housepricesupSome houses only sell in sellerโ€™s markets. That is when buyers are willing to do their deepest compromises. Buyers who are considering entering the market need to know that we are still in a sellerโ€™s market. When buyers get desperate, they look at seriously location-impaired houses. I am talking really impaired! Stuff like a house under the highway entrance ramp, facing a multi-lane highway, on a busy street next to a gas station, on busy street next to an abandoned gas station, built into a rock โ€“ with no yard.

Houses with this kind of unchangeable problem are tougher to sell in any market. In a true buyers market, they are nearly impossible to sell. There is a point where no price reduction is deep enough.

In the sellerโ€™s market of the last couple of years, some houses that are location-impaired have been priced low enough to attract a buyer. From where I sit, as a buyerโ€™s agent, buyers who choose houses in bad locations own houses that will always be wrong for the vast majority of possible future buyers.

The old saw โ€œthe only thing that matters in real estate is location, location, locationโ€ is frequently misunderstood. What it really means is that location has three levels: by metro area, by town or clusters of towns, in a very local sense.

I work in the Boston metro area and mostly in the towns immediately outside Boston proper. This is a โ€œgoodโ€ location. Most of the towns that I work in are also considered โ€œgoodโ€ locations (although some are better, and more expensive, than others.) In my practice, I spend a lot of time talking about location in the very local sense.

What makes a bad micro-location? Mostly, it is a condition that offends the senses of the typical buyer. Here are some examples:

house on highwaySight: a permanent structure which is ugly (like a warehouse) or blocks the light (like a wall of rock in the back yard a few feet from the foundation.) Sometimes a house too close can be enough to damn the house for sale in places where most houses have visual privacy.

Smell: a permanent structure that emits an odor or could cause significant, smelly pollution. Gas stations and fast-food restaurants are obvious examples. Also consider busy streets leave petrol-chemical smell. Some streams smell, in season.

Sound: a business which has delivery early in the morning can create sound pollution each morning. Schools have bus traffic, as well as delivery. Also, people who work at home donโ€™t all love the sound of children at play, nor are the bells announcing class a pleasure all day, every day. Of course, road noise is one that most buyers know to look out for; be sure to check that noise in the back yard, where it could be better or worse.

Touch: a business that has heavy trucking or other heavy machinery can make a house vibrate. Very annoying. The business often is ugly, too, but may be hiding behind bushes.

Taste: well, not reallyโ€ฆ Houses with bad taste are not necessarily locationally impaired.