Are you a motivated seller
In today's Charleston real estate market, if you are thinking of selling your home, if you aren't a motivated seller, you might want to either withdraw your home for sale or get motivated in a hurry.
One of the most popular phrases in Charleston MLS listings is "NOT a short sale or foreclosure". That is usually indicative of a very well priced home being offered by a motivated seller who understands current market conditions and wants to sell their home.
As a seller, you are competing with both lender owned homes and distressed homeowners who are very motivated to sell. And since most buyers today want a good (great) deal, home sellers have to be motivated to sell and remain flexible during the listing process.
Some buyers seem to think that the really great deals are only available by buying a foreclosure or a short sale. It's easy to understand why because list prices are sometimes very low compared to similar homes. But if it's a foreclosure, a low list price will generally be based on very poor condition because I've seen some foreclosures in very good condition priced very similarly to competitive homes being offered for sale by homeowners.
Short sales are another matter altogether. A low list price is usually indicative that the seller is looking for an offer so that the short sale process can begin by submitting the offer to the bank for 3rd party lender approval and get price discovery, in other words, how much will be lender actually accept. Some buyers think that the bank will just give the property away to avoid having to go through the expense of foreclosure but the loss mitigation department is trying to minimize the loss and they have a pretty good idea of how much the current value of the home really is.
But bottom line, some buyers don't want to buy foreclosures and other buyers don't want to wait the lengthy time it takes to get 3rd party lender approval with a short sale so if you are thinking about selling your home in the Charleston area today, if you price your home competitively and you remain flexible, you will probably be the next home to get an offer.
And isn't that why you put your home on the market.