For the condition of the home the circumstances that surround the property , the market, the amount of time for sale and the area they would be lucky to get the starting offer price of $350,000.000

Do your homework!!!!

this has been a great topic. How interesting to see this home languish on the market and suffer continual price drops. Obviously the seller is not serious about selling.

still on the market 650,000

I'll admit I don't know the area at all. However, reading the comments (and Howard did a nice writeup...some good background, research, and inferences), we know a couple of things: First, based both on how long it's been on the market without selling and the real estate trends of the past year, it's substantially overpriced. How much? Hard to say, though Mg22's numbers suggest it could be by a couple hundred thousand.

Second, "magnificent" and "one of a kind" only matters to people who care about such things. A few years ago (ugh, actually about 20 years ago), I lived in a "one of a kind" house on 5 acres of land. It had a swimming pool, a huge great room, and was nice and private. Well, a surprising number of people out there didn't like 5 acres--give them a nice house on a 1/3 acre lot and they're happy. Anything more is just a hassle. The swimming pool was a real turn-off for anyone with kids. The great room was impressive, but it was outsized for the rest of the house and horribly expensive to heat in the winter. In short, even people who weren't turned off by the 5 acres, swimming pool, and great room didn't place much of a premium on them. So watch out for "one of a kind" properties that people don't assign a comparable value to.

Finally, don't worry about insulting anyone with a low offer. Did the owner worry about insulting you with a high listing price? Of course not. And what's the worst that would happen with a low offer? It's rejected. It's not the end of the world, for you or for the seller. She's not going to insist on a duel at 20 paces. Maybe she ought to be insulted by people who didn't put any offer in. If you make an offer, at least you've gone to the time and trouble of making an offer, which is more than most people have.

If she paid $250,000 for it in 1998, then sold off half the land...with house prices in many areas (I don't know about Landenberg) back to about 2002 levels...allowing for the renovations she apparently has done...looking at the comps Mg22 listed...knowing it's worth well less than $790,000 in a declining market...you might be looking at something in the range of $500,000, give or take $30,000.

But, if you're still interested in the house, whether or not it's listed, get a good local Realtor. I know nothing about Adrienne, but I liked her answer. You might give her a call for starters.

Thta house is not worth $750,000. I was stunned when I saw it on the MLS.I thought the agent was drinking or something. Shes a nice enough person, but I seriously thought she had gone over the edge on this one. She withdrew the listing ...again.....go figure...I'm sure she is still looking to sell.You want to lowball it.Call me.I'll goet it for less than that.

I have to agree. Go ahead and low ball. It's not like there are other offers coming in anyway, especially since it is almost December and the property has been on the market for over one year. I don't care unique a property is, the market dictates the price and this certainly is overpriced (see the continual price drops). I don't know when the photos were taken, but if the house is empty or "staged" with rental furniture then low ball by all means since they sellers have already moved on and are wasting money on the property. In closing, do not feel bad upsetting a reticent seller. I'd feel bad if they countered at their asking price, at which point I'd say "good luck with that, maybe next year."

Don't worry about insulting anyone. If it has been on the market over a year, the owner is deluding themselves. The market is saying that it is over priced and they need to come to terms with that. Otherwise they should just take it off the market and stop wasting agents/buyers time.

First I am not saying it is not over priced, but here are some of the facts based on public records. She bought it in 1998 for 250K with 12.2 acres. Now it is 5.2 acres. It is her home, she is an agent, the house at 320 was probably a piece subdivided off and it is in her and her sons name, home only 4 years old. Likely the sons house, as it was deeded to just him at one point. Her house has been on the market for 371 days so far. The kitchen says remodeled in 2001 and house rehabbed in 2004. I know what high end renovations cost and the numbers are ugly. Many homes around here have doubled in 7 years just like a good investment without any major improvements. She has owned it 9 years, made improvements but cut off some land. It is unlike almost any other home, a one in a million and if that floats someones boat, they may pay far more than appraisal. It is not the home for the average suburban dweller looking for a yard to ride his craftsman lawn mower around and play football with the kids, there is no yard. Those homes clog the countryside and you can pick one of 100 any day of the week. I doubt you could even build this home today in that close a proximity to a large stream, too many regulations and codes, making it even more rare. Look at the price of a beachfront home and one a block back. All it takes to own it is 2 people agreeing on a contract and who knows what that will be. There are simply things here you cannot buy nearby for any price, just look at the pictures. As far as looking goes, I will be checking it out in person tomorrow, both properties, as there is a brokers open house with lots of food. That will certainly give me some idea of how nice it really is.

