Good, bad, or ugly, 2023 is what we’ve got to work with right now.

Will sales be as crazy as they were for the last couple of years? Probably not.

Will buyers compete to pay more than you’re asking for your house? Probably not that either.

How about the “I’ll buy your house with no hassle to you” people?

Back in the eighties, one of my early brokers used to take me with him on listing presentations. If he discovered a prospect motivated and in a hurry, he sometimes would offer them 60% of the house’s value for a fast close.

He bought a house at those prices from time to time, in order to remodel it himself and resell it to make a few thousand dollars.

He generally dealt with a smaller house he already knew the cost of rehab. The people he dealt with were often older, perhaps original-owner types who saw the beauty at that point of their lives NOT to be homeowners.

He never did try to cheat them, and he let them know that after he paid them, and then paid for improvements, he needed to be invested at a point he could sell and make a few bucks. That was how he made a living.

I call these the no hassle to you people, or NHTY peeps.

The NHTY peeps become high profile

They are almost everywhere- TV, snail-mail, robo-calls, and text messages.

This is because the NHTY herds feed on things that have become more plentiful.

At times previously, the hassle involved meant selling your own home for-sale-by-owner or FSBO. And yes, that can be some work. It can be a hassle. And it can save a home seller many thousands of dollars. But it’s not for everyone.

Now there are more and more, especially younger, homeowners who regard even having an agent sell their house, paying them thousands of dollars as still too much of an inconvenience to put up with.

How do the numbers shake out?

Let’s say you have a modest $100,000 house, hypothetically.

You could sell it yourself for its full value.

Or you could give somebody 5 or 6 or 7% to sell it for you to save the hassle.

Or you could take $40,000 less, and never put it on the market, in order to save the hassle.

At this point, I think you seem to be fiercely protective of your hassle.

The bottom line

You see, of course, why the NHTY crowd is no longer an endangered species. The conditions are right for them to proliferate.

You have to analyze your own motives. Yes, in a perfect world, nothing would require any effort from or inconvenience to us. But now that you may see the numbers better, is it really worth it? If it is, that’s OK.

Next time, we’ll talk about hacks we can use when buyers are not as motivated as they were before. We may not have to drop prices like some sellers are.

I’ve been doing this for 40 years, if there is anything I might help you with, ask me. If you like real estate, you’re at the right place.