As we talked, I showed her all the information that I normally review. This information contains the latest insights from experts in the real estate industry as well as my expert analysis of the Long Island market.

Halfway through our discussion, she said, “Oh, so prices are dropping?”

This interaction helped me realize that I, and my colleagues in the real estate business, have our work cut out for us. There are a number of homeowners out there that just do not pay any attention to what’s happening. And there are some that do listen and know a little, but still think Spring will bring higher prices.

It’s a nice piece and you should read the whole thing.

It’s amazing to me that anyone would even ask this question at this point. I realize that most people haven’t been following this obsessively like I have but…come on! Don’t you read the news? Watch TV? Talk to your friends and neighbors? It’s like Jack and Rose, standing on the deck of the Titanic, the last strains of “Nearer, My God, To Thee” being drowned out by the horrific groans of the cracking hull, and wondering if the ship is really sinking.

Yes! Yes! The ship is sinking!

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.

As I approached the house it reeked of neglect.  The first thing that caught my eye was the row of bushes along the side of the house with a line of ice draped across them looking like it was the goal line in a football game I’d rather have been watching.  Looking up told why… there was no gutter along the edge of the roof.  One need only wonder where else the runoff water was lurking.  The aluminum siding on the front of the house was faded, accented only by the rust/paint stains that ran down several feet from each shutter, themselves hopelessly faded.  The shutters and stains showcased the windows in dire need of replacement.

Inside was no better.  Grandma sat in the living room breathing oxygen with her nurse at her side.  The family must have been hoping to get enough to pay off the last refi and get Grandma into a nursing home.  They had clearly done nothing to make the place show-ready.  Small rooms and closets were highlighted by the fact that the latter were boxed-out and the former were piled high and deep.  The flooring, appliances, cabinetry, window A/Cs, were all in decrepit condition.  Little if any of it touched in the 60 years since construction, save for layer upon layer of paint, the last coat of which was too long ago.  If it was located anywhere BUT the most overpriced suburb in the country, it would have been a complete tear-down job — and it may yet be.

The sad thing is that the owner (her family?) fail to realize that they actually sold the house piece by piece over the years in deferred upkeep.  Don’t want to spend $3k to replace the gutter?  Don’t want to replace the siding for $8k?  Windows for $5k?  Don’t want to update the appliances?  Or stain/seal the floors?  Just put it on the bill, which comes due on sale, right out of the price.  Pay now or pay later.

We saw this one and another open house that was admittedly in much better condition,  though itself still horrendously overpriced considering what we’re currently renting that essentially the same living space at 1/3 the monthly cost, in a location at least 20 min. less commuting time to Manhattan.

I was concernd that the spouse was caving just when the market itself was beginning to move our way.  Fortunately seeing these two houses convinced her to do two things: 1) Start looking for better/cheaper rentals than what we currently occupy, and 2) look for those rentals off of Long Island.