Next option(s) after house is not selling on market?
EDIT: new ideas based on the full story. I wouldn't worry about the price history.  While it is certainly true that some buyers might try to leverage that information against you, the bottom line is the price is the price.  Both the buyer and the seller have to agree.   If the initial listing was too high, then lower the price.  If that isn't low enough, then readjust down.  I see no harm in moving the price down over time repeatedly.  In fact, I thin that is a good tactic to getting the most for the house.  If you happen to have the luxury of time, then keep lowering that price until it sells.  Don't fret how that behavior appears. You can lower the price as often as you like until it sells.  I am not a real estate agent, and I am a terrible negotiator, but I would lower the price every quarter until it sells.  You can't go down to fast (a buyer might wait you out) and you can't wait to long as you stated.  Also, if you house is priced inline with the neighborhood, you can at least get offers and negotiate. Buy asking for such a premium (25%) folks might not even make an offer. You simply need to decide what is more important, the selling price or the time frame in getting it sold. If you house doesn't sell because the market doesn't support your price, then consider keeping it as a rental.  You can do it yourself, or if you are not interested in that (large) amount of work, then hire a rental management company to do it for a fee. Renting a home is hard work and requires attention to detail, a good amount of your time and much labor.  If you just need to wait a couple of years before selling, renting it can be a good option to cover your costs while you wait for the market to reach you. You should get advice on how to handle the money, how to rent it, how to deal with renters, and the the laws are in your jurisdiction. Rent it out to a trusted friend or family member for a steal of a deal.  They save money, and you get the luxury of time waiting for the sale. With a real estate lawyer you hire, get a contract for a lease option or owner finance deal on the house.  Sometimes you can expand the market of people looking to buy your house.  If you have a willing purchaser will bad credit, you can be doing them a favor and solving your own issue.  It costs money and you will make less on the sale, but it could be better than nothing. Take heed, there is a reason some people cannot get a traditional loan on their own.  Before you extend your good name or credit think about it.  It is another hassle for sure. This won't help if you have to pay off a mortgage, but you could donate it.  This is another tricky deal that you really need to speak with a lawyer who specialize in charitable giving.  There are tax benefits, but I would make any kind of a deal where tax deductions are the only benefit. This is common enough these days.  If you are unable to pay for the mortgage, it benefits you and the bank to get into a short sale arrangement.  They bank gets probably more money than if they have to foreclose (and they save money on legal fees) and you can get rid of the obligation. You will do a deed in lieu or the short sale depending on how the market it and what the house can be sold for.  You and the bank will have to work it out. This will ruin for a credit for a while, and you will not likely qualify to get a new mortgage for at least a few years. You can stop paying your mortgage, tell the bank and they will foreclose.  This is going to ruin your credit for a long time as well as disqualify you from mortgages in the near future.  Don't do this.  If you are planning a foreclosure, take the time to contact your bank and arrange a short sale or a deed in lieu.  There isn't really any excuse to go into foreclosure if you are having problems.  Talk to the bank and work out a deal.
