Category: 
For the second time in two weeks I’ve said farewell to a seller customer; a listing. It’s not really a fun thing to do or anything that I look forward to doing but there comes a time for some real estate agents to move on.
My most recent loss was a seller of a home in Bonita Springs. It was owned by the nicest people in the world, but they just weren’t ready to listen to the advice I gave them. Actually, they might have never listened to the advice I gave them. So here we are about 10 months of time, marketing and buyer opportunities lost on a home that never sold. 10 months, I call that market research.
Yesterday, after countless attempts to get an appropriate price reduction on the home I offered to step away. This crazy thing is happening when buyers buy a home, they get a loan from a bank and the bank orders an appraisal. The home has to appraise in order for the financing to be approved. This is what a real estate agent does for a home they’re trying to sell: They get the home priced appropriately so that:
- It will be show by other agents.
- Buyers will call on the add copy because the price compels them to do so.
- It will appraise when it is sold.
It’s rather basic but the Bonita Springs real estate market is more competitive than 1980’s hockey game between the Soviets and the U.S.
This home lucky. It is actually getting shown, just no offers - not even crappy offers. That’s a sign. Maybe the buyers are walking in and comparing the qualities of the home to those of other homes that are in the same price range and it isn’t measuring up. By my estimation this home is currently priced 6% above the high end of what it might appraise at. (Echo: That is might appraise at) Yesterday, I spoke to the homeowners and they requested more open houses, more print adds, in a “better” newspaper with “better” homes in the add with their home and then I got the “when the going gets tough, the tough get going speech”. Well this tough gal is going; going out the door because she’s done writing checks for marketing a home that won’t sell.
I appreciate the advice these sellers gave me. But they aren’t real estate agents. Moreover, they aren’t real estate agents in an unprecedented real estate market that can only be compared to the stock market crash of ‘29. I’m in the trenches in this market. I’m battered and bloody and I know stuff - I’ve done this for a while. By my estimation this home owner, in an effort to fight over every penny, cent and dollar with me has spent over $75,000 on mortgage payments, taxes and community fees instead of just reducing the price of the home by $50,000 to get a buyer. Now, before you even ask, I am a professional - the absorption rate and estimated holding costs were shown to the sellers at the time of listing. They just didn’t listen.
Read also:
Why Your Bonita Springs Home is NOT Selling
Want Bonita Springs updates? Subscribe to the RSS feed or
Comments
This entry was posted
on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 am
and is filed under Market Reports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Comments so far
You simply cannot price a house based on what you need out of it. Buyers do not care to pay off your bills for you, they want the best house for their money.
[...] the rest of this post and contact the author: here Filed under Uncategorized [...]
[...] SrivalliReally interesting read I found today:(Echo: That is might appraise at) Yesterday, I spoke to the homeowners and they requested more open houses, more print adds, in a “better” newspaper with “better” homes in the add with their home and then I got the “when the going gets … [...]