ALL BUSINESS: Home Buyers Getting Pushy

[NVMojo]

NEW YORK (AP) - Not so long ago, home sellers used aggressive tactics to squeeze every last bit of profit from their home sales. Now that home sales are weakening, buyers have taken a page from the sellers' playbook, demanding everything from new appliances to no closing costs to upfront cash to get the deal done.

In some cases, what they are doing is down and dirty - sellers have been asked to pay off buyer's credit-card debt, cover costs of the buyer's current home or even pay for the buyer's commuting costs from the new home.

This kind of gamesmanship allows buyers to get the most for their money. It also reveals that the housing market's ugly side may be here to stay.

The residential real estate market is cooling from its record-setting pace. New home sales are projected to fall about 16 percent in 2006, and existing home sales are forecast to dip 7.6 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors. Growth in home prices is expected to be minimal, coming in at less than 3 percent in 2006 and 2007.

Homebuilders are certainly feeling the pinch. KB Home, for instance, has started selling off land in its portfolio and said that preliminary net orders for the third quarter were down 43 percent from the prior year, as cancellation rates have shot higher. Gross unit orders and traffic to new home communities each slid 11 percent in the third quarter.

What a change from the not-so-distant past when homeowners controlled the game. Chipped paint? Who cared? No landscaping, no problem. Old, dirty carpets didn't turn people away. Some sellers even got standard points in contracts tossed out, such as home inspections and financing clauses that tended to protect buyers.

Those days are long gone. Sellers aren't just lowering prices now. They're also offering many extras to entice buyers.


more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/invest-econ/2006/sep/19/091907376.html

[displacedtexan]

1. LOL! All offers are open to negotiation.

Pay off the buyer's credit card?

That would depend on how desperate the seller is.

Sellers had no problem when buyers skipped inspections
when threatened with losing the house to someone who would, did they?

The seller can always say "No."
Whining won't help.

[physioex]

2. Payback is a bitch.......

Won't get any sympathy from me. Also wait till the introductory rates on the ARMs expire it's just gonna get worse.......

[displacedtexan]

3. What NO One will talk about here in DC...

is what will happen if either the house or the senate changes
party control on Nov. 7th.

The Bush admin DOUBLED the housing allowance for staff members
(including committee staffers), which allowed thousands of junior-level
Republicans to BUY instead of rent.

We already have a glut of inventory on the market here.

Can you imagine the whale of a glut of houses & condos if Repukes lose power?

Kismet!

But NO ONE will talk about that.

[Sammy Pepys]

4. Sure, we made some requests when we bought a couple of months ago...

...though nothing outlandish like paying off credit card debts and stuff like that. We got closing help and credits back for a few things that needed to be installed/rectified.

Way I figure it, we were doing the seller a favor. They accepted our offer less than two hours after we made it.