I bought my townhouse for $500k one year ago (2022 built), and have listed it for $530k since November. We lowered it to $520k last week, but no one is buying. My subdivision also has 3 other houses on the market. Should we delist and try again around May? I don’t think it makes sense to sell at a loss.
You bought a year ago. You WILL sell at a loss.
You are blaming seasons for a different problem…trying to sell for a profit after 1 year of ownership.
You’re not going to make a profit after only owning a house for a year unless you bought a major fixer-upper and did the work to make it move-in ready. This has nothing to do with timing at the market. You’re likely going to sell at a loss. I assume that because you specifically mentioned May, you’re trying to catch the spring market. I don’t know what part of Georgia you’re in, but if you wait till May, you’re going to miss that rush of buyers. Buyer activity is building up now, and closings will peak in May. If you listed in May, you will have missed the boat. Buyers in your neighborhood are not going to care how much you paid for the house; they care what’s happening in your market and what they have to choose from.
You may want to specify NE Georgia vs. New England.
Point taken. I fixed it. Thank you
Only things moving fast are either priced to sell fast or in specific neighborhoods. I’m an hour outside of Atlanta, and it’s not out of the ordinary for single-family homes and townhomes to sit for 60-90 days at market value.
I’m curious about this because one of my neighbors priced their house $50k less (way under market value) than the other 2 neighbors, and their house hasn’t sold yet.
Some people take that as a sign that there is something wrong with the property.
Interesting. Is that even true with newer builds?
Totally. I think the real question is why are at least three people trying to sell homes that are new? That tells me people do not like the development.
I’m relocating. One neighbor is getting divorced, hence dropping their price by $50k. One is an investor who’s done renting their house. Not sure about the other one.
Absolutely. There are many people that don’t trust newer built homes as they consider them of much lower quality than homes of previous generations. Depending on many factors, though, like brick homes are always seen as solid whether they are old or new.
Sounds like this is a combination of the market being bad for buyers and also your specific development being very undesirable or the original purchase prices being quite overpriced.
Did you mean that the market is bad for sellers?
I mean, you can look at it as being both bad for sellers and buyers, but it’s bad for buyers primarily because of interest rates being so high.
You bought it at the peak of the market. You will need to sell at a loss or keep it.
If you bought this a year ago and you’re listing it for anything more than you bought it for, you are really not approaching this in a reasonable way. Townhomes don’t appreciate very much, and selling something after a year you’re almost certainly going to incur a loss. Relisting it in the spring is probably going to help, but you’re asking too much money.
Is the subdivision fully built out? I ask because no one is going to buy a pre-existing townhouse while new ones are being built for close to the same price.
Yes, the subdivision is fully built out, and I bought from the original owner.