The woeful home seller

Home sellers are having a difficult time enduring any success in this buyers market. Even expecting the worst is proven to be not enough as some sellers are realizing the market is a lot staler than they thought.

Every seller by now has become aware they stubbornness will not be rewarded, at least not until the housing market completes a full rebound, which will not happen for at least a couple more years.

The key to surviving the slumping market for a seller is anticipation; really anticipate the worst case scenario because there is a good chance it will come true.

With that being said, do not try and sell unless you have to. But many people do have to, either for job relocation, a growing family or other financially important reasons. The article, Vacant houses hold empty promise for sellers, written by Lorraine Mirabella originally published in the Baltimore Sun and later reprinted in the February 8, 2007 edition of the Chicago Tribune, reports the depressing reality many home sellers are being forced to accept.

Steve and Debbie Lombel put their four-bedroom Colonial on the market in May, figuring it could take maybe four months to sell a house in the mid-$800,000 range.
But almost nine months later, the now-empty house still is sitting on the market. The couple and their children have since relocated to temporary quarters in South Carolina for Steve Lombel's job. They have borrowed from their anticipated equity and sale to build a new house.

The Lombels Maryland property was hundreds of miles away and eating up thousands of dollars a month. Their agent has held 21 open houses. They've cut their asking price three times and now are offering to pay mortgage loan points to help a buyer get lower interest rates.

Life after the housing boom (2001 to 2005) has not been very good to the average home seller. As the first month of 2007 has ended, many sellers were anticipating positive news for the new year. Many economical forecasts assured than this year would be the rebounding one and increasing sales would make the sellers life much easier. Well, the forecasts have been wrong.

The amount of inventory listed on the market continues to soar, as well as the number of them that are vacant.
Some with little or no equity in their homes face a tough choice of accepting a loss or taking a risk that eventually a buyer will meet their price. Others are straining to pay two mortgages or are renting while they try to sell their old home. Not to mention, homeowners who have relocated sometimes hundreds of miles away [like the Lombels] find it a struggle to maintain a home that sits empty.
The number of vacant homes for sale nationally surged 34 percent to 2.1 million at the end of 2006, compared to a year earlier, according to the Census Bureau.

Once a seller is forced to vacate their home for sale, desperation sets in. And even as these sellers continue to lower their asking price and offer incentives such as paying for closing costs and the first six months of the mortgage, buyers are still waiting, waiting, waiting. They know sellers have to keep giving in and buyers are taking advantage of this situation.
Things just keep getting worse for the American home seller.

Declining home prices could trigger more defaults on mortgage loans if homeowners struggling with two mortgages are unable to cover the cost of the loan by selling the house, said Celia Chen, director of housing economics for Moody's Economy.com.
If you like to look at things on the bright side, eventually this trend will help establish a better affordability rate in the U.S. housing market.