We Tell it Like It Is

Then you have to accept the fact that you will not be making big bucks off of the sale and you will be lucky to break even.

Why is pricing your home appropriately soooooo important right now?

Scenario #1:  I was representing buyers. They found a beautiful home in a city where home values have taken a significant nose dive. A few years ago, I know the home would've listed for $300,000 or maybe even more. The seller was a contractor and did a lot of nice work on the house; most with his own bare hands. I understand it hurt him to list it at what he did, but he had to sell due to health concerns. He and my buyers negotiated $249,900 for the house and we all knew it was a steal. The home inspection came up flawless and we were moving forward with the purchase. The next step was for my buyer's lender to send an appraiser out to make sure they were lending out an appropriate amount of money for this house. An appraiser walks through the home and considers not only the size, age, style, location of the home but also its condition. Then, the appraiser will go back to his/her office and look up other recent home sales in that city to see how they compare. In the case of this home, the appraiser could not find another property that had sold within the past year in that city for anywhere near $249,900. The most expensive home that had sold was about $210,000 and he felt that he could only add on maybe another $6,000 at the most (considering the good condition & updates of the home in question) without getting the third degree from the lender as to why its appraised so high above the others. The appraisal came back at $216,000.  The lender told my buyer that they would not grant them the mortgage loan because they are asking for too much money that doesn't match w/the value of the house. So, we had to cancel the purchase. And, the seller was not willing to lower the price to $216,000. A week later, the seller's agent called me back. He said the seller realized that if another buyer comes along, the same scenario will unfold if they have an appraisal done, so either he agrees to sell it for $216,000 or not at all. My buyers were able to purchase it for $216,000 (yay!) but the seller sure took a hit because of the market.

Scenario #2: I listed a home that the seller felt was worth $50,000 more than what I was suggesting we list it for because the tax value was about $300k. I provided substantial proof of my findings and said the house needs to be listed under $250,000. The seller eventually talked me into listing it for $275,000. 4 months went by without a single showing. The seller blamed it on me not marketing it enough, not having enough open houses, not having the right pictures online. Little by little we dropped the price by about $2,000 each time (not my choice, his). He refused to list it under $250,000 and we parted ways after about 7 mos. He re-listed at $260,000 with another agent and it sat on the market for almost a year. It sold eventually...for $224,900.