Anecdotal News from: Sacramento Land(ing): Sellers Feel the Pain as the Market Turns "Dark and Gray"

"Sacramento Land(ing): Sellers Feel the Pain as the Market Turns "Dark and Gray"

A seller in Tracy writes about the travails of selling a home in a rapidly changing market.
[T]hen came my greatest challenge: selling my house. Last August, when I first listed my house for sale, things were optimistic. By mid-September, everything had turned dark and gray. The 180-degree turnaround in the housing market was not totally unexpected, just very bad timing for me. I knew that the basic economics of supply and demand would eventually catch up with the over-zealous housing market. I was just hoping I could sell my house before the tides turned away from shore.Although the process took six months, the good news is that I have finally closed escrow on the sale...Little did I know last summer that this ordeal would take so long to complete.The problem is not the price, according to one seller who has reduced her asking price by almost 10% since August.

In many ways the house for sale on Misty Morning Circle near Mather Airport is a typical Sacramento home: Three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, 1,450 square feet with a backyard. Asking price: $355,000 - just above the countywide median of $352,500 in January...On Misty Morning Circle, Leslie Gordon has been trying to sell her house since August. She started at $393,000, dropped it to $375,000 within about six weeks, then took it off the market in early December. She put it up for sale again three weeks ago at $355,000. Gordon is rooting for today's first-time buyers. Several have shown interest in her home, but none has made an offer. "It wasn't because the people weren't interested, or because of the price," Gordon said, "it was qualifying" for the loan that held them back.Sellers might want to opt for a professional "stager" to groom their homes for sale, according to an article from the Sacramento Bee.

There are no firm numbers on how many sellers use stagers, but local real estate agents say they're seeing an increase in their use. And for one reason: In today's slower market, they could make the difference between a house that sells quickly and one that sits without an offer for weeks.

"The selling of houses right now is more competitive, so we want to present our house in the best light to allow it to sell a little quicker," said Charlie Brown, noting the six other houses for sale nearby. "Last year during the height of (home prices) going up we probably could have done nothing, and it would have sold in a heartbeat...""I'm just now a believer in it," said Ed Favinger, broker at Realty World Franklin Real Estate Group in Folsom. "It's a function of the market. Personally, I think you'd be crazy not to stage a house now..."The couple are anxious for the home, which hit the market Thursday, to sell because they're buying another in Sun City Roseville. "Obviously we don't want to be making two house payments for too long," Charlie Brown said. "We can do that for a while, but after that two houses becomes a really big expense."...