From Newsday – Long Island Housing Market Is A Tough Sell

A Rocky Point home Gisela Skoglund and her family are trying to sell has been on the market for nearly two years. The property is large enough to build another house on, and the Skoglunds are asking $319,000.

“We’ve had a lot of people looking at it,” Skoglund said. “But I think it’s actually fear” that keeps people from buying. “People are afraid to make a commitment. When you listen to the media, it’s creating fear. Young people are afraid they’ll lose their jobs.”

Lady, if your house has been on the market for two years, it’s not because people are afraid of losing their jobs.  It’s because the house isn’t priced right.

It’s amazing to me that even now, with the wind howling and the lightning crashing and poison arrows falling from the sky, people are still sitting on their over-inflated prices because that’s what they think the house is worth or that’s what they think they deserve or that’s what they need to get out of their house to make it work for them.

Case in point, my co-worker is retiring and moving out of state. She’s already bought her retirement home and is counting the days before she can bug out of NY state. All that remains is selling her condo.  I advised her that in this market you need to be agressive with your price reductions to move a property quickly. She snipped that she wasn’t going to lower her price. The place was listed just over the number she needed to make the retirement work for her. And, in fact, she turned down an offer that was 15% off her ask.

As a buyer, I don’t really care what the seller “needs” to make the deal work for him or her. I don’t care about the mortgage on the house or the home equity loan you need to pay off or how much money you need to get to settle your divorce.  I only care if the price works for me. If it doesn’t, then I walk.