How often do you see that?  We used to see it frequently in the boom years of 2004 and 2005, but 2007 forward was more like 220 plus days on the market.  But here I am turning in the listing paperwork along with a signed contract at the same time.  Was it luck?  Just perfect timing?  No way baby.  It was persistence, skill of the agents on both sides and a changing market.

The buyers wanted to be in this neighborhood and they wanted a steal.  They made lowball offers on several homes.  Two of their offers were on other listings of mine.  The negotiations had been tough, even ugly.  The buyer was offering foreclosure level prices, but my owners were not distressed sellers.   The buyer’s initial offers on the other listings were in the 80% of list price range.  My sellers were offended and did not want to waste their time negotiating with such aggressive buyers.  The buyers felt empowered by the “buyers market” they had read about.

So why did they get turned down over and over in this neighborhood?  Because the micro market in this particular neighborhood had already passed bottom and is on the way back up.  This neighborhood of 400 homes had 29 homes for sale on March 9, 2009.  Over 60% of those listings were either short sales or bank owned foreclosures.  By August 1, 2009 nearly all the distressed properties had sold.  There are now 14 homes for sale and only 2 are short sales and there have not been new shorts sales or foreclosures coming to market in the past month.

This micro market has changed.  That is why my sellers felt bolder in turning down offers or countering firmer than they would have just a few months ago.

What about this deal?  I coached my seller to price it just below the other non-distressed properties, but well above short sales and foreclosures.  I got him to price it right.  We had no intention of taking a lowball offer, just a fair market value offer.  I spoke with the buyer’s agent as I was listing it.  We agreed it was perfect for these buyers.  His buyers had lost 4 homes they wanted because they were too aggressive.  They finally understood that this neighborhood was past the bottom so they had to make a fair offer to get this house.  Their agent got them to offer a little more than they wanted to and I got my seller to take a little less than he wanted.  The result is a win-win for everybody.

We will see more neighborhoods turning the corner over the coming months.  You can’t make a blanket statement that the market is back.  Some neighborhoods and price points still have a little further to fall, but many neighborhoods have turned the corner.  The deals are still there, but the days of unbelievable steals are quickly fading away.