Well, it's official. I'm one of those homeowners who is underwater when it comes to their mortgage. That is, I owe more than my house is currently worth. My real estate agent ran another cost market analysis in light of my inquiry into doing a short sale and found that the houses in my neighborhood are only selling in the $70,000 range. A few were selling in the $90,000 range when she first took over my listing in August, but now three months later they've gone down another $20,000 in value. She said that she could list it for around $82,000, but she didn't think that we would get any traffic at that price. She also questioned whether my house would even appraise that high. As such, she recommended that we lower the price of my house to $79,900 and go from there.Do you know how disheartening that is to know that a house--not a trailer, not a tent, not a camper, but an honest-to-God house--that you bought five years ago for $111,700 is now only worth $79,900, even though it's still in pristine condition? That's a $31,800 reduction in value. Back in April, I had it listed at $119,900, $40,000 more than the current asking price. In August, I reduced it to $114,900. Last month, as part of Coldwell Banker's 10 Day Sale Event, I lowered it $112,600. Now, just to get people in and have any hope at selling it, I have to list it at $79,900. Forget disheartening. It's pure nauseating.
I just hope that I don't have to lower the price anymore than that. If it gets lowered much further, my house will only be worth half of what I paid for it, all because the economy sucks and my neighbors suck even worse. I'm sure the dog feces in my mailbox and the kids screaming in the middle of the street at all hours of the day and night knocked a few dollars off the price on their own.
At least the reduction in price has garnered more interest. A realtor wanted to show my house on Sunday, but, after I cleaned like a crazy person for three hours, she called my realtor back and said her client thought my house was too far out. Too far out from what--downtown Atlanta, Alabama, Canada, what? Another realtor called my agent yesterday morning saying that she wanted to show my house later in the morning. At 5 p.m. she still hadn't shown up, presumably because her client had her baby with her and it was slowing them down. They were supposed to come today, but it's now 3 p.m. and no one has called. I'm just hoping that the realtor and her client are out voting and will come by tomorrow.
Maybe I need to get creative before the value drops even more. I could get some promotional pens made up that say "Please buy my house!" and pass them out in front of Wal-mart, take an ad out on Craigslist, rent a hot air balloon and plaster a picture of my house and my realtor's number on the side, or auction it off on eBay. However, with the way my luck is running lately, I'd just get fined for running a business without a license for the whole pen thing, the hot air balloon would blow up, and a con artist would take me for the entire $5 that I'm worth on Craigslist and eBay. I guess I'll just cross my fingers, say a few prayers, and leave it up to the professionals at this point.
