Bridesmaid, revisited

I would move on to one of the other 317 condos currently for sale in Cambridge.

America needs Marcus to run for office. Great stuff. I'm all for flexibility but the sellers seems way out of line. Do you really want to sell or not? huge red flags, run, do not walk away.

Well, you are in luck, Marcus. At 10-25 PM there are 319 condos for sale in Cambridge. Too bad these clients aren't shopping there. I'm impressed! You made me check how many were for sale. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Rona

Gee, it seems no matter where you look, real estate in Massachusetts is still selling quickly. It must be very discouraging to be a buyer these days! The good stuff goes fast, and close to full asking. Sellers seem so stubborn. I guess they hold out for the right buyers, or simply decide not to sell. They don't seem to be stressed at all.

Argggh!

I would walk as well. As Marcus said, there are other fish in the sea.

In my buying experience recently, I learned that the emphasis is more on the TERMS of your offer more than the dollar figure. I won out over other bids because the closing date and other terms in my offer were closest to what the seller needed. Fortunately, being in a month-to-month tenancy in my rented place, I had the flexibility of being able to close whenever.

I don't think I would have waited as long as your buyers were being asked to wait, though. There's absolutely no guarantee when the sellers were going to find and buy their new place. Too much of a crapshoot for me.

"They did not want to extend the closing into September, because they were concerned about ending up with an empty apartment and rent owed."

Nope, not likely. If their property makes for a desirable rental, there are plenty of folks renting post-September, and not every school has the same calendar. Also, they might have ended up with non-students, which would have been nice, huh? I have gotten into many a post-Sept. rental. Leased my current aptmt. in November - there are more than enough people not on the typical Sept-Aug. schedule.

John, you are so right!
We are well-qualified buyers (have 35% down, no sell-my-house contingency) spent 5months in this market, lost 5 bidding wars in Brookline-Newton, attempted to start negotiation with 1 more (unsuccessfully- we offer 5%below asking after house was 55 days on the market- they even did not respond) .
We are exhausted, and going out of the market- lost any interest in buying:(

I have seen some competition for "nice" condos in Arlington, Cambridge and Watertown.

Most well maintained 2 bedroom condos in Cambridge with *parking* that are priced right will go under agreement quickly. Same for Somerville, Arlington, Watertown. Cambridge and Somerville especially are tough with parking because so many condos either don't have any off street parking or just 1 space. Clients wonder what to do with guest's cars...

The condos with big maintenance issues and lack of off-street parking are harder to sell, especially if they are not priced to reflect those drawbacks.

Yes, there are 300+ condos on the market in Cambridge, some for many, many days and of those, some are not all that desirable.

Almost all my buyers want:
Off-street parking space
Condo on an upper floor, not the first floor
Condo on a quiet street, not a main road
A well maintained, clean building: no ancient roof or leaking basement
*Not* a condo complex type building: they want a condo in a 2 or 3 family
Place for a washer and dryer as they do not want to go to a laundromat or share machines

Some of my buyers are DIY people. But we don't see many run down condos priced right. They are by and large, overpriced considering how much work must be done.

Yes, it's a seller's market in Massachusetts! Buy now or be priced out forever!

Yup. That's why MAR admits there is a 12-month+ supply of single family homes, and sales and prices have plummeted 12% since last year. Because of, you know, all these multiple bidding wars.

LOL.

The only thing all these tales of woe prove is that there is no buyer interest at all except for properties priced below what most sellers are currently asking.

Anything priced right will sell quickly, by definition, in any market.

The question is what that price is?

Gee, Sally, there are more than 200 2-bedroom condos for sale in Cambridge; 55 have parking in their MLS descriptions. Your buyers sound picky. I'm sure you've shown them the condos meeting their requirements on:
Myrtle Avenue
Josephine Ave
Avon St
Trowbridge
Fayette
Whitman
Russell
Hammond
Electric
Huron
Antrim
Vassal
Roberts
Spruce
White
River
NORRIS
Eustis
Oak
Elm

?

These are renovated, upper-floor condos with parking in 2-3 family associations in just Cambridge and Somerville. Good locations, too. Some have been on the market for months, and some sellers are offering to pay condo fees. What happened, didn't all the multiple offers pan out?

Or perhaps you're saying there are a lot of condos on the market meeting their requirements--but they're overpriced.

Sally, what is your buyers' pricerange?

I have lived in Watertown for many years and am pulling up several nicely updated upper-floor condos with even 2 car parking! Just curious if they are severely limited by budget or is there some other unusual restriction they might have (a huge dog or something?) that's limiting the search.

Gosh Marcus, buyers have a right to be picky. They are about to spend a lot of hard earned money!

I did not mention the price range which is $350,000-$400,000. Some of the places you've mentioned are well above that. So, yeah, those places are nice with great amenities however,way over what these clients are able to pay.

I have had clients miss out on properties recently in Arlington multiple times because their offers or terms were bettered by another buyer. It is happening in some towns for the desirable properties.

Nelly,

I was referring to Cambridge when talking about the parking issue. Watertown has good parking and really good square footage for the price.

Sorry about the confusion...

how about:
70732902
70713105
70715399
70737641

all with 2c parking and under 400k. Just wondering what's wrong with them - there are one or two there that are quite nice.

Heavens Sally! What do you think is causing this bidding frenzy?

To say there are bidding wars on some/many properties really says very little about the market. The real issue is whether these places are selling for more, less, or the same as they would have sold for in years past. Then we can see whether there is new buying pressure or whether the sellers have just priced low for the current market.

