They set an offer date, but didn’t get one. They raised the price instead. Really?
Two months ago, I wrote about a property in Montclair area of Oakland CA. Expecting multiple offers but only received one..or none? Believe it! .
So what happened?
The last time I checked, after 40 days on the market, the listing was cancelled. Several thoughts were offered about why it was cancelled. It isn’t that it wasn’t marketed properly because it was staged and photographed beautifully.
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Pricing --- it was listed at $719K at first, then the sellers RAISED the price to $750K after three weeks.
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Permits --- it was discovered that the expansion that gave the property more square footage was done without permits
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Significant repairs --- did they raise the price because they expected buyers will offer less after finding out about the cost of repairs?
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Refreshing the listing --- this is a common ploy. A property that becomes “stale” after a a while, is removed from the MLS, then re-entered after a few weeks (30 days later, it may appear as a “new” listing). If so, I wonder how much they will price it then?
What is notable is that in this case and at this time, their pricing strategy failed. It would be interesting to see what it will be next time because the seller’s market is heating up even more. Maybe they’ll get what they want later.
And here’s another story with a happier ending....
Around that time, I listed a similar hillside property a few blocks away, also in Montclair area of Oakland, CA.
The relocating sellers were hoping to break even when they bought the property in 2007 at $763K. To attract attention in this seller’s market, we priced the property at $749K, and hoped to get offers at higher than list price. We were stunned at the amount of interest the property generated just a few days after activating the listing.
I cautioned the buyers’ agents that if they are submitting offers at higher than list price, that the buyers should prepare to waive the appraisal contingency. My sellers did not want to negotiate a lower price if the appraisal comes in at less than their offer because there is enough interest that we knew we’d get very good offers. Amazingly, all the buyers waived that contingency.
The sellers accepted the best and highest offer after only 5 days on the market. We closed esrow at $901K, $152K or 20% above list price.
Moral of the story?
Underpricing seemed to work better in this case.
Raising the list price may not work and may even turn off buyers.
Set expectations with inspection reports so that there are no surprises for buyers.
Be upfront with buyers’ agents about terms and conditions the sellers want so they can guide their buyers accordingly.
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