Feast and Famine

The first thing you need to know about real estate is you have no idea what your house will sell for. When mad drooling cretins, fuelled by debt, fear and delusion start moving in herds, your property might be the scene of growling and teeth gnashing. Several of these cretins may rear up, savaging each other with lashes of a bank's sharpest instrument - a loan approval. And at the end, chests will be puffed out as one side imagines their victory becoming BBQ folklore, while the other consoles themselves with a half-hearted, "it wasn't the house for them."

Which leaves you sitting on a pile of money.

The other scenario is no where near as exciting, there's no victorious party and only one loser. That's you, because no one gives a jack - about you, your house, nor what you think it's worth.

Welcome to the reality of the 4x2 located in Somerset. Five months on the market, one failed auction, long sitting empty and the asking price of $383,000 becomes $289,000. With a phone call, an uninspired agent updates a listing and there disappears $94,000 of assumed equity. 

But is it enough to bring those herds back and get those teeth gnashing?

At over 7 times average local income, there's a little more fat to be trimmed yet.