Kristin LaVanway makes a great point in this video at about 9:37 in.

I was just thinking the same thing.

I remember being surprised back at the top of the market in 2005 that prices for houses that backed to busy streets were about the same as houses that didn’t! The backyard is a lot less useable with all that street noise.

Very few houses were for sale back then, like now. If you wanted to buy, you didn’t have many choices. In a normal market, you would have had a lot of choices so most people wouldn’t buy that noisy backyard unless the house was cheaper.

I was surprised that as the market got crazier and crazier, that the discounts on houses with challenges were getting smaller and smaller.

Challenges like;

  • On, or backs to, a busy street;
  • Next to, or 1 or 2 houses away from, a freeway;
  • Backs to, or across the street from, a busy commercial area or school;
  • Backs to a high rise (people can look into your backyard, less privacy);
  • 3 bedrooms but only 1 tiny bath; or
  • A weird addition or weird floor plan.

I remember discouraging a couple back then from making an offer on a house where the price wasn’t discounted at all for backing to a major street. It would have had a decent discount a year earlier.

Sure enough, when the market started to slow down, the sales of those challenged houses were the first to slow, later their prices were the first to fall, and eventually, their prices fell the most.

Sell Now If…

If you’ve got a house that would be difficult to sell in a normal market, right now would be a great time to sell it.