why even both with fixing your regular sale house up? We have spent the last 3 months fixing the plumbing, buying a new washer, cleaning, painting, redid our foyer bathroom, etc. We have put a lot of time and money into making it sale ready. Everything they tell you to do for listing a house for sale.

But then to be told that our house will sell at short sale prices because every sale minus 2 are short sales and those were bigger than ours. 

If I have to list like a short sale, even though there are less conditions a buyer has to put up with, less risk for a buyer, etc, why did we do all that extra work? People selling on short sale and foreclosures sure as heck aren't fixing their places up? 

We won't appraise any higher (according to the realtor) than the short sales and then, even if we got a higher initial price, we would have to come down to the appraisal price or else the buyer (who will most likely be a first time home buyer getting a FHA loan) will have to walk because they won't get the loan. No one will come with an all cash offer - guaranteed.

WHY did we fix our place up? Now someone is going to get a beautiful, turnkey home for the some price as the short sale down the street that had old paint, original bathrooms and an outdated kitchen. They win, we doubly lose.

I'm so upset.

It really stinks. Up until 3 months ago, we were planning on staying and riding this all out, but then my husband got this great job opportunity. Funny thing is, how great is the job opportunity when it means we are losing on our house? And won't be able to afford a new one? How many years of that new job will it take to make it worth it?

So, in the five years we owned this home we did things for us... new windows, 42" cabs, kitchen island and pantry, granite, etc. We tore out the old master bathroom to the studs, reconfigured the space and added a deep soaker tub, to the ceiling tiles, bigger vanity etc.  All kinds of things.

In the last 3 months we've spent about 2,000 on painting, fixing smaller issues with the house and making it 'pretty'. Maybe even less, but that doesn't wipe out the 20,000 we've put in last year on improvements before we knew we were selling.

Our big mistake was buying in 2004 - and not with an ARM or anything...just buying at those prices period.

We won't need to short sale at the 'going rate', but it will mean we can't buy another house following the same strategy. My husband said that we can try to use these appraisals to our advantage on the buying end too. If we can negotiate a really good deal on the buying end, then we can afford to go that low on the selling end... that's true. It's not just us affected by these low appraisals. Of course, the sellers have to be willing to lower their prices... and some may and some may not.

This is not a normal market so I think you are right, it probably isn't a good idea to put anything more than cosmetic fixes on a house to sell it...even in normal markets you typically do not get full value out of a large remodel so it is better to do it and enjoy the remodel for a few years before selling...the bubble was an anomaly where you could do a remodel and sell it for much more than the costs you put in....mostly that doesn't happen except for fixer uppers or if you are saving immensely on labor or supplies because you are a contractor or a do-it-yourselfer. You might be able to recoup your money with room additions in a normal market too but maybe not now.

At least your situation is not like a friend of mine who moved to Idaho...he bought a few acres and had a custom home built that took close to a year and then he lived in the house for 9 months then got transferred to Washington...he then built a smaller place there and lived in it 2 years and got transferred to Arizona...now he just bought a place there instead of building this time. 

Well, we did the remodel for ourselves. We had a 35 year old crumbing master bathroom - literally. Tub was pitted and porcelain worn out, tiles were cracked, and the vanity was just a floating shelf in the hallway leading to the bathroom which was just a toilet and tub. No matter what,we had to fix that, but we didn't anticipate having to leave it 9 months after completing it!!! Our foyer bathroom we just replaced the vanity and light as the sink was also a floating sink and the basic was all cracked and the hardware all tarnished. It would be a major "ick" factor for anyone looking, for sure and it was next on our list of "must replace/fix" list if we lived here. We didn't change the flooring or toilet though.

The only hope is that it will help it sell faster so we can get another house if we do a contigency clause. 

Using the same comps - one said $280,000 to $290,000 (because of our updates). The redfin agent said $270,000 (same as short sale listings). We will be contacting the gal with the monopoly on listings in the next few days to see what she has to say.

The problem we have that while supply is low (and properties are FLYING off here), appraisals are low because of the short sales and foreclosures. So while someone might be willing to spend $300,000 plus on our property, according to the redfin agent, it probably won't appraise above the short sale comps of $270,000, so either the buyer has to cough up cash or their loan won't go through.