One of my favorite HGTV shows is "Buy Me," which tells real stories about sellers and their real estate agents.  I wrote about a local Chicago real estate episode that told about stubborn sellers that hired their son to be their agent.  The episode I'm writing about today was similar in that the seller used her friend to list her house.

The seller had to sell

This seller could no longer afford her home after losing her job.  She also took money out of her home to start a business but that failed.  The house was too big for her and just the utility bills were too much for her to be able to afford.  So she made the decision to sell and rent a place instead.

She hired her friend - and wasn't happy

She didn't like the suggested list price and her friend was honest about the fact that she felt it was too high.  The homeowner was quirky and her decorating was over-the-top.  Her agent/friend helped her declutter and even helped her paint.

Yet with all of the hands-on help offered by the agent, the seller felt her friend wasn't marketing the home properly.  The episode showed that the friend/agent held an open house and held a broker's open where no one showed up.  There were some showings and feedback was that more work needed to be done and it was deemed to be too high.

Broker's opens are not popular in the area I work in.  I had a fellow agent hold one with a buffet of food offered and I would have stopped by if I wasn't busy showing my own buyers homes.  No one came and the seller realized that broker's opens do not sell a home (and that one was overpriced, too - I'm not sure if it ever sold).

Personally, I do not believe in open houses and I rarely hold them.  I've tried everything (mailings, expensive print advertising, offering food, getting other area agents to hold simultaneous opens and working together, etc.).  In 26 years I have never sold a property because of an open house.  Like many sellers, this seller felt that open houses were important and was unhappy that her agent wasn't being more aggresive by holding them more often.

There was only one thing I could fault her friend/agent for and that was taking photos before some of the decluttering and painting was done.  The seller happened to view her listing online and was mortified to see this and took her own photos.  In my opinion, that was something the agent did that wasn't very professional.

Yet there was an offer

After the new photos were posted it was made to look like more showings occurred.  I'm really not sure if it was because of the photos or time of year or what.  But there was finally an offer.  It was initially low but with negotiating it turned out to be a decent offer.  Yet the seller wanted more.  She insisted her home was worth more and she should have asked higher.  So the deal did not happen.

So she hired a new agent

Once the listing expired with her friend, the seller hired an agent that worked with a "big" brokerage.  As usually happens when a new agent comes in, the seller reduced her price.  To this agent's credit, he did have a Broker's Open where a bunch of agents came through.  Feedback was still that the home was priced too high, even with the reduction.

And the seller lamented not accepting the first offer

Yep, the first offer that she let get away was the best one.  It showed her crying that her prior agent was right and she should have listened to her but she was too stubborn.  

So agent #2 convinced her to lower her price much lower than the original offer she received and she finally sold it.  She lost a lot of money being stubborn and not trusting her friend/agent.

This story just goes to show that some marketing techniques that sellers value don't really sell a property.  Only showing your home in it's best light and pricing it correctly will get it to sell.

Many times, the first agent is blamed for not getting a home sold.  Even when the seller realizes that the first agent was absolutely on target with the correct price, that is not remembered when the home finally gets sold via the 2nd or 3rd (or more) agent at a much lower price. 

Sometimes I don't want to be the first agent with a home where the sellers have a great house that is difficult to value in this market but the property is wonderful.  I know where I will draw the line regarding taking the listing or not, but I am willing to work with certain sellers.  Will they blame me when it doesn't sell?  I'm not worried about it.  If they're not willing to reduce when the market has spoken, I'll even let them out of my contract.  I'm not going to fight with unreasonable sellers.  

Watching shows like Buy Me shows me that these kinds of stubborn sellers are everywhere and you either take the listing and give it a try or you walk away.  I do walk away from sellers that are way overpriced where I have comps to prove it, but I seem to attract unique properties that are difficult to comp out.  So if sellers seem somewhat reasonable I'll give them a try.  But I don't worry about it if it doesn't work out and the listing expires. 

It's all part of the cycle and I work with many expired listings where I was the successful agent because I was able to get the sellers to realize that they were priced too high.  Sometimes sellers need a second opinion.

If you're a buyer or seller interested in Oak Lawn homes for sale give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200 or use the e-mail me link to the right.