Back on the house for sale merry-go-round

And we're back to Monday again already! Friday afternoon I contacted our real estate agent about getting this place listed and to see if he found out what that recent house sale here in town sold for. They were asking $270k and accepted $250k. It sold in 3 weeks. The couple that owned it are getting a divorce, so who know how much that factored in to them accepting a low offer that quick. DH does a lot of research into what goes for sale here and in neighboring towns. He did the same thing with our old house.

Our old house really had no comps, even though agents tried to say they'd find them. First off, where we were, so close in to everything, there were no 1 1/4 acre lots. Secondly, if there were, it wasn't a manf. home. DH wanted to ask at least $300k. The first agent we talked to said $250k. We told her to take a hike. Even though she had "comps".....comps not even in the city we were in and "out in the boonies" is not even close to what we had. Plus, you could tell she just wanted to price it low, get a quick sale and earn her 3%. The extra $1500 she would earn was less important to her than the extra $50,000 we would get!. Next one said $275k. Nope. Then the third one did say low $300's and we sold it for that, no problem (other than the buyers qualification problems we had trying to sell)....3 times! LOL

So, for this house we are in now, DH is thinking $225k. Our agent wanted to do $200k...or $199,900...you know keep it in the 1's. Nope. Again, most likey he just wants to make a quick easy sale and get his 3% and while getting an extra $750 in commission is no big deal to him, I'm sure, that extra $25k, if we can get it, it is HUGE to us and would sure help with our house building costs. That house that just sold, right near us, is about a little bigger sf, also has a shop, but only a single car garage. And while it's been remodeled and is nice, it's still a 65 year old house. Our house was built 10 years ago. The other house is on the river (sort of, you can't really access the river), we are a block off. So, we think adjusting for those things back and for in our favor and not in our favor, we should be able to get at least $200k, if not more. We are hoping for $215k.  We paid $161k for it almost 2 years ago, put about $12k improving it. The market is very hot in the big city nearest us, about a 45 minute drive. People can't find houses to buy in the city. Everything is going fast and for asking price. To buy this same house in the city would be at least $350k. While most people in this area think a 45 minute commute is horrific (but there is ZERO traffic), some people do do it, so they can buy a cheaper house. Our renter neighbor commutes every day because his rent is half what it would be in the city.

The other thing that is supposed to be helping the housing market in this small town/county is one of the main employers in this county got bought out by an out of state company this past year. They are investing a lot of money back into it, increasing wages and transferring in some employees from out of state to work there.......and these people moving in can't find anything to buy. This is what we were told by two local contractors.  There is just not a lot to choose from for sale here. Just about anything in town is really old and usually needs work. There are very few new houses (like ours) right in town.

We'll be happy with $200k, if that's what we end up with (we owe $150k) but let's go with the higher end pricing to start out and see if there is any interest. Apparently the people that bought the house down the street are from out of state. People from out of state don't even blink an eye at a price like that. To them (and we were same way, coming from higher priced area) that is a good deal, LOL.