So, the broker finally came over to look at our Beacon house and tell us how much we stand to lose in this God awful market. Looks like we’ll list it at $399k even though we paid $385k and put (still putting) a shitload of work into it. What are ya gonna do? We’re motivated.
Everyone thinks their house is special and worth more than the realtor tells them. But we KNOW our house is special because it has a turret! That didn’t impress the broker all that much. He said the home has some nice period details, but the turret isn’t a major selling point.
Well, excuse me, but I beg to differ. Why? Because there’s an old home sucker born every minute. Take us, for instance. We looked at several houses before seeing this one. When we pulled into the driveway, my eyes teared up because it had a turret (We didn’t see any pictures beforehand as it wasn’t listed yet). We knew we were going to buy the house before we went inside. We toured around in a matter of minutes so we could quickly put in an offer. Did I mention we had been looking for months? I think six months, to be exact.
We overpaid. It didn’t appraise out. But we love our house. We think there are other folks out there who are jonesing for turrets just like we were.
$399k is not what we wanted, but it’s a fair price for the house. I’m really hoping buyers won’t try to get us down to much or I might cry again.
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Best of luck to you! I really feel for anyone trying to do a regular sale in this market. But I’m with you, a turret is a big selling point! If you really think you should get $399K for it (and I think it would be a bargain!), then maybe you should list it a little higher?
Comment by Lindsey M Nelson — March 12, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
Thanks, Lindsey. My thought was to list it in the $400′s, but the broker thought that would scare people off. There are only a handful of houses in the $400-500′s around here and they are sitting.
We want it to sell as quickly as possible (doesn’t everyone?) and not have it stale on the market, so $300′s seems the best chance of making that happen.
I shouldn’t complain. There are people losing hundreds of thousands in this market with no other choice. And let’s not forget the foreclosures. We’re in a good place…it just hurts to know we’re losing money.
Comment by RH — March 12, 2010 @ 4:39 pm
I think a turret is a definite selling point for anyone looking for a bit of charm with their shelter. Good luck!
Comment by Judy — March 13, 2010 @ 2:49 pm
The house is awesome–I can’t believe you are selling it. Was that always the plan? The turret is so cool–if I had not spent every penny in the reno of my house I would really consider it.
If the house does not go quickly-you should think bout doing a summer rental–you could probably get decent money
Comment by homesweetstuy — March 23, 2010 @ 10:12 pm
Good question.
We never intended to sell it when we first moved here in 2004. After about a year, we got the Bed Stuy brownstone as an “investment”. We were starting to miss Brooklyn back then and kind of knew we would one day want to return. Now we REALLY want to move back.
So what’s the point of having a fabulous house in a place you don’t feel at home?
Comment by RH — March 24, 2010 @ 6:02 am
Totally understand that–well welcome back to Bed Stuy sister-we”ll have to meet up at bushbaby one of these days
Comment by homesweetstuy — April 1, 2010 @ 8:25 am
Looking forward to it, HSS!
Comment by rh — April 1, 2010 @ 12:40 pm