I finally have time to blog on my listing appointment from yesterday. We had a referral from a relocation company. We were competing with another agent to get the listing. We still do not know which agent, nor which company we were competing against. Using the numbers generated from the local Board of Realtors; our office sells more than it's 2 nearest competitors combined, and 1 of those competitors has more agents than our office does. I use the last sentence not to brag, just to provide background for the point that I am trying to make in this blog.
We studied all of the comparables, went with what we saw the trends in the market and arrived at a top price for the home. Without going into a lot of details about the home, the top price that we arrived at was a little of a stretch. I would have tried to market it about $10k less just to generate interest on the home. The relocation company is going to buy the home from the sellers and then re-list the home if it doesn't sell in the prescribed time frame. We were honest, told the homeowner what they were up against, going over the positives of the home and the detraction's that may deter them from selling quickly, at a fair price.
To be honest, the top end price might be reached if someone were willing to wait 160+ days to market it. I had returned from the appointment, began filling out the required paperwork for the relocation company, when Darcy checked the email and the notification was there that were not going to get the listing. I am not bitter, I was upfront with the sellers, I showed them our justification for the price based on everything that had sold in that size, age, area and style of the house, as well as what the competition is for the buyer's interest currently.
In the listing appointment, I explained that the market is what it is. Things are selling, it just isn't like it was a couple of years ago. You can't just put a sign in the yard ask a price and get it anymore. A couple of the comparables that we used (we used everything that we could find in the last 6 months, not just 3 active and 3 sold listings) have been on the market for nearly a year. Their prices started out really high, and have continued to drop. They are still a little higher than we thought that the absolute highest possible price for this house, in perfect condition would be.
It's late and I am rambling, but my point is, agents, as professionals, need to educate expectations if we really want to provide the service that our clients need. Anyone can tell a seller that they can get a high price for their homes and plant a sign. There is a reason that our office sells so many homes, our broker spends a lot of time training us to do the right thing for our clients, even if it means being bluntly honest about the sales price of their home and the expectations of the market conditions.
I guess that is my soapbox for this week. Thank each of you for sharing your wisdom and experiences! May everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving, and may our troops be as safe as possible and come home as soon as possible! These are some of our Holiday wishes!!
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