Home buyers will pounce if sellers deal

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A house on Wallinwood sold in nine days. Another on Ardmore SE sold in 13 days, and houses in Kentwood and Cascade sold in mere hours.

In these case, the sellers got several offers at or near their asking price.

How'd that happen?

The asking prices were low, and the owners showed a willingness to take a loss.

"That is what the market is," said realtor Mary Ellen Weber, "and we have to go with what the market is."

How low will sellers go? The Kentwood house sold for $120,000, compared to the $157,000 sale price in 2005. The Wallinwood housesodl for just over $146,000, down from the $158,000 in 2005. An East Grand Rapids house on Rosewood sold just last year for $390,000. Now, the selling price is $350,000.

And a house on Woodbrook got nearly $16,000 more than the sellers paid in 2003. But they spent over $100,000 fixing it up. They got such a deal on a new house in the area they didn't mind taking the loss.

But it takes more than a low price to get your house sold.

Ryan Gorman and his fiancee are relocating to West Michigan from Chicago. There were plenty of new homes on the market in their price range, but they snapped up one that is 25 years old, not just because of the mature trees and intricate backyard landscaping, but because the seller spent about $8,000 putting in new everything -- flooring, paint, cabinent hardware, lighting fixtures.

Weber explains the mindset of today's buyer. "They don't want to deal with it. They want to walk in and have everything freshly done," she said.

Weber and realtor Karen Talbot suggested painting the house in Pottery Barn colors, getting rid of the wallpaper and the clutter.

"(The homeowner) was a great seller in that she listened," Talbot told 24 Hour News 8.

The team also spent a lot of time putting top notch pictures of the home on the Internet, "because that is where 90% of buyers start their home search."

It worked.

Gorman said, "We explored. We went on the Internet and when we found the right property we jumped on it. We wanted to lock out the competition."

He and his fiancee are putting on their own finishing touches, but they think overall,they got a great bargain. They'll know when it comes time for them to sell.

One big boost for sellers is the first-time home buyers $8,000 tax credit. Realtors consider houses in this market under $200,000 to be first-time homes for most people.