Just like in my house where the dogs listen to Gabby(my 9 year old cat) or they end up getting their nose popped... I'm getting ready to not pop a nose, but fire a client who just doesn't understand.
And to protect the guilty I'm taking some "liberties" with this story, but I think you will get the jest of it.
A family of 6 children come to our office to sell the "old family place" and are ready to list that day. The talk we have seems to go well. All the siblings live out of state and not in the same state with each other. One sibling is "appointed" by all to be the spokesperson for the family.
We deal with the many problems with this property(like getting the tenant out, the legal way of course), clean up (the tenants were slobs wtihpets with pottying issues) the mess, work on the grounds and get the house ready for market. We put a "as is" price on the house because it's in serious need of some neglected maintenance and updating. We get not one, but two offers right away. We encourage Mr. Spokesperson to accept the higher offer. But even though we tell them just "how the market is" they are so encouraged that we got two offers right away they take neither and expect more offers will come flooding in.
Now... nearly 1 year later the house still sits, the family is still paying taxes and heating bills and no more offers have been made. And they can't seem to understand why those "investors" are not willing to offer the same amount they did a year ago... when property values were higher than they are now.
The moral of this story...when your agent who knows the market says "You should seriously consider taking this offer, I don't think it would appraise for any more than that", you could end up getting your nose popped if you say no. We agents don't just "make up" the prices we say we think your house will sell for, we use other sold homes in the area. And we also have to take into consideration that your property is in need of repair and updates when no others that sold in that subdivision were in the same condition. So don't regret a year later after spending another $4,000 in taxes and bills that you didn't take the offer we told you to take.
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