I sympathize-with you, with the agents, & especially with the "old ladies in la-la land".

Do you actually know, for sure, that they're "delusional old ladies"?

It's very easy to say that an elderly person is wacko, or a woman is emotional or hormonal.

For all we know, they may have been pressured by their children & children-in-law or by their nieces & nephews to sell their homes, & only found the courage to say "no" when confronted with signing on the dotted line & facing the reality of uprooting themselves & moving to a strange new place with which they have no emotional attachment & no history.

It happens all the time.

The first one has to sell the home based on conditions of a trust. It will still be sold but the family may have to evict her. Sadly she's not taking care of the house and so the pristine condition it was in is going downhill fast...The trust now has to deal with her and it will be relisted on the market. She told us (when we flew down to see it each of the three times) she was excited about moving because the house was too big for her (6000+ sq ft). But she also is using comparables in a large city, and not comps in her town for value, which is why it didn't sell (the agent eventually dropped the listing because of this)

In the second case, the owner never lived in the house. It's a b&b she purchased with her husband. He died many years ago and the b&b is running at about a fifty to sixty grand loss annually. She feels that it should sell for what she paid for it plus some, but almost 200,000 of that purchase price was for the business (non compete and goodwill). That might have been the case if the business made money, but after five years of significant losses, it's not going to be able to sell as a b&b to anyone needing financing (which most need) because banks won't lend on a failing business venture. And the house...it's lovely, but not worth what they paid for the business plus the house, and yet, that's what she wants. She just does not see it...she feels that anyone purchasing the home, business or as a private residence, must pay over what she paid, despite the losses (it used to be profitable) and the lack of maintenance and lower property values of this market.

We had this very same issue in August '08. The lady had been told by neighbors who knew nothing about real estate that her list price was too low. We offered $20K over comps, but less than list and no go. The house is still for sale today.

There's a lot of unrealistic ideas about what property is worth and it's not just a thing specific with old people tho they certainly seem from my experience to be the worse offenders.

Im curious and confused by your post. You said you offered "appraised value". Are you talking about assessed value or did you actually have the house appraised, then make an offer?

Carol is correct about unrealistic expectations, especially during these economic conditions. Too many people, both young and old, can not separate their emotions from the economics of selling a house.

Some believe that they should get every penny that they spent/paid for a house. In some markets, house sellers are lucky if they can just break even on their mortgage.

I have seen educated, professional types let their homes go into default after turning down offers that were break even or better based on what their mortgage balance was vs. what they thought the market value was...go figure.

I think it really depends on what area you're in. My area seems to have hit bottom, bidding wars are starting again, homes are selling pretty quickly. Buyers are now at the point where they are unrealistic with their offers thinking they still have all the power. Just like it took the sellers awhile to figure it out and come down on their prices, it will take the buyers losing a few homes to higher bidders to realize things have changed again.

Thanks Linda, that's good to hear. Hopefully that means NJ will start leveling out.
There are some buyers in NJ that are delusional. One came here from another state, has no clue about prices in the area they are looking in.

They are usually the ones that cry/scream the loudest. Makes me wish the market will go back up a but and these snoozers will be locked out.

My end of the state has weathered the real estate mess fairly well. Numbers are out for the first quarter and, though down quite a bit from 2008 comparables in units sold, but both median and average prices have continued to climb. Apparently folks refuse to turn this area into a buyer's market (it was a seller's market until November when it went neutral) and have pulled their houses off the market as the number of homes currently on the market in the area is the lowest since 2002. Needless to say this is not a foreclosure area. The $8K for first time buyers apparently helped a lot because because future activity for April is up 44% over closed activity for February, and up 5% from April 2008 when it was still a seller's market. Looks like we'll be back to a seller's market as of right now once the final April numbers are in.

The house across the street from my parent's went up two weeks ago and lasted four days... and it was prolonged due to a bidding war. It may be people have spotted a bottom in some areas. In my market we were fortunate to never really have had a "bottom", just a slow five months.

xamsx, what state are you in?

NY, roselvr

I had a soft appraisal done by an acquaintence (it's a b&b and easily viewed). But I'm also a 20 year banker. My last position was in mortgage compliance and appraisal review so I'm fairly able to assess a value head on myself within a few thousand dollars. I used both a comparable property scenario and a market appraisal using the business figures (which is awful so I threw that out). It's a challenging market right now so you really have to put some time into value. I know it won't appraise over our offer and we'll have to pay a cash balance over the appraised value, but I'm not wanting that to be a huge amount. Current TAVs are about 15% over what properties are appraising for in the community unfortunately. Five homes in the same price range (upper in the market) have been pulled off the market after offers at appraised value didn't meet assessed value. (Basically the owners feel the tax assessment is appropriate, despite the drop in the economy...appraisors are not agreeing).

She put it back on the market today...at a higher price. ::eyes rolling:: maybe it will be available for another four years!