Real Estate Days On Market For Buyers
April 1st, 2007 Deeper Thoughts, Family Life
It’s a common lament of strong listing agents that Days On Market is an unfair tool for measuring the value of a house. Jonathan Dalton makes his case with No Really How Long Has It Been On The Market? The Mighty Russell Shaw does the same with Days On Market? It’s A Stupid Question With A Stupid Answer.
Summarizing their arguments to this point…
“What does it matter how long the house has been on the market or what it used to be priced at, what matters is what the house is priced at today.”
Or less politely put… “people are stupid”.
I’ve debated Jonathan and Russell via comments and my own Death By Days On Market.
My argument to this point…
“Who said anyone shopped for houses like Vulcan Science Officers. People make snap decisions based on meaningless data all the time.”
Or less politely put… “people are stupid”.
I had a sudden moment of clarity today at my Open House. Every single buyer through the door asked the exact same question. “When did it come on the market?” I’m working for the seller at the Open House of course, not writing my blog, so I followed up the question using some of Jonathan and Russell thinking with a friendly but firm “what does it matter” speech.
I think a couple of them bought it. One however looked at me like I was a total fluffy bunny-wad, and said;
“I don’t care about the house, I want to know how sick the seller feels about trying to sell it.”
Of course I can’t tell you that Mr Buyer can I.
Though based on the public information in the disclosures, dates signed, time the owners have held the house, the very obvious vacantness of the property, my guess is they are pretty much hemorrhaging cash to the tune of $2000ish a month with mortgage and taxes etc. Um, I guess that would get old after a while. So yeah, the house is the same as it was when it started. But the seller likely isn’t.
Or more politely put… “maybe people aren’t quite as stupid as first believed”.
April 1st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
[...] The “April Fools for Dummies” prize goes to Athol Kay, whose wry wit gives us a new bestseller: “Days on Market for Dummies.” [...]
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:59 am
funny… in a funny, “ain’t that the truth” kind of way. I’m so glad Kevin linked to this. It is good.
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:33 am
> “I don’t care about the house, I want to know how sick the seller feels about trying to sell it.â€
Well, Mr. Buyer, let’s write up an offer based on how sick you think they are and we’ll find out if your diagnosis is correct.
There’s a (not quite) equal chance that the home’s been on the market for a long time because the seller isn’t all that motivated to sell and is part of the army of phantom inventory.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:29 am
If there is an equal chance that a house has been on the market a long time because the seller isn’t all that motivated to sell/phantom inventory, doesn’t it make sense as a buyer to see homes fresh to market first?
At least if they put an offer in we get an answer whether the seller is motivated or not. :-/
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 am
I know we disagree on the days on market stuff Jonathan, but I must say you’re the most agreeable disagreeable person I know.
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm
[...] Yep, sorry. But maybe this post is different, because we write MLS software and need to try to accommodate the many diverging views. Wow, are there ever a lot of different ways of looking at this issue. (Fortunately, the very cool REMBEX site and Google’s custom searching make finding all these views pretty easy.) [...]