If a house has been on the market for a long time...

Do you automatically assume something is wrong with it? Whenever I look and see an old MLS number or a lot of days on the market in ListingBook I think the worst. My DH says in this market its not necessarily a bad thing. Just curious what others think.

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

IDK. Maybe it was overpriced. On redfin.com you can see the sales history, everytime the sellers dropped the price. If a house has been on the market a while I would hope they would be more willing to take a lesser amount. I do of course wonder if there was something else, but thats what the inspector is for. I also have pulled over to speak to a nice neighbor walking their dog and they answered tons of questions for me.

Good luck!

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

IMO it means one thing - it is WAY overpriced and the owners are refusing to come down. I would look - in case they lower the price you can move fast. Or, make a low ball over - ya never know!

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

Thanks! Maybe it is just the price, or at some point everyone starts thinking like me!

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

Well everything that has been said, I would feel the same way....

However, our house took a year to sell finally, it was priced
Right, in a great school district, close to all major parkways, need a little work. In fact when we sold it it was the lowest a house had been sold in our area in over a year... And we were negotiating all the time..had numerous offers that did not pan out.
Our broker said in the25 years she has been in the business, she had never seen what went on with this house...

By the way way when we finally went to contract, the person who did the inspection said it was a great house and could not believe it was on the market for that long!

I think the market, eonomy and getting a mortgage had slot to do with it.

So moral of the story.. Go see the house you never know....

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

It depends on what you mean by "a long time." A fairly recent statistic showed that the average "days on market" for homes -- nationally -- is around 6 months.

I also know that certain types of homes -- e.g., co-ops, new construction -- appeal to a narrower pool of buyers and take longer to sell.

There is a lot of inventory on the market, so competition is pretty fierce. In the 11710 zip code alone (the Bellmores - North and South), there are over 200 homes on the market.

But I agree that when a home has been on the market for a very long time, it probably has to do with price, condition, or both. As far as condition, I wouldn't assume there is something major wrong with the house, but sometimes there are cosmetics that buyers just can't - or don't want to -- see past, given all of the choices they have. For example, I had a listing that I really couldn't move, even though it was priced pretty well. The walls were an institutional white, and the paint was kind of dingy, and there were a few cosmetic cracks in the walls. I had the walls spackled and painted a warm mocha color, I re-took some of the pictures, and the showings increased by a huge amount. I had an accepted offer on the property soon after. Every little thing counts in this market.

Just keep in mind that every listing that shows as new or with only a few days on the market may not necessarily be truly new. It could have been listed already, and the original listing expired. Then it was re-listed under a new ML # and perhaps a new price. Or, sometimes, sellers will withdraw a listing and then put it back on the market as a "new" listing. Just something to keep in mind...

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

Re: If a house has been on the market for a long time...

Depends. The house we bought was on the market for a year, but they had had two buyers who both fell through the day before closing.