I disagree with the theory that SUPPLY needs to increase... stagnant sales can just as easily suggest either equilibrium between supply and demand, or a problem with purchasing power.  I would want to know the home sale PRICES (today vs last month and vs last year)... and possibly salaries.  if prices are the same, then we're more or less in equilibrium... if sale prices are dropping, then we're in trouble... but in either case I question whether adding supply will do anything except lower prices and push the market power towards the buyer. "There are a few of ways to do this: Ask the seller if they will hold a Vendor Take-Back Mortgage or VTB. They essentially hold a second mortgage on the property for a shorter amortization (1 - 5 years) with a higher interest rate than the bank-held mortgage. The upside for the seller is he makes a little money on the second mortgage. The downsides for the seller are that he doesn't get the entire purchase price of the property up-front, and that if the buyer goes bankrupt, the vendor will be second in line behind the bank to get any money from the property when it's sold for amounts owing. Look for a seller that is willing to put together a lease-to-own deal. The buyer and seller agree to a purchase price set 5 years in the future. A monthly rent is calculated such that paying it for 5 years equals a 20% down payment. At the 5 year mark you decide if you want to buy or not. If you do not, the deal is nulled. If you do, the rent you paid is counted as the down payment for the property and the sale moves forward. Find a private lender for the down payment. This is known as a ""hard money"" lender for a reason: they know you can't get it anywhere else. Expect to pay higher rates than a VTB. Ask your mortgage broker and your real estate agent about these options." He doesn't have to follow through on this, but he could tell this sister that he will stop making mortgage payments, which will result in foreclosure and sale at lower price than might be realized by a voluntary sale. Translation: the house will sold, sis. Do you want to maximize your share of the proceeds?  And, as I said in a comment above: I hope that he is keeping careful records of mortgage an utility payments, as he might (should) be entitled to a refund from the proceeds of an eventual sale (possibly adjusted by the fair rent value of the time which he spent living there) Usually, sell. Every month -- arguably every day -- you own the house it is costing you money for mortgage and taxes and upkeep. Unless it is also producing income, or you are actually living in it, that is a serious problem. In any sane market, it is extremely unlikely that the house can gain enough value to offset that loss.  Renting it out, even if you lose money versus the costs, would at least slow the bleeding... But unless you actually want to deal with rental, or strongly expect to return very soon, selling rapidly for a good price is usually optimal. Of course when setting the asking price, and negotiating offers, you are going to have to consider exactly this trade-off. You have to consider a case where you just cannot sell it. Think of it as a bad piece of real estate in Detroit. If there are absolutely no buyers, you cannot sell it (until a buyer shows up) I wouldn't like to say either way what you should do, not being an financial advisor or lawyer, but I did find an interesting article on nytimes.com: Walk Away From Your Mortgage!  that you might also find helpful to frame your decision. It has some interesting information on defaults, it says this: Mortgage holders do sign a promissory note, which is a promise to pay. But the contract explicitly details the penalty for nonpayment — surrender of the property. The borrower isn’t escaping the consequences; he is suffering them. In some states, lenders also have recourse to the borrowers’ unmortgaged assets, like their car and savings accounts. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that defaults are lower in such states, apparently because lenders threaten the borrowers with judgments against their assets. But actual lawsuits are rare. And given that nearly a quarter of mortgages are underwater, and that 10 percent of mortgages are delinquent, White, of the University of Arizona, is surprised that more people haven’t walked. He thinks the desire to avoid shame is a factor, as are overblown fears of harm to credit ratings. Probably, homeowners also labor under a delusion that their homes will quickly return to value. White has argued that the government should stop perpetuating default “scare stories” and, indeed, should encourage borrowers to default when it’s in their economic interest. This would correct a prevailing imbalance: homeowners operate under a “powerful moral constraint” while lenders are busily trying to maximize profits. More important, it might get the system unstuck. If lenders feared an avalanche of strategic defaults, they would have an incentive to renegotiate loan terms. In theory, this could produce a wave of loan modifications — the very goal the Treasury has been pursuing to end the crisis. If you believe the stock market will be down 20-30% in the next few months, sell your stock holdings, buy a protective put option for the value of the holdings that you want to keep. That would be hedging against it. Anything more is speculating that the market will fall. I don't believe I said anything about the stock market going down, which happens regularly.  It's not like municipal bond markets crash very often—once every few generations, maybe. So her being off by a couple years would be insignificant.  Not saying I think it's going to happen. I'm just posing the question. If the municipal bond markets crashed within the next year, she would be vindicated. This question is impossible answer for all markets but there are 2 more possibilities in my experience: As other answers state, selling the options contracts to the market is a definite way out, and probably the best in most cases.  If you're determined to exercise your options (or there's not enough liquidity to reasonably sell your contracts to the market), then you could plan ahead and exercise smaller number of contracts at a time and sell the resulting position in the underlying, which will give you funds to exercise some more contracts and sell the underlying.    