Special offer

Priced to sell or Priced to sit?

By
Real Estate Agent with Century 21 NorthBay Alliance

In today's market this is the choice facing most sellers. I have spoken to many prospective sellers over the past few weeks and I can only assume they have not been watching the news or listening to their Realtor. Now, don't get me wrong these people want to sell their homes. I'm just not sure they are prepared to sell in today's market.

I recently spoke with a couple that have a nice home for sale. They have kept the home well maintained and just spent almost $10,000 on a new roof. They paid almost $200,000 for this house three years ago...they believe the house is worth over $300,000 today. In speaking with them about listing their home they told me that they wouldn't consider a listing price below $315,000! After all, they weren't going to "give the house away" and...if it didn't sell, oh well.

Ok class...here's the question, Are they pricing to sell or pricing to sit? Wait you say...What are comparable houses selling for? How long are houses sitting on market? What's the competition in today's market? Well, they didn't care about those details and they are prepared to sit. I certainly provided them with all that information and spoke at length about the market today.

The question you really have to ask yourself is...if they are pricing to sit...what can an agent do for them?

Comments (3)

Jack Haydon
Charles Rutenberg Realty - Clearwater Beach, FL
Clearwater Beach Condos - Real Estate Homes for Sale

Great post! We have a lot of sellers like that here.

Jack

May 29, 2007 11:54 AM
Debi Braulik
www.roundrealestate.com - Maple Valley, WA
Selling Maple Valley to Fife WA Homes For Sale
Good question. Agents can do nothing with / for sellers like that. They get bull headed and then start to freak out when it hasn't sold and end up beating the agent up (personal experience talking here!)  It was a great learning experience for me and now I turn down unrealistic sellers like that.
May 29, 2007 12:27 PM
Venice Harris
EXP Realty - Conyers, GA
Real Estate Agent - Conyers, GA

Hi Hank,

I feel your pain.  I'm in the same situation.  I have a buyer who really needs to sell now but is being very pig-head on the listing price.  Unreasonable to be exact!  I've explained the market situation to her several times and decided to give up talking.  Her house has been sitting!   I agree with Debi and have decided from now on I'm going to be selective with the listings that I accept especially if you're putting in marketing dollars that you may not see back. 

May 29, 2007 02:02 PM