Over priced listings. Should we consider them?

Over priced listings.  Should we consider them?

There are a lot of blogs on over priced listings,  we all (real estate agents) agree that we should never take them, but I would like to share another point of view.  I know that many agents are going to disagree with this point of view, but this is very much on my mind, so I am going to share it.

A while back, I had a navy pilot be specific on what he wanted for his house, and although it was way over priced, we came to an agreement that we would list his house for $10,000 more than what I thought is should list even on the higher end of the CMA.  The agreement was that at the end of 3 weeks, after getting feed back from the showings we would reduce the price. I mention what he did for a living because his personality was very strong and very methodical.  During the third week, we had our third showing in the time of the listing, and I had the feeling that this last couple had really liked the place from the feedback of the buyer's agent. I decided to hold on one more week before lowering the price, just in case of they wrote an offer.  So it happened that we did get a full price offer with high closing cost assistance request.
I had to explain to my client that an offer in hand is worth more than..... anything else, and after thinking it over for a couple of days, he accepted the offer.  It has to be mentioned that this house was in mint condition with all the bells and whistles and showed better than anything else in that price range in a desirable area.  Back then appraisers were not yet under such scrutiny.  The sale went through without a hitch.

Over priced listings.  Should we consider them?

This past winter, I had a listing appointment with a seller whose listing had expired.  After talking with the seller, I realized that the previous agent had done a pretty good job advertising the listing, holding open houses, flyers etc...  The Internet marketing could have been stronger, but during the 6 months that the house was listed there had been 3 offers.  One of them was $5.000 short of his asking price.  Eventually, he reduced the price and the listing expired.  The seller interviewed 3 new agents, and I was one of them. After the initial in person interview, I spoke with him several times over the next couple of months, and I decided he was not someone I wanted to work with.   Recently  I was looking at this neighborhood and saw that he had sold the home for the price I had suggested plus $10,000.   He had done all the repairs and improvements that I had suggested, so the house showed much better, but I still could not believe that an appraiser would agree to that selling price because the numbers weren't there.
Did he make the right decision?  I don't know.  He sold for his initial price from the year before.  In the mean time he made substantial improvements to get the house up to par in that neighborhood.  It took him a year plus a few months after he initially put it on the market, and he could afford to hold on that long.  I assume he was happy that he got the price he wanted.  I know that he was taking money out of saving to cover all expenses, so by the time he was done, he probably broke even with that earlier offer short of $5,000.
My point is.... that some times in those desirable neighborhoods and when the home is in better than mint condition, we should consider taking the listing.

 

To SELL or BUY  Real Estate in Virginia Beach, or Hampton Roads visit my website. http://www.tererottink.com/  visit my Blog at HamptonRoadsrealEstateVoice.com 

Call me at: 757-502-5324

Over priced listings.  Should we consider them?   was first published on Hampton Roads Real Estate VoiceCopyright © 2010 By Tere Rottink, All Rights Reserved. 

Over priced listings.  Should we consider them?