September 16, 2021

Realtor Kurt Strauss discusses the state of the housing market in San Diego. Is the market going stale?

Is The Housing Market Stale?

One of the biggest questions I often get asked by people looking to buy or sell, is what does it mean when a house is stale on the market? I heard a realtor use that term, stale on market. Well, you ever walk into a baker's store and you see that bread sitting on top of the counter that had has that half price mark on it? Well, that's stale bread and that is the baker giving away their bread, lowering their price in order to sell something that didn't sell in that first day. It may be just as delicious, that piece of bread, but the market views that as older bread and it views that as not as valuable.

So let me give you an example of how a stale house can actually cost you money and why you want to avoid being a stale house on the market. Let's pretend for a second that I am your realtor and we're looking at houses on the market. We walk into the perfect house and you say to your significant other or whoever you're with, we love this house, this is the one for us. You turn to me and you say, Kurt, we want to get this house. What do we have to do to buy this house? I turn to you and guess what I'm going to say?

Differences Between New & Old On The Market

This house has been on the market for one day. It just came on, it's a beautiful home. It's a competitive market. What do you think my recommendation will be to get this house? What kind of offers should we put together? You're probably right. You're probably saying you got to put a good offer together. And let me ask you this, if you were selling your house and somebody low-balled you on the first day, would you even entertain that offer? No, you'd tell them to take a hike. So that's a first day on the market. If you want to get something, you're going to probably have to step up to the plate, do pretty close to asking, especially in a competitive market, like in San Diego. At the beginning of 2021, people were offering over asking.

Now let's flip the script. Let's say we still have a hot market. We walk into this house, same beautiful house, but this thing has been on the market for 60, 90 days. Nobody's put an offer, nobody's sold it. You turn to me say, Kurt, I absolutely love this house. What do I have to do to get it? What do you think when I turn to you is going to to be my recommendation? Now at this point, we have a lot of leverage. We have a lot of negotiating leverage. Do you think we're going to offer a close to asking? No, we're going to offer way under asking because that house is stale on the market. It sat there and buyers are thinking one of two things. What do you think that is? Either something's wrong with the house, nobody wants it, or it's overpriced. So at that point, what has the seller lost? When their home is stale? They have lost leverage.

Closing

So at this point, they're going to be giving away their equity in order to sell the house, or they're just not going to sell the house at all. We never want you to be in that position of having a house that's stale on the market. We're going to take a look at the average days on market and come up with a strategy so that you sell within, or less, than the average days on market, in order to maximize your equity so that you don't lose your negotiating power. There's a whole strategy behind it that Whissel Realty has put in. That's why we sell over 400 homes a year because we know how to prevent our sellers from getting in a position where they have a stale listing at that point. So let's talk about that more. I encourage you to give me a call. We'll talk about how to keep your house in the market to maximize your equity. Give me a call, Kurt Strauss, 858-775-2181. Thank you very much.

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