I Almost Saved $100k on a Home!

Many of you know that we've been shopping for a new home, hoping to pick up a steal while the housing market is in the toilet. We've been looking for a few months now and as we head into winter, it looks like we won't be going anywhere this year.

But an interesting series of events last week almost made us take action. Here's what happened:

• This past summer, we saw a house that we kind of liked (it was a great house, but I didn't really like the land that it was on -- too sloping). It was priced at $349,900 -- not a price that was out of our range, but we didn't like it that much at that price.

• Our realtor has a website where we can flag properties and "watch" them. If something changes (like a sale or price drop), we get an email notifying us of the change. We liked this house enough to put it on our watch list.

• Last Monday I received an email -- there had been a change on the house. The price was now $239,900! I knew that this was either a mistake or the sellers were in big trouble and needed to sell the home quickly. I didn't know if we'd want the house even at $239k, but it certainly made the place more attractive. I emailed our agent and asked for details.

• She got back to me and told me what I suspected -- it was a mistake. The real price was now $339,900. Someone had typed a "2" instead of a "3".

Like I said, I'm not sure we would have gone for it even at that price, but it was exciting there for a day or so. I wonder what would have happened if we (or someone else) simply decided to make an offer on the place at $239k. Think the seller would have been surprised to know their realtor put in the wrong price by $100k? ;-)

Comments

[Chris]

It sounds like $239k is more realistic, at least from your buyer's perspective.

[beastlike]

That would have been one good deal!

[Scott Moonen]

I once looked at a charming old farmhouse that had the wrong zip code entered into MLS. The zip code put it right in Chapel Hill, NC, but in reality it was located miles out into the country. Anyone looking for a house in Chapel Hill would have dismissed it, and anyone looking for a house out in the country would have been unlikely to find it. As a result, there was little competition on the house, and I am sure that we would have benefited from that. In the end, we decided it was too much work for us to fix up in our current season of life.

The moral is that if you are selling a house through a realtor you should double check their work!

[Matthew]

How does a price misprint equal almost saving 100k on a house? There is no way that it would have sold for that price.

[Evan]

Nothing would have happened - because you have put in an "offer" and they would simply rejected that "offer." What would have been more interesting if their realtor messed up and offered it to you for $239K and you accepted said offer. Regardless, nothing would happen because in most states a real estate contract must be in writing to be enforceable (generally).

[Rebecca]

Unfortunately that kind of thing happens all too often. A friend's elderly mother listed her house last year but got no interest in it at all and couldn't figure out why. Turns out that the realtor had listed the house for $1,349,000 instead of $349,000. No wonder no one looked. Unfortunately by the time my friend's mother mentioned it and my friend found the error the house had been on the market for months at that price. They had to delist it for a while to clear the days on the market before relisting, even though the lack of a sale was the agent's fault. I still want to know why the agent didn't catch it earlier. The changes in the market are going to have a long term effect on the profit my friend's mom makes off this property (it was a stronger market when she first listed).

[kurt]

I think you need to rethink your whole approach: if you are "unsure" if you want a house at a hundred grand less than what they are asking for it when you put it on your watch list, you aren't too serious about it in the first place.

Nice deceiving title, however. You were never even close to "saving" $100k on a house, as a commenter above observes.

[Kevin]

No kidding, did you want it for half the original list price or what? How much do you think it will actually go down?

[Bronco]

I believe you are way to adamant about buying a house right now. Methinks this bursting bubble has merely begun and we are in for a loooong decline in house prices.

[Big Cheese]

You 'almost' saved nothing. Really I hope this was a joke post with all due respect or just a stream of consciousness 'what if?'.

And I agree you should wait for a while, take a look at the upcoming ARM resets, that should keep the market in check. Check out www.housingpanic.blogspot.com for more details.

BC

[FMF]

I think many of you are taking me way too seriously. ;-)