Some of you may know that I’m looking to buy a home in the Monmouth County area of New Jersey. The house hunting experience has given me a new look on some of the people who buy homes around here – and it’s not a good look at them, either.
The big problem with buying a home in this market is that the sellers are just completely out of their mind in terms of pricing. And if this isn’t obvious by the exorbitant and inflated numbers that they are asking, then it is blatantly apparent due to all of the “for sale” signs that are beginning to accumulate around the county. And honestly, I don’t feel bad for the sellers one bit – they deserve to not sell these properties and they deserve to be stuck with the carrying costs (which probably ruin their budgets).
Through various connections and people I know here and there, I’ve been able to acquire some inside information on some of these houses that I’m looking at. For example, there is a condo that I’m looking at where the owner is asking $300 thousand for it. Seems reasonable, right? The thing has been on the market for months and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I was told what the other units in that development were selling for…wow.
The MOST that someone paid for the other units was $239 thousand (and that was at the height of the real estate boom). This smarmy prick was asking for $60 thousand MORE than what the most expensive unit sold for during the height of the boom – and he’s asking for it after the housing market crashed! What a jerk! And I won’t even get into how the $300 unit isn’t “fully equipped” (no refrigerator) while the $239 unit came with all appliances included. If this doesn’t show you how an idiot tries to sell a house, I don’t know what does!
Stories like this abound in the Monmouth County real estate market. It’s sad because the current owners are literally saturating the market with overpriced real estate. Sure, this creates a huge buyer’s market (and believe me, Monmouth County is becoming a buyer’s market), but in the mean time, you have people who want to buy homes but cannot do so because of the owners’ desire to get a huge return on their investment. Someone needs to tell these people (I’ll do it!) that they missed their chance. Real estate booms come in 10 year cycles, the next one will start in a few years so unless they want to hold on to these properties until then, they better start getting their prices out the stratosphere and start real-world negotiations.
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