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Dumping Your Bonita Springs Real Estate
The countdown to the end of holiday season has begun. Now everybody can get back to business as usual or at least as close to business as usual as they remember.
If you’re one of the people getting ready to get back into the swing of home selling there are a few things you will have to do if selling your Bonita Springs home before the end of tourist season is a must. By must, I mean you’re unable to afford it any longer and it must be sold or you need the capital for something supremely important.
If you’re under water with your mortgage vs. home value, still making ends meet and plan to stay in your home, this isn’t necessarily geared towards you. Not everyone must sell their home. This is for those whose home has been on the market for a while with no results or those about to list their home for sale.
There are a few statistics sellers are going to need to gather to put their own unique real estate market into perspective. You’re probably not going to enjoy them but if you’re selling you’re going to need to look at them. I’m just the messenger so prepare to swallow the jagged little pill and feel free to forego taking it out on me. The buyers are making the market right now, not me. Don’t forget that you were singing joy to the world, peace on Earth and good will towards men just a few days ago, too.
Despite the first time home buyer tax credit incentive and interest rates being at their lowest point in 37 years, many potential home buyers will be kicking back and waiting. A recent Trulia® poll revealed that among Americans surveyed, 92 percent of homeowners and 70 percent of non-homeowners say they plan on just staying put over the next 12 months.
Of course this is a national average and doesn’t take into consideration second home purchases in Bonita Springs, Florida. Still, fewer buyers coupled with standing inventory means fewer candidates available to purchase your home or condo.
Besides having your Bonita Springs home market ready you have got to have it priced effectively. It’s mostly about statistics and averages and we’re not talking national averages at this point but hyper-local numbers.
You need find out the standing inventory on the market that is your competition and the closed sales for the last twelve months that were once your competition. Have your agent figure the estimated absorption rate for your home with those figures. This is especially easy in planned communities with similar floor plans and a little more work in non-deed restricted communities.
Read also: So, What Is The Absorption Rate For Your Bonita Springs Home?
Nobody likes this part because it’s the stinging truth about what is really going on in the market you’ll be contending with. Pricing your home when there’s a couple of months of inventory is a whole bunch different than pricing it when there’s several years of inventory, especially if time is of the essence.
You have to know where you stand before you even begin to start stabbing at pricing. With only a few months to get the job done you don’t have time to waste guessing.
While you’ve got those closed sales reports out, take a look at the last three months closed sales. The odds are that if your home contracts for sale in the next few months, these are the comparables an appraiser will use. Appraisers only go back as far as six months and occasionally only three months by lender request. In high risk areas count on a second appraisal or field review of the first appraisal. Yes, it’s really that serious in the lending arena right now.
Simply put, if your home doesn’t appraise it won’t close sale. It doesn’t matter what you paid for the home, how much you owe on it or what you think it is worth. It’s worth what the comparables say its worth and what a buyer is willing to pay.
One of the most difficult things for home sellers to do is to price below the market, not “at” the market. Pricing below the market may be what it takes to get your home sold if the competition is fierce. If there are only going to be two homes estimated to sell this year in your neighborhood you need to attract buyers to be able to be one of those sales.
The Bonita Springs real estate market is loaded with homes that have ridden the market down and not hopped in front of it.
It’s the truth, whether the crowd hisses at me or not. You might not like it and I don’t like it but it may be the only way to find a new owner to start writing checks for the home you’re tired of supporting.
How much is that home costing you to maintain annually? Do the math. If you’re at the stop-loss stage of home ownership and your home costs you $20,000 per year to hold and maintain, why don’t you just whack twenty grand off the price and get it sold. Keep in mind that on average there is about two years of inventory across the board. So it may even be more than one year of holding costs you’re looking at.
Read also: Price Remains King in Bonita Springs Real Estate
If you’re thinking, “but I’ll be throwing away twenty thousand bucks” maybe you’re just looking at it wrong. Consider it a sales incentive to entice a buyer, not a loss. You can either cough it up now and get the home sold or fool yourself and bleed it out over the next year by maintaining a home that didn’t sell.
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
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