The Jacksonville real estate market is a very interesting thing.
Sometimes an experience is so completely "out there" that I feel obligated to share my experience. This week we had a buyer ready to put in an offer on a home in a St Johns County neighborhood. The home is absolutely gorgeous. wood floors, beautiful colors, a kitchen begging for the next Paula Deen...it is a fabulous home. The price seemed pretty reasonable.
As we always do, we ran comps for the buyers when they were trying to decide what to offer.
The home is priced in the mid-$200s. There are three others priced in the $300s. All roughly the same size. Seemingly a great deal.
Ooops! There are only three comps for the past year. All roughly the same size. They sold for only $185k, $189k and $200k.
Because there are three comps in the same neighborhood, and they are all within the year...we don't know how an appraiser could possibly appraise the home for the seller's asking price. And we KNOW an appraiser couldn't even begin to justify the sales price for the other three homes that are priced in the $300s.
Where are these asking prices coming from? Do they really believe they can get those prices for those homes considering the recent comps?
My guess is that they are trying to avoid a short sale situation. Buyers are not (or at least SHOULD NOT) going to overpay for a home just because the seller does not want to go short. This is an impossible situation. A cash buyer could overpay like this, but WHY would they?
Price your home correctly or don't even try to sell it in this current Jacksonville real estate market.
