A few years ago, my husband and I relocated to a new city, new state.
Before the move, my background had always been in private industry, specializing in marketing and advertising, with a healthy dose of analysis.
Once we moved, I decided I was tired of schlepping to an office every day, so with the encouragement of our own REALTOR, I decided to give real estate a try. It seemed to be a good fit for my background.
Fortunately, I came into an active market and was busy right away.
The marketing reports I sent my clients were a work of art. The analysis was sound, the graphics were easy to read and I was on top of what was going on in my market. I knew I could do this!
I eventually ended up with one listing, though, where the Seller was slightly overpriced. The "hot market" was just starting to slow down, although no one knew just how cool it was going to get.
I continued to send market reports weekly to my client, highlighting important points, letting her know specifics about every property that had settled, because I made it a point to see every one of them when they were active on the market. I stressed the property may not appraise at its current list price, even if we were to get an offer at that price.
I thought it should be clear from the reports that her price was too high. But, her regular reply to my reports was always, "Thanks so much for the information. Let's keep hoping for the right buyer."
(You know the buyer - the one who is going to walk in, see the house as the owner sees it and fall inexplicably in love. The buyer who can only be attracted through expensive print advertising, direct mail and open houses).
Frustrated, I picked up the phone - even though this was a client who preferred to communicate by email and was elusive by phone - and called the Seller. I walked her through the most recent analysis and concluded with the statement the market was not responding to her price at this time and asked if she had thought about renting her place out until things stabilized.
She said, "Why don't we lower the price?"
WHAT?
I sort of laughed and said, "That's what I have been trying to get you to do for several weeks."
"You have?"
"Well, you have been reading my market reports and saying things like 'hope we get a buyer soon' so I assumed you were not interested in lowering your price because I was quite clear in my narrative that you were overpriced."
"Well, why didn't you just say so?"
There it was. Why didn't I just say so?
Good question. And one for which I had no answer - although I do have one piece of advice, "never assume."
Sometimes you DO have to spell it out, no matter how well you think you already have.
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