Has the house gone to pending then back to market or just been on the market listed for two years?

It may have just been overpriced, I've seen houses that appear nice, but the seller is dreaming on the price, sometimes they get realistic and it is time to jump on it before someone gets it.

How is your market doing, has it been slow but picking up now?

Houses that go on the market overpriced have been seen and dismissed by those who've seen it. Even when it becomes well priced, it can be hard for those folks to go back and look again or the realtors to take new clients to them.

Discovered repair conditions should generally be disclosed, but sellers who want to avoid that might switch agents so they get someone who doesn't know. But some conditions aren't structural or mechanical -- like pet smells.

A home near us was on and off the market like that for a couple of years before it went into foreclosure. It was the subject or a divorce battle with one spouse not agreeing to anything.

But there are a ton of other possibilities -- a job situation that has been on again and off again, a family member or relative with a changing health situation, losing the house they intended to buy when the house was listed too high to sell and not having a reason to move, testing the waters and not being committed to moving. You just don't know. I'd talk to a couple of agents (the listing agent, previous listing agent if you know of a different one and any friends you know) and find out what the talk on the street is.

See what the listing agent has to say...

Would the current listing agent be forthcoming? The selling history reveals he is the 3rd agent to have the listing over the 2 yr span. The original listing (with the outrageously high price) was FSBO

The house we bought this summer was this exact situation. It is a great house in a great neighborhood that had been meticulously maintained. It had been on and off the market for 2 years when we looked at it. The house's square footage, curb appeal and neighborhood supported their asking price but when you went inside it was disappointing. The paint colors were bad, the kitchen is old, and nothing, lookswise, had been updated. However all the major systems had been updated and the folks that lived here were very particular about maintenance so the house was in impeccable shape. So on paper the pricing was okay but when you went to see it, you expected for the pricepoint, the kitchen would have been done, etc. Therefore, they had a lot of activity with regards to showings and I think they had an offer or two but weren't ready to move on price. They are a retired couple and this was their longtime family home and I'm sure they wanted to squeeze every penny out of it. At any rate we ended up buying it 2+ years after it originally went on the market and got it for $40k less than they were originally asking. It was really timing and I'm so glad it worked out because I love this house and we could not have afforded it at the price they originally wanted.

Is the kitchen bad? It seems a lot of buyers don't look at much else other then the kitchen, and kitchen trends are mercurial and fadish.

What about the location? There are lots of things that can turn people off about a location even if the neighborhood is great. Do the neighbors keep a bunch of cars they are repairing in the yard? Is the yard swampy, steep, too bare?

I agree with what everyone said but the two things which first came to mind was being overpriced and having a personal problem such as divorce or illness which causes difficulties sometimes in showing and negotiating terms. The agent would have to tell you if there were any problems in the home by law. If you really like it, go ahead with your eyes open. You may have come at the right time.

If you like the property, visit a showing and move forward. If you like it after the showing, get it in YOUR control, quick. You can do the rest of your more detailed due diligence after this point.
Like others have said, it is probably just a "stale" listing from being overpriced. Don't fool yourself... if you like it at this price, there is probably at least one other buyer thinking the same thing.

ncrealestateguy makes a great point.

When we were looking to buy we went through a frustrating phase where we seemed to be the rainmaker for overpriced, stale properties. We would make an offer and then someone would come out of the woodwork and out bid us. It happened three times! So frustrating.

Or, in my case I had 2 bad listing agents, that did not know the rural area. I was 5 miles off the paved roads and made it plain that we were not near a city, but we did have a small community, with good neighbors on acreage. We did drop the house a bit, but it was custom built, 3rd agent, knew the area, and sold right away to someone looking for living in the mountains. Sometimes it is the right agent knowing the area, and knowing how to contact the people who what to live out of the city.
In your case, if you are in the city, look for add on's and/or remodeling and make sure they got the correct permits etc.Took us over 2 years to sell.

This post was edited by marie-ndcal on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 17:35

We have a house in our neighborhood that has been off/on/off/on the market for the past 7 years. The price hasn't changed much but this last re-listing, they started at a reduced price. It's a nice house in a great neighborhood with excellent schools. Why hasn't it sold?

Competing with new construction, in the higher price range for the area (but priced appropriately for the area), and on a "main" road. Sometimes, competing with new construction is the biggest hurdle. Some folks would prefer to buy a new house and pick out their finishes instead of an existing house. Granted, this house is

my husband knows a guy that puts his home on the market pretty much every spring for a pie in the sky price. the home is paid off, kids are gone and he says if he got that price he'd move in a minute. there are a lot of people that do that,; my parents for years would perform the same stunt. you have to feel for the poor realtor that gets sucked into these deals.
this house could be a similar mindset.

i would try to find out if there were any forthcoming changes to the neighborhood nice neighborhoods sometimes suffer when new traffic patterns are being "encouraged" by neighborhood entities, is the house on a street that will become busy in the near future? are other houses in the neighborhood selling at a fast pace are new houses being built a quarter mile up the road?

I think in most cases the house is over priced and the seller will not entertain a reasonable offer. However it is always good to check the county's website for sexual predators to see if one lives next door the house you may be considering. Also find out who owns the houses next door (check the county auditor's website) Google their names and check the clerk of courts to see if they have criminal records.

I have one of those across the street. It's owned by a former REA who is sure that someone desperate to live here (inventory is very, very low, but all priced less than hers), or a foreigner with cash who doesn't know any better will be willing to pay the somewhat-too-high price - which has dropped over the years, but never quite fast enough to keep up with the market drop. (ie dropped asking to $599K but the most recent sale was $549K)
The house is beautiful and we can't believe that moved to another state after all the remodel work they did. But they do have a big loan on the home, so I know they can't go too low.
And then there are the little issues, like the fact that the kitchen and master bath counters were built for their height (they were both over 6' tall) and the well-done but unsightly addition they did (thinking that going from 2400sf to 2700sf was the magic trick to sell after all these years).
After an unsuccessful year, they leased for one year, and it's been on the market (again) since Feb, but we all just noticed the sign disappeared so no telling what they're going to try next.