To Rona and others who have experience in these bidding wars:
Please list the addresses where bidding wars have occurred. I don't think there is any confidentiality to uphold since your clients aren't involved in the transaction. Any pricing information would be very helpful.

As it stands now, this story doesn't really tell us anything.

I recently discovered that Aston Martin's have great amenities. However, the dealer will not sell one to me for the price I can afford. I even have immaculate credit. I guess I will keep searching and/or wait it out.

Good Gracious, Hard rain!

There's no frenzy and I wasn't saying there was. But sometimes properties do still have several interested buyers at once, even in this market. And the bidding competition is not manufactured by whispering agents, as dramatized by others (in other threads). Some homes are in excellent condition, in a good location and priced right. That combination can't be beat.

Rona has shared how she sees it happening and I have had the same experience.

There's no frenzy and I wasn't saying there was. But sometimes properties do still have several interested buyers at once, even in this market.

Fair enough. It sounds like you disagree with:

Gee, it seems no matter where you look, real estate in Massachusetts is still selling quickly. It must be very discouraging to be a buyer these days! The good stuff goes fast, and close to full asking

Gus is quite correct. These anecdotes say nothing about the overall market, especially when they are devoid of prices and details. But some people believe it profitable to pretend that they do.

In the last 2 months in Arlington, of the 41 single family homes sold, 14 sold at asking or above. True, most properties sell below asking and indeed most buyers put in offers well below asking. This is where some of my buyers have lost out, when someone else puts in a higher offer.

I also had a client lose out on something in Watertown for not moving quickly enough.

That said, I am working in towns where properties in excellent condition and location go under agreement quickly. I realize that in much of the state this is not the case.I have a client buying in a town where homes are just sitting there, going down, down, down. And they are getting a pretty good deal.

So in the end, it all comes down to pricing. of the 318, how many are price way out range? Can the agents see how many showing a listing has had? Does the Camb. market really only have about 60-80 listing and the rest are just fishing with out bait?

Nelly (#15) There is nothing wrong with the properties you mention. Two of the four have an offer accepted on them. The other two are perfectly reasonable properties for the right buyer, but neither is in one of the "high pressure" types of homes. The ones I am seeing going quickly have a combination of good (or at least better than average) mass transit, generally good shape, and close to town centers or local amenities.

Gus (#17) since I have mentioned private details of these negotiations, I cannot name names. It is a breach of confidentiality until the sales become public record.

Marcus (#11) Cambridge and Somerville are not interchangable. Their city services and tax bases are very different, even though the populations and housing are fairly parallel.

I will say this again, and again, and again: I am not saying that the market is going up. I am not saying that bidding wars are a good thing --I am very much saying the opposite.

This "hot" activity is very local, very idiocynratic and says nothing about the overall marketplace. It is the local storm in a climate of recession. Frankly, it makes no sense given the overall economic climate. However, as Bill Belichick says, "it is what it is..."

Rona,

It would be great if you would post the address after the sale becomes public record. In the meantime, would you list the addresses of homes that you know have been involved in recent bidding wars that have already become public record? If other agents and buyers and losing bidders can also chip in, we can get some real data here we can crunch through.

I think an earlier poster hit the nail on the head - no matter what the market conditions - if you have a property in a good area, priced appropriately with amenities that are in demand, then it will go quickly. If one of those factors is missing, then it probably won't. The market determines what a "good price" is.

I'm sure there are competitive bidding wars out there for certain properties, but given current market conditions - is this really a common issue? I understand that buyer flexibility can be an important tool in any negotiation, but given current market conditions, I think it's SELLERS that probably need help getting things sold rather than buyers, who are now really in the driver's seat. I can tell you right now that most people wouldn't want to try to sell their property in this market if they had another option.

My wife and I have some friends who just put their house on the market in a nice north shore community and our first thought was "I wonder if they are in financial trouble." That's just how the market looks from this outsider's perspective.

I suspect a lot of buyers are succumbing to bidding wars because they think that prices are going down, down down and will quickly rebound soon, and they will be priced out of the market yet again. They're feeling pressure to strike while the iron is (relatievely) hot. Now, how far the market has yet to go remains to be seen, and is anyone's guess, but first time buyers especially are likely to be feeling like they have to buy now or be stuck renting till the next cycle.

If people feel that they are going to be priced out of the market, emotions play a large part in these bidding wars, which only gives the appearance of a sellers market . I would not be surprised to see people over extending themselves to purchase their house because of this fear.

All indicators point to further declines, I plan to keep emotions in check until that happens.

LynnLS,

The price of a single family home is not in decline in every town. Some towns actually have an increase in price over last year even though number of sales is down.

So depending where you are looking to buy, you may or may not see the decrease you are hoping for.

Best of luck.

Well lucky for us the town we are looking in is declining. I am on board with Marcus and Charles, all indicators point to declines-Sally, were you able to catch the Globe this weekend between open houses?

Median price, Sally. Not the same as the price of a particular house. A median can rise even as a market collapses. We've covered this extensively here before.

No question we are in a decline and the economy is lousy. I get that. I'm telling you what is happening with some sales, in some towns. That's all. Do with it what you will.

Just about all my buyer clients are disappointed that they can't get the great deal they thought they could. They low ball or wait it out, thinking the seller will panic and sell cheaper and then they miss out and are shocked!

When I tell them how much the place sold for a month or so later, more shock and awe!!

All I'm saying is that buyers in these towns have unrealistic expectations.

I think the only way to stay sane while buying real estate is to figure out your budget, figure out what you want and where you want to be, and, if necessary, compromise on location or amenities to find something you can afford and will be happy with. Trying to time the market or shopping around until you find a "perfect" house is a recipe for an unhappy buying experience!