These 14 Local Properties Have Been Languishing on the Market for More Than a Year
In one sense, they’re the unlovables. The unwanteds. The last kids picked for the team. The bridesmaids but never the brides. They’re the homes that sit on the market for forever.
Fourteen such residential properties in Odenton have been on the market for more than a year. Some for more than two years. One for nearly 2,000 days.
Days on
Market
ML#
Property
Address
Home
Type
List
Price
Short
Sale?
BR/BA/Gar
1,956 AA6568951 700 Orchard Overlook #304 Condo $218,083 Yes 2/2/0 1,329 AA7007200 2711 Hickory Knoll Ct E TH $319,500 2/2.5/0 1,129 AA7147058 8601 Roaming Ridge Way #201 Condo $217,000 2/2/1 573 AA7902887 1942 Palonia Ct TH $199,000 Yes 3/2.5/0 561 AA7692305 702 Orchard Overlook #301 Condo $197,500 2/2/0 534 AA7588727 1323 Tree Side Ct Detached $275,000 4/2/0 527 AA7872234 2519 Orchard Knoll Way TH $269,000 Yes 3/3.5/0 518 AA7623770 8603 Wintergreen Ct #302 Condo $344,900 3/2/1 497 AA7639282 696 Winding Stream Way #201 Condo $199,900 2/2/0 486 AA7647123 2270 Canteen Cir TH $270,000 3/2&2/0 408 AA7658866 1908 Cannon Ridge Dr Detached $265,000 Yes 3/2.5/2 392 AA7709182 1211 Breitwert Ave Detached $374,990 4/2&2/1 387 AA7712146 8610 Fluttering Leaf Trl #408 Condo $244,900 2/2/1 371 AA7721868 1310 Tree Side Ct Detached $275,000 4/2/0
So why hasn’t some good-hearted buyer taken these fine properties home from the pound? Why have the homes been on the market for so long? And -- more importantly for buyers facing a lack of housing inventory in the Odenton area -- do these homes represent a good buying opportunity?
A closer look at the homes finds several reasons behind their long stay on the market. As well as some encouraging signs that many of the properties ultimately will be sold.
Reason 1: Inflated Prices
Home buyers are discriminating and they will not pay more for a property than the market rate. Thus, homes that are not optimally priced have a hard time competing with homes that are.
This is a prime reason why several of the 14 homes on the list above have been on the market for so long.
To illustrate, of the 14 homes on the list, half have had price reductions of $20,000 or more since they first hit the market. The three properties that have been on the market for more than a thousand days have had an average price reduction of $46,000 since they were first listed. The home on Cannon Ridge Drive in Seven Oaks has dropped its list price $84,000 since it first was listed for sale 408 days ago.
It’s a hard lesson for sellers: Overpriced properties can sit on the market for years.
Reason 2: Short Sales Can Take a Long Time
Millions of homeowners are “underwater” on their mortgages, but many still want or need to sell their properties. These sellers often end up in distressed property sales.
Short sales in particular pose many problems for a home seller – and for potential buyers of the property -- because third-party approval of the sale by the lender is required. Many banks are overwhelmed by the number of short sale requests they receive and often banks are terribly inefficient at handling them.
It’s not surprising to learn, then, that four of the 14 properties included on the Odenton list are potential short sale candidates, and administrative delays and rejected buyer-offers have played a significant role in keeping these homes on the market for an extended period.
This problem is exacerbated when a home has more than one mortgage and each of those mortgages is held by a different bank. When this situation occurs (as it does for the Cannon Ridge Drive home), approval of the sale must be obtained from each of the lenders, in a timely manner. This is no easy task.
Short sales also extend a home’s time on the market in cases where the lender considers and rejects an offer, then starts the process all over again with a subsequent offer. For example, if the lender takes six months to consider and then reject an offer, a subsequent offer might be submitted, only to take another six months of consideration. Where this happens, it’s easy to see how a year can go by and the seller is no closer to selling the property than he was when the process started.
Other Reasons for Delays
There are other reasons some of the 14 homes have been on the market so long.
- For the two homes on Tree Side Court, the properties are part of a new mini-subdivision near Piney Orchard Parkway and the Odenton MARC Train station. Each of the properties was listed on the MLS many months before construction of the homes began. Thus, their extended “days on market” is not necessarily an accurate gauge of their market appeal. According to the homes’ builder, 1323 Tree Side Court is now ready for occupancy; 1310 Tree Side just had its foundation poured.
- In addition to pricing issues, the condominiums for sale on Roaming Ridge Way and Wintergreen Court are located in 55+ communities. As such, they appeal to a significantly smaller subset of buyers (55+). Plus, they face stiff competition from existing 55+ homes and the new-construction 55+ projects at the nearby Gatherings at Forest Glen (Odenton) and Carroll’s Creek, on Waugh Chapel Road (Gambrills).
- Some sellers also have the luxury of waiting for the very best offer for their homes. This might occur for personal reasons (2270 Canteen Circle), or the seller might lease the property to a tenant while he fields the most attractive purchase offers (2711 Hickory Knoll Court).
- Finally, buyers’ tastes are notoriously subjective. Some buyers might find a particular home ugly, outdated or in poor condition. But a different buyer might want the home precisely for that reason. In the case of the home at 1211 Breitwert Ave., for example, a buyer might not want the home because it has a swimming pool.
Hope Springs Eternal
But there’s an old adage in real estate: There’s a buyer for every house. And even though a home may be on the market for an extended period, the possibility always remains that a buyer will step forward.
In fact, in the case of Odenton’s current crop of unlovables, three of the properties do have contracts on them.
- 8601 Roaming Ridge Way (1129 days on market) went under contract on Oct. 9;
- 1942 Palonia Court (573 days on market) is under contract and slated to close on Nov. 30; and
- 702 Orchard Overlook (561 days on market) is under contract and scheduled to close on Nov. 29.
There’s no guarantee these purchases ultimately will be finalized. But it proves there’s hope for the seller of every property out there.
And sometimes, you can’t help but root for them.
Jerry Kline is a Realtor with the Odenton, Md., office of Keller Williams Flagship Realty (1216 Annapolis Rd., Odenton.) For more information on the local real estate market, contact him at (443) 924-7418.
