Vulture, thy name is Realtor(tm)...

Smile...
Grin and bear it.
Let it go...
[exhale]
Ahhh... better.

Anyone familiar with my house saga will remember that back in 2007 when I purchased a home in West Seattle, I got it for a price that was well under market. Since then, I gutted the kitchen and bath replaced floors, cabinets, and appliances. The exterior was repainted, the hardwood floors refinished, and I listed the refurbished house for sale in the fall of 2008.

Since that time, the term 'short-sale' has entered the real estate vocabulary, and the result is that many homes on the market today are priced below the value of the current owner's home mortgage. To qualify for a short-sale, you have to a) be willing to let your credit rating suffer for 7 years, b) be behind in your mortgage payments - 60 to 90 days minimum, and c) have good health and a strong internal constitution to enable you to live day-by-day with the stress caused by (a) and (b).

Yesterday, the current listing on my home expired - and the house went OFF the market. Today, beginning at 7:31am, I began getting phone calls from Realtors who want to RE-LIST my house. The calls have been non-stop... so much so that I changed my outgoing message to ask Realtors to please hang-up, and not to call again.

Realtors really irk me... IF I were able to sell my home for the current list price, I would be able to pay off the mortgage. But add to the sale price the 7.5% in fees and Realtor commissions, and I would be faced with writing a check for $3,000 to $5,000 dollars over-and-above the sale amount (which I *DO NOT* have lying around) to cover those commissions.

My options? The holiday season is one of the weakest times of the year for home buying, so leaving the house on the market through the holidays just seems foolish. One option is to refinance. But I'm not sure the home will appraise at the value of the current mortgage. If I *could* refi, I'd be able afford the monthly payment (without dipping into dwindling savings), and that might empower me to RENT the house to tenants, and I could rent an apartment closer to my sons in Bellevue.

Yet... they persist in calling, these princes of the sales pitch, these reformed used-car salesmen who hope to thrive off commissions . If you attempt to converse with them, they won't explain why THEY didn't bring any potential BUYERS to the house over the past year, they will instead claim the previous realtor didn't *market* the house correctly, or didn't "price it in line with the market".

When 'market prices' have been driven unnaturally downward by bank owned, short-sale, and foreclosure properties, how can one price a home in-line with 'the market' without inadvertently pricing it too low, thereby leaving money on the table at closing. No. I'm going to 'hunker down', and try to wait out the decline in housing. I realize the housing market won't fully recover until the job market recovers - it's a symbiotic relationship - but I'm hopeful things will look better in the spring of 2010.

Oh, and FYI... the count is up to seven (7) Vulture calls as of 10:45am...
update... nine (9) calls by 11:13am...

(Ironic! My phone hasn't rung in two weeks, yet today I'm the carcass du jour...)