This home has been on the market for quite some time. It is definitely out of line with the comps. Be weary of agents that try and convince you that the home is not overpriced. The property was purchased by the current owners in 1998 for 249,900. I find it hard to believe that they put 500,000 in ugrades into the property. And quite frankly, if they did, they most likely overimproved the property since it so clearly out of line with the comps. No doubt it is a nice home, but given the time on the market, and the fact that they just dropped the price to 750, it should be evident that the home is overpriced. Furthermore, be careful of the days on the market since agents in the area have a habit of "withdrawing and relisting" the property to reset the DOM. Get a good agent unaffiliated with the lsiting agents office.

Also be advised that the owners of 319 are also the owners of 320 and this home is also on the market. This leads me to believe that they are merely speculating in the area and therefore there is most likely more room for negotiation.

Natalia,
Here are comps of homes that sold in that area this year:
4439sqft. 4 bedrooms - 3.5 baths $565,000
3934sqft. 4 bedrooms - 2.5 baths $400,000
3723sqft. 4 bedrooms - 2.5 baths $449,900
3642sqft. 4 bedrooms - 2.5 baths $400,000

319 appears to be a really nice home, but you should find out if it sold in the past few years and if it did, for what. Talk with a realtor and get comps that compare apples to apples not apples to oranges. Find out how long the other houses were on the market. The house is definatley overpriced and will continue to sit until some "sucker" buys into the hype and decides to purchase it. It would most likely be someone out of state who is not familiar with the area . I am sure that is what the seller is hoping will happen.

Two things to consider:
1. It states "Bring all offers" on the website
2. The seller is a PA realtor - (I would check into this)

Go in with an offer you are comfortable with and see what happens. They could say yes or they could say no. You will never know until you try.
Good Luck!!!

Mr. Webb, let's get REAL. I don't have the typical northeast mentality of "It is going to snow so I better go buy my bread, milk and eggs". I am not easily scared by what CNN, FOX or MSNBC spew on a daily basis. If you would stop and actually take the time to do REAL research such as myself, then you will see that the housing outlook continues to deteriorate as existing home sales plunged 8% to 5.04 million. Stress in the mortgage market has led to a sharp pullback in mortgage origination, higher borrowing costs and depressed buyer sentiment, which in turn has caused a sharp decline in home sales & will continue to fall through 2008. This will lead to continued construction cuts and falling home prices. Construction cuts result in job losses, job losses = a weaker economy thus further affecting home price trends. This information was directly from Lehman Brothers. You are correct that prices can be driven by supply and demand. But the truth to the matter is that for the past 2 years over 2 million homes were bought with unrealistic mortgages such as an ARM or Interest Only Mortgage. The very same people who bought these homes also paid with no money down or only 5% down. These people were not qualified to buy a home. So your so called Supply and Demand was a falsified one due to bad mortgage practices. Homeowners & mortgage companies are at fault. As a result, foreclosures are at an all time high. Like I said in my previously, this is just the top of the iceberg & most Americans are not "fully" informed of what is really happening. Your post fully confirms that! Maybe Mr. Webb you should take a vacation to Cleveland, Ohio where 1 in ten homes are vacant and that area alone collectively owns 1 TRILLION DOLLARS of sub prime debt. Across the country, there have already been 1.7 million foreclosure proceedings in the US in the first eight months of 2007, and up to 2 million families are expected to lose their homes over the next two years. The sub-prime lending market started as a way of lending to people with poor credit history. Many of these mortgages were sold by unscrupulous and little regulated mortgage brokers, who received handsome commissions for selling expensive and unsuitable products. Some customers were not told that their interest rates would go up sharply after 2 years; others were promised they could refinance their home before higher rates took effect. I am not sure why so many Americans fell for this, but truthfully, you should only buy a home 3x's your salary with 15 - 20% down on a fixed loan. Another thing that had happen, Feds lowered rates to historic lows. Rates fell to 4.75% in 2005 which in turn allowed you to borrow at a lower cost. This turned out to be both good and bad. The good being it cost us less to borrow, but then home prices sky rocketed due to realtors jacking up prices and brokers telling everyone they can afford a house 5x's their salary. People were told what they wanted to hear. The past two years greed grew out of control & the market got out of control. I am not saying that all homes are overpriced such as what you are stating homes selling for 70K in your area. This must be inner city or out in the middle of nowhere. In my area, the only "single" homes that are selling for that price are in the city and are deplorable. In my area, single homes in the suburbs that once sold prior to 2004 sold for $200K or less are now put on the market for $350K or higher. That is absolute crazy. Anyone with common sense would tell you that homes do not appreciate by $200K+ in just two years. Unless those homeowners did some MAJOR renovations that would justify the price, but believe me, I have seen a lot of these homes and the owners have had done nothing regarding renovations. As for your local paper listing average home sales being up in your area, they are going by "median" prices which in your area are $200,000 up from $190,000 the previous year. If more people bought those 70K priced homes, the median price will then come down. That same house probable sold for $40K in 2002. In today's market over priced homes are sitting on the market longer and will continue to do so. In my area, houses over $350K have been sitting on the market for a year. Analysts say if a house is on the market for more than two months than is it over priced. Do us all a big favor and do some real research and stop talking out of your ass. All I hear is blah, blah, blah. I am just trying to help someone who will make the biggest purchase of their lifetime. I would hate for them to lose a lot of $ in a year or two. The unfortunate thing is people like yourself think that you are still entitled to $300K for your $70K house because that is what your neighbor got last year. Yes, you will make money off of your home, just not the $200K+ profit people got during 05/06. Prices will fall on homes that are overpriced, they are doing just that and will continue well into 2008. Three words of advice- Get over it!

