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Originally Posted by Couple of Lakers
We would like to chime in here as a couple that has had their Winnipesaukee lakefront condo on the market now for a little over 2 months. Yes we think the market is definitely soft and yes prices are coming down. We have now lowered the price of our place 110K. 50K, then another 50K, and now just another 10K. Granted our original listing price could be considered high but you have to start somewhere. Obviously we want as much as we can get and of course buyers want to pay as little as possible. We think everyone gets that. Based on what our place has to offer, 2 years ago we probably would have gotten our original asking price. Today that's not the case.
Although we have had interest, we have yet to have anyone make an offer. We suspect buyers are sitting on the sidelines taking a wait and see approach. Especially for 2nd vacation homes. We thought we were priced aggressively especially compared to anything else in our price range with similar amenities. Even more so after the first 50K price reduction. We thought someone wouldn't be able to pass this up. Wrong. Next 50K reduction more interest but still nothing. Now we're another 10K down and waiting to see what happens. We know someone will eventually come along and be able to see the value in what we're offering. But who knows how long it will take.
There's something to our disadvantage as an HOA waterfront property that most wouldn't realize when exploring valuations. The boat slip is not figured into the value of the property, neither is the jet ski lift. This, in our opinion, is huge. It makes us seem overpriced. To buy an equivalent slip would be around 200K today not to mention the added bonus of a jet ski lift. Although you have these dedicated spots they are not figured into your tax bill which is a huge bonus. They are part of the associations property and actually not individually "owned".
The lake level at this time is also a problem. Our place has a deck that sits right over the water and we can usually dock our kayaks there. But not now. With the water being down about 2ft it is now a sandbar. No rain we believe has had an impact at least with waterfront sales.
So there you have it from our personal experience thus far. Yes, there is a slowdown. And also according to our realtors, few places have been gone under contract over the last few months.
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I think one of the major problems you are facing--market conditions aside--is that the physical constraints of your home, (i.e., size), proximity to a busy road, and shallowness of that cove even in a non-drought year, severely limits your pool of potential buyers. You obviously can't change these physical factors, but have you had a conversation with your RE agent about strategies/ideas to market around these, other than price?
A wise person told me many years ago that before buying a property, think about who would buy it when you go to sell it in the future. Will it appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers? If not, you may be stuck.
Unfortunately, "the market" can be an unforgiving beast. We've been in this boat before as well, when we sold our house in CT to move back to MA in 2014. House was on the market for 9 months, and we eventually took a $400K haircut from our purchase price to be able to move on with our lives. The only saving grace was that RE prices in MA had declined too, so we were able to find a similar house and have a similar mortgage payment as we did in CT.