000 in June of 2004, real estate inventory was flying off the shelves, even in the relatively calm markets of the Upper Midwest.”

The problem with their townhouse is not the time on the market, but the fact that it has attracted almost zero interest.
The home has only been on the market for about a month now, but they have only had two people even come to look at it so far. This is causing many problems for the couple because they are anxious to get out of the old house and into a new one.

They already lost a home they absolutely love because they could not sell their town home in time and somebody else made an offer.

“The failure to attract any buyers is not the house's fault - it shows well. The pair bought it new and opted for several upgrades, including cherry wood cabinets, ceramic floors, Cambria countertops and a custom built bar. There are crown moldings, stainless steel appliances and about 1,900 square feet of space.”

“Despite all that, only two showings of the house have taken place since it was put on the market. Likens doesn't think the price, $327,900, is the problem. It was arrived at with lots of input from Mary Condon, their Coldwell Banker Burnet agent, and other area brokers. They even held an open house just for agents so they could get feedback on how much they should ask.”

This is the price currently, and the home was originally listed for $334,900. They did not see an increase in offers or lookers since the decrease.

The problem with their home not selling probably does not lie within the walls of the house itself, but rather in the market. There is such a surplus of homes on the market right now that it makes it difficult for buyers to distinguish between houses.

Also, according to their agent, the couple’s home is in a very popular prices range, and there are currently over 140 houses listed in Eden Prairie between $250,000 and $350,000. That is a completely saturated local market!
The partners are most frustrated by the fact that they cannot look for another home right now because buying a new home is contingent upon selling their town home.

“Already they don't expect to make any money on the sale. ‘By the time we pay the selling expenses we're not going to turn a profit,’ says Likens. Meanwhile, the partners are halfheartedly looking at other listings, but, so far, only on line. ’Do we want to put our emotions into finding the right property, getting a proposal together and putting up earnest money without knowing if we can sell the townhouse?’ says Likens. ‘It's very frustrating.’”

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