Pending House Sales - Virginia Builder Still Hopeful Even After 14 Months with No Sale

HARDY, Virginia, May 4 -- We can be found almost every weekend at 3802 Morgan's Mill Road, in Goodview, Virginia. When we aren't holding an open house on the property, we are doing yard work to keep the curb appeal at its best.

My husband, Patrick Cosmato, has held a class A Contractor's license for 15 years, intending to re-enter the building industry. He holds down a full-time job working about 60 hours a week, but life circumstances provided him with an opportunity to enter the market part-time last year. We choose a well-designed modular home that we felt would appeal to a wide variety of buyers.

I interviewed my husband on May 4^th, to get his reactions to the news about the possible real estate market upswing and how it would affect our chances for a sale. He said: "The house I built is approximately 1600 square feet, with nine foot ceilings, six inch exterior walls, and a combination of hardwood floors and carpet. It is situated on a three acre lot in Goodview, Virginia with an absolutely gorgeous panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A comparable house in that area would typically sell for $215,000 to $219,000. My intention was to hit the market at $199,000. As you know, by the time the house was finished, the market was showing signs of stress and I priced it at $189,000. I have subsequently lowered the price to $179,950."

Our house has been listed for 14 months in an area with little competition. We have seen minor interest in the house, although we have been aggressive in marketing.

His realtor, property manager, and father, who is 81 years old, has been a real estate agent in Virginia for over 26 years. He specializes in Smith Mountain Lake and rural properties, but in spite of his years of expertise, our house is unsold.

We have advertised our house in newspapers, real estate brochures, flyers, Craigslist, MLS, and the For Sale by Owner website. We have held 12 open houses, and Patrick even offered a cash bonus to real estate agents for touring the house. Five happy agents collected the bonuses, but no contracts followed the tour.

Hoping to make the property more appealing, we invested in $2,000 worth of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass seed. I decorated both bathrooms and added homey touches like flowers and baskets to adorn the spacious kitchen. We decided to offer a $1,500 refrigerator allowance for any full price offer.

At 14 months on the market and counting, we have had one contract on the house -- unfortunately, the person did not qualify for the mortgage. Our hopes for a sale are small, but my husband says that he "believes that there is always a light at the end of the real estate tunnel. How far out is that light? Six months or six years - it is any body's guess. The new information about an upswing in the market has me feeling guardedly hopeful."

Sources:

Cosmato, Patrick, personal interview, May 4, 2009