For some, the stakes are high right now

As we enter the month of November I'm struck by the number of vacant homes on the market. The vacancies are due to any number of reasons - job relocations, foreclosures, or sellers who have simply moved onto their new home while they wait for their prior home to sell.

Regardless of the reason, owners of vacant homes all have one thing in common: all incur holding costs for properties they don't use. And holding costs - including mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and property upkeep - add up quickly.

The challenge for sellers with holding costs is we are entering the slowest part of the sales season. And because buyers have all of the leverage right now, many offers made over the next few months are likely to disappoint.

Some may be tempted to wait it out for a better offer, but it could be several months before that better offer arrives. Even so there is no guaranty that the next offer will be any better than the first. It could very well be that last month's "low ball" offer turns out to be next month's dream come true.

Consider the fact that foreclosures in Dane County continue to rise. More and more foreclosed homes are working their way through the legal process and onto the market, applying upward pressure on supply and downward pressure on prices.

If you have holding costs and you receive an offer this winter that's not where you want it to be, make sure your ensuing decision is a well-informed one based on a thorough understanding of the market conditions in your neighborhood. Consider the benefits of taking the sure thing versus the potential risk of waiting for the better offer. Don't base your decision purely on the hope for something better. If you can live with that "low ball" you may very well end up being glad that you took it.

Here's a real example from this week that illustrates this point: I'm assisting a buyer who has become interested in a Madison listing that just dropped $20,000 from the original list price. The owners have moved on. The house is vacant. The listing agent told me (with permission from her clients) that this house is priced to sell because the current list price is lower than the offer the sellers received a few months earlier - which the sellers chose not to accept.

Unfortunately for these sellers the market has changed from the market of several months ago. And the fall and winter sales seasons are much different from the markets of the spring and summer. In retrospect that previous offer wasn't a low ball offer; it was a genuine opportunity.