How Do YOU Convince a Client Their Hemet Home is Worth Less than What THEY Believe it is?
by John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR®
Hemet CA Real Estate

We all know it isn't easy to convince a client that they have to price their home for less than what they think it is worth, in a declining real estate market.

I am working with a client with a home for sale near Hemet CA, that has owned their home for 10 years.  When they bought it, they paid $75,000 and at some point about a year and a half ago they thought it was worth a $500,000.  Don't ask me why, but in their heart of hearts, they know their home was a half million dollar home.

Yes, I had my work cut out for me.

I ran the comps.  Unfortunately, they are in a very small neighborhood (15 homes) of smaller homes (1600 sq ft), by today's standards, of 30 year old homes on ½ to ¾ acre horse property lots that were built at the outer limits of civilization, at the time.

The two closest housing tracks were built much later, one in the mid 80's and the other in the early 90's.  Bigger homes on much smaller lots - very typical houses for the era in Hemet CA.  Real Estate was slow for awhile but then in the late 90's and early part of this decade much farm and dairy real estate was instantly transformed into new home tracts.  There are still some major developments being built and more in the planning process, all very close to my client.

No mater how I ran the numbers - no matter how I made legitimate adjustments - the results were the same.  The Real Estate they own is worth somewhere between $350,000 and $375,000.  That's it.

So, before I broke the news, I dropped of a version of my report on "Pricing Your Hemet Home to Sell" and asked them to read it before I came back by, with the numbers that I worked up the next day.

Well, I as I said, first I ran the numbers, so I knew what was up.  Now I prepared a nice professional presentation for my visit, so I could explain to them.  My roll as their REALTOR® was explained in the Second Part of the report, so they fully appreciated where I was coming from and I did not have to fear being the messenger.

By having the data laid out in a clear format for them, they definitely knew what was driving the market, as I discussed in the third section of my report.  What was great is that because they read and understood the fourth part of my report, they were telling me why they could not put the house on the market at an over inflated price.

I love it when my clients want to understand the process and take an active roll, yet still rely on me for my judgment.  By examining the data that I had prepared and with the discussion we had about pricing and how it is interpreted in and by the MLS, I knew they read the final installment of my report.

They looked right at me after 10 minutes of discussion and studying the different aspects of the Hemet comps so they could see how realistic my numbers were and both unanimously decided we had to list the home at $350,000

I wish I could have more clients like this - any day of the week.  This is the type of family that you enjoy working hard for because they both get it and are appreciative of what I can and will do for them.

Please read my next article to see the icing on the cake, when we talk about commissions.

Until then, Have a Blessed Day

John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR
http://www.johnocchi.com/