Sell that house

A reader asks:

"I have taken my home off the market during August, just needed a break and nothing was happening. I plan to put it back on, when would you suggest? When things were cooking, would it have been the 1st/2nd week in Sept?"

She's right (or he's right) that early September has traditionally seen a surge of new listings that mark the beginning of what used to be, anyway, the fall buying season. I think I'd still advise putting it on at that time - perhaps September 15th, which allows for Labor Day (the 1st) and the week after that for kids to get settled in school and their parents to begin looking. I also like the later date because, in this market, it will provide an opportunity for the seller and her agent to take a hard, objective look at the competition, old and new - the stuff that came on the week before. At that point, if both seller and agent are convinced that the house is fairly priced (remember, I said make a hard, objective comparison) then, especially in a case like this, where the property's been on the market long enough to wear out its would-be seller, I'd reprice it at least 10% lower. You do want to sell the place, right?

But make sure, in calculating that reduction, that you're not over market to begin with (and the fact that it hasn't sold suggests that it is). There's a "new" listing today that's come back with a new broker and a new price that's 15% off its original but that original price was ridiculous, given the location. I'm being deliberately vague about this home's identity because I don't want to embarrass the owner or make it even harder to sell but, when I first saw this place a year ago, I thought it was easily priced 2X too high. If i was right and, so far, the market bears me out, a 15% reduction isn't going to do any good and will only prolong the owner's agony.

Speaking of which, the house is a spec project and has a lot of company out there. Local banks funded many of these houses and I wonder how long it will be before we start seeing some of these small banks in trouble. Just sayin'...