Mg, you are probably still eating the spam and rice you hoarded for Y2K. The sky is not falling little red hen. Your gloom and doom statements are silly. Every morning when I wake up there are more people than the day before and they all want somewhere to live. Around here is the better somewhere chosen. We are in a much better location than most people. The tri-state area is a hub of white collar jobs and that isn't changing. How can prices drop a lot when the cost of building materials is so high. To build a new home just costs a lot. There isn't much fat to cut so resale properties won't drop much below the cost of new until new homes stop being built. Yes builders are cutting profits and may be loosing in some cases. That is because they built too fast and lots of people got into it. Supply and demand runs the markets and supply is high. Some cannot survive so it is the strong that will live to profit another day. Now if we have a plague or some huge loss of life and there are just are not as many people needing a house, or a global economy crash, I can see prices dropping. If that happens we are all in trouble no matter how cheap we got a house. Average sale price is actually up from last year in Chester County. I just saw it in the paper last month. Not a big increase but still around 10K. As far as blaming, the blame can only be placed on we, the buyers. We drive the market. If we are willing to pay, up goes the price. If no one buys, the price will drop. We must be buying as prices are not dropping a lot and sales are still going on. If it were the broker, agent, and mortgage peoples fault, why are there so many dumb ones that didn't make the prices rise in their areas. Just look at all the places in upstate PA and NY where a home can still be bought for 70K. Do you think they didn't get the email that said "quick everyone raise the prices so we can all be rich"? I don't think so. No one can predict the future without error, good forsight is everything but don't sacrifice your own future waiting for an unlikely economic crash thinking you will benefit. If the economy does crash, you probably won't have the money to buy anyway. Even it you do, you'll be too scared that it may get worse and you will never buy. What a vicious circle you'll be in.

WAIT TO BUY! The market is on an absolute correction and prices will need to drop severly across the nation. Most responses on this site will be from real estate agents and they will say now is a good time to buy. Look into the REAL truth regarding the housing market at http://www.patrick.net. This site really explains a lot as to how the housing market is really in trouble. What we are exposed to on the local news is just the tip of the iceberg. Homes are extremely OVER priced and home owners are insulting buyers with what they are asking, so don't feel that your lower priced offer is offensive to them. Sellers need to come back to reality and realize that the prices of 2005 and 2006 were way off the mark. We only have mortgage companies, brokers and real estate agents to thank for really messing up the housing industry!!! WAIT NOW or you will lose money in the end when prices really fall over the next two years and you will be kicking yourself when your home loses "so called value".

Hello Natalia,
This is a one of a kind home and will be nearly impossible to comp taking into account all aspects of the property. There is definitely a premium value based on its one of a kind qualities that will make comps difficult. Time on the market is not nearly as important with a home like this as it will take a special buyer. They come along, just not everyday. A cookie cutter on an acre with 100 other homes exactly the same is a different story. You really should be working with an agent that could help answer all your questions and work through negotiations representing you and only you. An appraisal clause should be used so the home must appraise for what you are paying. You can always choose to pay more, but you won't be forced to. Appraisals are very strict currently and they almost protect people from paying too much. Do not worry about insulting this owner as she is her own agent and has been around and seen everything, but also don't be riducluous and offer 400K. As the owner, she cannot represent you as a client because it would be a conflict of interest. Feel free to contact me should you be interviewing for an agent to represent you.