If you think you're going down this path, however, make sure that you take into account your broker's rules for settlement.  You may need to start the exercise / sell cycle before the option's expiration date. "Based on the information you gave, there are dozens if not hundreds of possible theories one could spin about the rental market. Sure, it's possible that there are no listings because rental units on this street are quickly snapped up. On the other hand, it's also possible that there are no listings because almost all the buildings on the street have been abandoned and, aside from this one property that someone is tying to sell you, the rest of the street is inhabited only by wild dogs and/or drug dealers. Or maybe the street is mostly owner-occupied, i.e. the properties are not being rented to anyone. Or maybe it's a commercial district. Or maybe craigslist isn't popular with people who own property on this street for whatever reason. Maybe Syracuse has a city ordinance that says property must be advertised in the newspaper and not on websites, for all I know. Or maybe you missed it because nobody in Syracuse calls it ""housing for rent"", they all call it ""apartments for rent"" or ""houses for rent"" or some local phrase. Or ... or ... or. Before I bought a property, I'd do more research than one search on one web site. Have you visited the property? I don't know how much you're preparing to invest, I have no idea what property prices are in Syracuse, but I'd guess it's at least tens of thousands of dollars. Surely worth making the drive to Syracuse to check it out before buying." In October 2011 in the United States, you just don't have any options.  Save your money in a savings account and that is the best you can do.  Your desire to buy a house means you are a saver not an investor, and you risk tolerance on this pile of money is 0. Save it in a bank account; I highly doubt chasing an interest rate will pay off with any significance. (being highly dependent on your opinion of significant) First thing, ask your real estate agent who should have been involved in writing the contract, and can explain your options regarding the contingency. That being said... The inspection report is the decision point. For every issue/problem mentioned you have decide: Ignore; have the seller fix; have the seller give you money to fix; have the seller drop the price; or walk away. Minor things you can have the seller fix. They need to be done, but they can be done by the seller.  Expensive things that are difficult to estimate the price in advance should also be done by the seller. The difficultly estimating the cost to repair will make it risky for you to negotiate a price break.  Getting a credit of $1,000 when it ends up costing you $20,000 is something you want to avoid. For items that you want to do the fix yourself you want money at closing to do them, or ask for a price break. Items in this category include replacing an appliance. You can take the money and get exactly the one you want, or let the seller of the house buy one that has the least options and won't match the color. Buyers also take this option when they were going to renovate soon anyway. Walking away. This happens when there is a large expensive issue that is hard to fix. Or a very large list of mid-size problems. Issues in this category can include foundation cracks, major electrical problems, extensive leaks, mold. It can also include beautifully constructed additions that aren't up to code and were done without permits and inspections.   Which category is your Radon in? You need to ask your agent, and read the inspection report. The agent can explain your options, and how likely the seller will be to agree. They can also tell you how likely you are to not lose the deposit if you do walk away. "Trying to determine what the best investment option is when buying a home is like predicting the stock market. Not likely to work out. Forget about the ""investment"" part of buying a home and look at the quality of life, monthly/annual financial burden, and what your goals are. Buy a home that you'll be happy living in and in an area you like. Buy a home with the plan being to remain in that home for at least 6 years. If you're planning on having kids, then buy a home that will accommodate that. If you're not planning on living in the same place at least 6 years, then buying might not be the best idea, and certainly might not be the best ""investment"". You're buying a home that will end up having emotional value to you. This isn't like buying a rental property or commercial real estate. Chances are you won't lose money in the long run, unless the market crashes again, but in that case everyone pretty much gets screwed so don't worry about it.  We're not in a housing market like what existed in decades past. The idea of buying a home so that you'll make money off it when you sell it isn't really as reliable a practice as it once was. Take advantage of the ridiculously low interest rates, but note that if you wait, they're not likely to go up by an amount that will make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.  My family and I went through the exact same thought process you're going through right now. We close on our new house tomorrow. We battled over renting somewhere - we don't have a good rental market compared to buying here, buying something older for less money and fixing it up - we're HGTV junkies but we realized we just don't have the time or emotional capacity to deal with that scenario, or buying new/like new. There are benefits and drawbacks to all 3 options, and we spent a long time weighing them and eventually came to a conclusion that was best for us.  Go talk to a realtor in your area. You're under no obligation to use them, but you can get a better feel for your options and what might best suit you by talking to a professional. For what it's worth, our realtor is a big fan of Pulte Homes in our area because of their home designs and quality. We know some people who have bought in that neighborhood and they're very happy. There are horror stories too, same as with any product you might buy." Pay cash for the house but negotiate at least a 4% discount. You already made your money without having to deal with long term unknowns. I don't get why people would want invest with risk when the alternative are immediate realized gains.