What are the chances that we can sell our home?
I live in lower Westchester County, New York, and I’m fourteen years old. My parents say we might have to move to Florida, which I am REALLY REALLY REALLY against for so many reasons. However, we can’t move if we cannot sell our house, which to me seems unlikely considering the economic climate in respect to the real estate industry. What do you think the chances of selling a medium sized home (3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, unfinished basement/attic) in lower Westchester in this recession? I mean we have family friends that couldn’t even sell their house two years ago in our town when the economy wasn’t as bad as it is now.
4 Responses
Jeff
05 Mar 2010
Jim L
05 Mar 2010
It depends how much your parents want to sell the house and how much they still owe on it. If they owe a large percentage of its value they won’t have as much pricing flexibility. If they really want to get out, they may be able to set the price attractively enough to sell it. Also, selling a house depends a lot on what is called "staging" or how nice it is made to look. So, don’t clean your room or make your bed on days when the house is being shown and you may be able to scare buyers off 
Actually Florida is not so bad. The weather is better, there’s way more stuff to do and you’ll be like a genius down there because most teenagers in Florida are really quite dumb.
Doobie
05 Mar 2010
The chances are spectacular if your parents price it low enough. The number one reason people cant sell their houses is that they overprice them. Many people believe their houses are investments that should have extremely high rates of return; Buyer A buys a house this year for $100,000 thinks they should be able to sell it for $200,000 next year (a 100% return! The stock market only has about an 11% historical return!) For a while, the market supported this type of thinking. So, Buyer B purchases Buyer A’s house for $200,000. Now Buyer B believes that they should be able to sell their house for $300,000. So on and so forth.
The economy no longer supports people who expect such high returns. But Buyer B doesnt believe it; they think they are entitled to an incredibly high rate of return, and they probably got a horrible mortgage, so they can’t come down on their asking price. So no one buys from them because they are asking too much, and they cant lower the price because they cant afford to.
If your parents are in this position, you may not be moving for a long time. If they made good decisions and were responsible about their mortgage and bought what they could afford, then the chances of selling their house is quite good.
Monterra
05 Mar 2010
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It all depends on the almighty dollar! Let’s say your house in worth $300,000. But you really need to sell it for dozens of reasons. You may be willing to accept an offer that’s less than the value of the home. If you are really motivated to sell, you might put your house on the market for $270,000. THEN someone who looking to get a great deal on a home see that it’s listed $30K below value and they swoop in and make an offer. ANY house can sell in ANY economy if it’s priced right! GL!
~Jeff