That sales link you posted is a nice tool. What I see with each of the ones which sold above list price is a common trend in DOM (Days on Market). 2, 6, 31, 70 DOM for each of those which are "priced right." In the cases of other sales, which aren't priced so right, they finally chased down the price enough to make the sale, but on the long end, they spent 1316 Days on Market. Again, if they are priced right, when you make a low-ball offer, you may miss out on the opportunity to purchase that particular property, because when they are priced right, they tend to sell quickly.
Absolutely Murray. A buyer has to know a deal and be willing to act when the price drops. I have two clients that we contacted about significant price drops - one in Rosemary Lofts dropped from $479 to $399 and we told her to move but she didn't. Sadly for our values, when those do sell and the buyer misses it, the price has been reset and it gives us negotiating leverage on ones that have been on the market longer. It also means that other listings in the complex may drop their prices. So yes, we might miss a good deal but I believe that there are still MANY good deals to be had out there. As I mentioned below, this could change quickly.
Every offer is different. There's a time to lowball and a time to know when you've got a killer deal. I was called by another agent who wanted to know why my recent buyer chose the Garfield house. The answer is simple, first money. Second aesthetics but money over all. On both the Paradise lot and the Garfield home, we set a price that would be our top offer. This set price was still a very low price compared to list as it was based strictly on a high projected investment return. By lowballing, we got both properties a couple hundred thousand
less than our set point. An investor doesn't care if he loses it and just moves onto another. We are currently looking for unsold blocks of beachfront condos if you know of some but he's not paying anywhere near market price. :nono1: LOL
cork on the ocean very impressed with your graphs and knowlege. do you have that stat sheet for houses that you just listed for condos for the year 2010?i bet 80% OF ALL THE SALES THIS YEAR ARE SHORT SALES OR REO'S. now the question becomes what happens to all the people who bought at $500-$1000 a square foot from years ago?do they walk also. the new short sale rules going into affext basically protect the homeowner from 1099's and deficiency judgments if the bank agrrs to it.cork the home you said you sold in grayton was it 544 dufiank street? the big one on the right side of the red bar
Sure I do ;-)
Condos Sold in South Walton Beach
I haven't reviewed the report to be honest cuz I've got a real busy day but my gut is that there's no where near 80% short sales/reos. There were a lot of short sale listings a few months back but my experience has been that the banks just aren't that motivated with the seller still in the home. Also, the list price on a short sales often is not the price that the bank has approved or will take. A while back, there was a fabulous beachfront home that was listed as a short sale. The mortgage was $2 or $3 million and the agent had it listed at $10,999 or something like that. I can't tell you how many people thought that was real.
The listing agent got activity for sure but I personally don't think it should be allowed. The problem is that often the owner can't even get anybody at the bank to give them a realistic price so they just list what they think the bank might take. IMHO, the banks really aren't that interested in doing short sales. It's the poor owners that are so upside down that want to do them.
The owners that are upside down need to come up with the difference between what they owe and what they sell it for UNLESS the bank agrees to a short sale which means they will transfer title for less than what the current owner owes on the note.
So that's what's happening. The owners owe more than it's worth. Some can't afford to pay their payments due to the economy and bad loans that they've got. Those people are basically SOL if the bank won't do a short sale because they don't have the money to pay the difference btwn the sale price and the note. Many will go into foreclosure but there are tens of thousands of people that haven't paid payments in years and the banks haven't foreclosed yet. The banks may not even have enough info to foreclose because the note has been sold so many times, it's been separated from the mortgage, they haven't got a clue who has the right to foreclose because the note was combined with others and packaged into a securitized financial instrument and sold off in pieces to various investors. It's a mess and smart homeowners shouldn't just roll over.
Then there are people who can afford the home but can walk out and buy the same property for 50-70% of what they owe so they just walk away because it's a bad investment at this point and they make a better one.
The home that we closed on yesterday was
281 Garfield Street, Grayton. It's a perfect example of your question. The home was listed at $6.9 million in May 2006. The seller owed
well over a million more than we were willing to pay so he had to pay off or move that debt to another asset to sell the home. Kurt has done a
spectacular slide show and virtual tour on the home.
I have a question. We have come there for a while and love cruising around and going to an Open House once in a while. Over the years when we have popped into them we have been told by the realtors there that "this is the year to buy." I can remember looking in Watercolor and it was unheard of for anything to be less than 1 million. Quite a few years ago we looked at some houses in Watercolor but off the beaten track of Watercolor. They were charming row house type homes facing a park near the Publix. They were asking maybe a little under 800 and I think they went way down in price. I have heard that the time to buy is now for a long time. What are your opinions? You all seem to know the area so well. Thanks for your advice.
I can't tell you that this is "the year" to buy sister. I really don't think that this economy is going to be turning around all that quick so I wouldn't make a statement like that. What I will say is that prices continue to decline (you can see that from the hotsheet that I posted a few posts back). We are seeing a couple of increases here and there which is very positive. Also, our inventory has decreased. There is an analysis that can be done which takes the average number of sales against the number of active listings and projects how long our current inventory will take to sell. I haven't done it in a while but I know that a couple of years ago, we had about 5-6 years worth of inventory on the market. I believe the last time I checked, we had about 2 years worth.
My best advice is to have your realtor determine the fair market value based on recent sales and then
anticipate further drops in price by paying
less than fair market. I can tell you that now is the time that you can get properties for less than market value . I can't say that this is the bottom so be careful and buy right. It could be a very quick shift which may occur after the airport opening. We are all optimistic but really don't know. If that quick shift occurs, then my advise would be different because within a short time, you may not get as much for your money as you are right now.
Regarding the Watercolor phase near the Publix, as Scooter said, watch the land size. They are postage size lots, quite a trek to the beach and in my opinion not as desirable from a resale standpoint as other areas in watercolor or other homes closer to the beach for the same money.
