WHAT’S THE OVER/UNDER ON THAT ?

Every week we continue to be inundated with stories about housing and whether or not areas have under-bidding or over-bidding. We wait in breathless anticipation to find out where the deals are being had, much like the annual Black Friday or Boxing Day sales. This is a recent phenomena, one that was never really a big part of the action back in the day. Since the buying world partly lost its mind in 2016 and then fully lost its collective mind in 2019-21, it would seem there is still an expectation that every property listed will create a bidding war, or at the very least net the sellers a very handsome return well over asking price. Welcome to the new reality. There’s a wildly underused thing called common sense that seems to have disappeared the last few years. Looks like it is slowly returning though, at least in the world of real estate. Common practice used to see a home listed and sit on the market for 30-90 days before finally selling. In many cases the seller would be happy to get 80-95% of the listing price and bidding wars came along once in a while. Sellers these days are petrified at the thought of under-listing their home for fear they will lose out on the overpaying bonanza. But here’s the deal. If a house is seriously (or even moderately) under-listed, chances are a bidding war will ensue. Regardless of the time, no one wants to pass up a good deal. So, voila, you have a bidding war and the sale price should end up closer to where the true market value should be. Whether it is a seller’s market or a buyer’s market (or even a balanced market) bottom line is the MARKET will determine the value of the home, not the seller or listing agent. Or anyone else for that matter. It’s a plain fact. Conversely, if the home is grossly over-listed it will sit for months and in most cases will end up being pulled from the market. Unless, of course, the seller sees the light and drops the price accordingly. So, in a circuitous way, this leads back to the original theme here. Over and Under bidding. They should stop with this nonsense. Underbidding merely means the buyers are not willing to be gouged any more. To quote Peter Finch in Network “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”. So they aren’t taking it any more. Buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for more sanity to enter the equation and maybe even another round or two of interest rate cuts. That certainly helps things. You never see people rushing out to overpay for groceries or other necessities of life, so why should housing be any different? That is the message that needs to get through to a good number of sellers who still think it’s 2019. I have a tip for you folks. It’s NOT. So get with the times. And in many cases you will still be making a very tidy profit on your sale so just be happy with that. Saves a whole lot of stress.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site at: https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more