Tag: how to sell your house by owner

Real estate: Carleton Place homes sold for $400,000 below original selling price

It’s a harsh lesson on buying at the peak of the housing market.

Two years ago, newly built townhomes in Carleton Place, Ont. sold for nearly $900,000. Low interest rates were a driving force behind the hefty price tag.

“Those townhouses were overpriced to begin with,” said Jeff McGuire, who lives in the area. “I think they were asking 200k more than they should have originally.”

Some people bought high but couldn’t keep up with payments, falling into default. The builder re-listed the homes for much less at the end of 2023 — $499,000.

“They couldn’t afford the home or what they wanted to afford. So their plans changed,” explained real estate agent Peter Sagos. He sold a few properties in the new subdivision, including 182 Hooper St, both times. The original buyers who couldn’t make the payments may be in further trouble from the builder, he says.

“The seller could go back and through litigation receive the other end of the money that was from the original contract.”

“A couple of the builders I worked with did the exact same thing,” said real estate broker Paul Rushforth. “They lowered the price drastically, called it a Christmas special.”

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The NAR settlement could slash home prices for many Americans

New York
CNN
—

The entire US housing market is about to get remodeled, and the end product could come with a big perk: cheaper home prices.

That’s due to a $418 million settlement the National Association of Realtors announced Friday with groups of homesellers.

The settlement, which is still subject to a judge’s approval, will eliminate the long-standing standard 6% commission paid by the seller. Those fees, however, are often baked into the listed price of the home. Lower commissions could therefore lower home prices, experts say.

And at a time when elevated housing costs are driving inflation across the country, reining in home prices could help bring price increases back to levels Americans experienced before the pandemic.

But none of that will happen overnight.

For starters, a judge still needs to sign off on the settlement, which would also put in place a slew of new rules. Among those, buyers’ agents showing homes that were listed on local centralized listing portals, known as multiple listing services, won’t have prior knowledge of the commissions they’ll receive if their clients end up purchasing it.

The NAR, which represents more than 1 million agents, declined to comment on whether home prices