Thursday, December 11, 2008

Sick Buildings!

St. Louis LoftsNothing new to report here. Buyer's get freaked out when they see lots of places for sale in a given area. Drive down one street in a neighborhood and see two or three houses together with 'For Sale' signs and people start asking what's wrong with the area. Is the Love Canal flowing in back? Is there a crack house on the corner?

The funny thing about downtown is that some buildings go out of there way to force EVERY prospective buyer that walks into their building to see how many units are, or have been on the market based upon the number of lock boxes they see when they walk in the door or as they walk by the building. This is a problem that really should be fixed. Not only does it reflect on the building, but it reflects on downtown as a whole.

Of course, having a buyer's agent like myself, we can explain that there are a number of units that have sold and still have the box there. There are others that may be for rent, and there are still some that just need a lockbox for entry of a utility or service technician. We can also point out that in a building with 100 units, having 10 on the market isn't bad. In the mind of a buyer, no one would want to sell in the building they want. It would be too cool for that.

So this may be another post for the condo board members out there to consider. If the first message a buyer gets out of your building is that a bunch of units are for sale, you have a problem. At a time when re-sale value isn't something we even want to look at, its not a bad time to address the things that will hold back re-sale values in ANY market.