I talked to 2 elderly couples friends who are retiring. They are selling and moving away. Unfortunately, they haven’t sold yet and are prepping their homes for sale.
One couple’s house is high on top of a hill and would have commanded $800,000 at the peak. But the husband is a tinkerer so he’s got all kinds of junk to get rid of before their house is presentable for showing. They’ve been working on it for 6 months already.
The other couple just decided to retire and move. They’ll be putting their house on the market soon. They also have clutter to remove.
I’m afraid that both couples will be chasing the market all the way down and they’ll have to adjust their retirement plans. They expect to get top dollar for their houses.
My feeling is that buyers don’t have much tolerance for messy occupied houses.
I didn’t have the heart to give them a speech on the real estate bubble. I just wished them the best.