Problems for today's sellers : Rooftop Views

Rooftop Views

Problems for today's sellers

Steve Harney is a mortgage and real estate expert gives his view on the problems faced by today's sellers.

The days of quick home sales, selling for top dollar and pricing wars on homes are gone. The challenge is the homeowners' perception of what their home should sell for. As recent as June 2007, a survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that fifty-five percent of American homeowners believe their home is worth more today than it was one year ago. In reality, in many locations, home values have gone down.

Following are the five pricing considerations you need to educate yourself on. By taking these points into consideration when pricing your property, you'll be able to put that sold sign on faster.

1. Increased Inventory

Yes, more houses are for sale right now than in recent years, meaning buyers have a lot more choices and negotiating room. But why are there so many houses for sale today? Because we are witnessing the consequence of a pent-up selling demand. In other words, a lot of sellers waited to list their property because they wanted to catch the top of the market. They waited and waited and waited. Now that they see the market declining, they list their homes in an attempt to still sell at a high price before the market bottoms out. As a result, we have an overabundance of inventory, up approximately thirty-nine percent than at this time last year.

2. Increased Mortgage Rates

News and advertising tells us mortgage rates are at an all-time low, and that's true in a historical context. But short-term, over the past three months, mortgage rates have been increasing. And every time the mortgage rates go up, even a quarter of a percent, a large number of potential buyers are disqualified from the marketplace. Additionally, a number of mortgage companies are going out of business, with American Home Mortgage company - the tenth largest in the country - as the latest to close their doors. Mortgage companies are getting nervous about what's taking place in the mortgage market, and that's making money tighter. When money gets tighter, sellers are affected because buyers have less buying power. Less buying power means fewer home sales. It's as simple as that.

3. Increased Mortgage Restrictions

During the past few years, mortgage companies granted mortgages to just about anyone, including those who couldn't or wouldn't prove their income, those with no down payment and even those with very poor credit. But today, with foreclosures climbing steadily, almost all mortgage companies have re-enacted the tight lending restrictions that were common decades ago. John M. Robbins, Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, says that he's happy about the restrictions, but that this is a strong statement that will help curb abuse and will likely constrain consumer credit choices. Because mortgage companies are nervous about the current real estate market, buyers do need down payments now. A co-signer may not be enough, and credit scores need to be high. Each one of those factors and many more disqualify some people from buying, which in turn affect sellers.

4. Increased Vacancy Rates

During the real estate boom, many people and investors bought spec homes with the hopes of flipping the house for a big profit. Today, vacancy rates on these homes are up over fifty percent. Since most of these people don't want to act as landlords, they have a strong desire to sell the home rather than rent it out. As a result, many are selling these vacant investment properties for rock bottom prices, grudgingly taking a loss. This greatly affects other sellers in the neighborhood, because when one home sells for a low price, it sets a precedent for the other sales to follow suit. With the surrounding comps having low sales prices, the current listings in that same neighborhood decline in value.

5. Increased Foreclosures

Statistics from First American Real Estate Solution show if one house forecloses in a neighborhood, the average house in that neighborhood loses five percent of its value. If eight percent of the houses in the neighborhood foreclose, the value in that neighborhood goes down twenty percent. No one can deny that bank-owned properties drive prices down. Unfortunately, the real estate and mortgage market is now bracing for the tsunami of foreclosures that is expected to hit. According to the web site www.foreclosures.com, three out of every one thousand homeowners have already lost their home to foreclosure in the first half of 2007.

Experts predict that there's going to be a crash of foreclosures over the next two-and-a-half-years of more than two million homes. So if your clients get a flood of foreclosures in their neighborhood, it's going to lower the home values drastically. Additionally, no neighborhood - no matter what the geographic location - is immune from the foreclosure fact. Simply go to http://realestate.yahoo.com/foreclosures to see all the foreclosures in your city or area.

The New Era of Real Estate Sales

The bottom line is if someone wants to sell their home for a decent price, they have to list now - not three months from now and certainly not a year from now. In fact, no one is predicting the market will be back before the end of 2009.