Katsmeow
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 5,308
We are finally under contract to sell our house and the inspection period is over. Buyer is cash buyer so it is very likely the sale will close.
We originally listed last Spring, telling our agent we didn't want to maximize price but wanted to sell quickly so we wanted to price to do that. She recommended a price (that she seemed to support with comps) that in retrospect was too high. We reduced the price but by then it was toward the end of summer and the market was dying. We took the house off the market after Thanksgiving.
In February we interviewed different agents who both gave us identical advice. They thought the last price we had listed at was fine and we would sell. However, when I asked what price would cause us to sell within 3 months they both suggested a lower price that would bring in a different price bracket.
We relisted at the lower price (hating doing it but hoping for a quick sale). We had 4 showings over a 2 days period and are selling to one of them. We ended up with a price that was way below our initial listing price. I wish I had known a year ago that that was what we needed to do and we would have saved on year's worth of carrying costs.
When we sell this house we will briefly be completely debt free. We are going to build another house. Philosophically I believe in paying off the mortgage in most instances. However, almost all of our money is in retirement accounts so if we paid cash to build we would have a huge tax hit. So we plan to take a mortgage at least for a few years.
We originally listed last Spring, telling our agent we didn't want to maximize price but wanted to sell quickly so we wanted to price to do that. She recommended a price (that she seemed to support with comps) that in retrospect was too high. We reduced the price but by then it was toward the end of summer and the market was dying. We took the house off the market after Thanksgiving.
In February we interviewed different agents who both gave us identical advice. They thought the last price we had listed at was fine and we would sell. However, when I asked what price would cause us to sell within 3 months they both suggested a lower price that would bring in a different price bracket.
We relisted at the lower price (hating doing it but hoping for a quick sale). We had 4 showings over a 2 days period and are selling to one of them. We ended up with a price that was way below our initial listing price. I wish I had known a year ago that that was what we needed to do and we would have saved on year's worth of carrying costs.
When we sell this house we will briefly be completely debt free. We are going to build another house. Philosophically I believe in paying off the mortgage in most instances. However, almost all of our money is in retirement accounts so if we paid cash to build we would have a huge tax hit. So we plan to take a mortgage at least for a few years.