Ocala Real Estate Talk

Posts Tagged ‘Ocala home sellers advice’

When you write an offer on a house you’re expected to make a good faith deposit. That deposit is held in escrow by the title company and can be contingent on things like financing or a home inspection. I usually tell me buyers around $1,000.00 and it’s surprising how many sellers will accept that amount. However from a sellers point of view you have to ask yourself if you wanted to get out of a contract would you walk away from $1,000.00? A lot of people might if they had a good enough reason. But would you walk away from $5,000.00? Probably not. $10,000.00? Pretty much definitely not. A lot of my buyers are also sellers somewhere else. You have to look at things from both points of view depending on which side you are on at the time.

Selling a home in Ocala is pretty tough these days. We are in an extreme buyers market with constant competition from short sales and foreclosures driving down prices.

The subject of this blog post is about the images or lack of them as found on the MLS by buyers. I get a lot more buyers than sellers because of my Ocala Real Estate web site and this blog. That’s just how it works. Most internet leads are buyers and not sellers. I’m not complaining because I sell a lot more houses than the average Realtor in Ocala as a result on my internet efforts.

What I am complaining about is the images I see on MLs listings. I will send listings to my buyers through my Ocala Dream Home Finder and they almost never want to see the ones in person that either have only 1 picture or really bad out of focus pictures. That’s unless the house is a foreclosure or priced like one.

Thinking of selling your house in Ocala or anywhere in Marion County? See my Ocala Home Sellers Advice or email me or call me. I would love to list your house and my advice is free.

** Only homes listed & sold in Marion County on the Ocala Marion county MLS. Does not include For Sale by Owner, Vacant land, Commercial properties, Farms or homes by Builders not listed on the MLS. Numbers subject to change due to late reports from Brokers

Sales in July were 269 homes in Marion County. This is a drop from the 319 sales in June and more in line with April at 229 and May at 259.  Total listings went up about 100 units from last month which is the first increase in quite a while.

One of Ocala’s largest employers closed this week. The huge mortgage company Taylor Bean & Whitaker was closed down by the fed putting around 1,000 people out of work. This on top of a 12.5% unemployment rate isn’t good for the housing market.

There seems to be no end to the foreclosures that are still dragging down prices. I constantly see short sales being withdrawn or expiring from the MLS. These are the foreclosures of 6 to 12 months from now. In July there were 84 Foreclosures sold and 27 Short Sales sold. That’s 111 out of 269 homes sold or 41% of all sales.

For these reasons I don’t expect prices to go up any time soon. Prices won’t recover until the foreclosures stop, inventory goes below 2,500 homes, the unemployment rate drops significantly and the market improves in other parts of the country so people can sell there and move to Ocala.

Knowledge is power whether you are a buyer or seller.  I offer the truth about the Ocala Real Estate market without any sugar coating.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice.

Yes that’s right, Ocala foreclosures are getting multiple offers, even in our extreme buyers market. There are lessons here for both buyers and sellers of Ocala real estate.

Buyers need to understand that really prime or unusual properties can get bid up beyond the asking price. It’s supply and demand. There seems to be a never ending supply of foreclosed homes in The Shores and Marion Oaks but houses on large lots and mini farms are much harder to come by. Foreclosed homes that were never occupied might also fit into this category of especially desirable foreclosures.

When ever a bank gets more than one offer they ask the buyers to submit their “Highest and Best Offer”. Foreclosures that get bid up above the asking price are usually still a bargain. It’s all about comparable sales in the last 60 days and the lowest priced active listings. That is how to value property. Your Realtor should provide a CMA to find the foreclosed homes value and the buyer should base his offer on this data.

Sellers can learn that despite the doom and gloom you see on the news, really well priced houses are selling every day. Traditional sales can compete with foreclosures by offering a better location, exceptionally good condition as well as a very aggressive asking price.

I drive by this For Sale by Owner almost every day. This poor guy has had his over priced house listed by a couple of Realtors with no luck. The last time it was listed, the house was at least $75,000.00 over priced. I don’t know why an agent would list a home at a price like that. The owner has had a For Sale by Owner sign in his front yard for almost a year.

The thing that the owner doesn’t realize is that he can’t sell his house unless it will appraise. That’s because most buyers need financing. To get financing a lender will order an appraisal. A house that much over priced will fail the appraisal and all real estate contracts have a finance contingency that will let the buyer walk away unless the seller will drop his price to that of the appraisal.

The only way this FSBO could sell that house is to get a cash buyer. A very unsophisticated cash buyer, totally unfamiliar with the Ocala market, who didn’t look at other competing houses either in person or online. What do you think the chances of that happening?

The moral of this story is “You can’t sell a house if it won’t appraise”.