This is the promised follow up to: "I want Beth Witt to list my home".
Yesterday at 2:30 I met John and John met me! We instantly felt comfortable with each other and after a little rapport building we got down to business.
When I spoke to John on the phone before the appointment he told me he had to move because of health issue.While it is true that John has health issues I was to find out that he also has serious financial issues.
He owes approximately $280,000.00 on his house thanks to lines of credit and approximately $80,000.00 in credit card dept. He thought he could sell his house for $500,000.00 based on recent computer searches, pay off his dept and buy his next house in Florida for all cash.
No way is this going to happen and I felt it was my responsibility to tell him so and I used his prized computer to show him why.
Computers were not available to us when I first started selling real estate and it is a tool that agents often wish was still not available however when used correctly they speaks volumes and drives the truth home no matter how unrealistic and or delusional a seller may be.I first took John to www.mynassauproperty.com and showed him the accessed value of his home. The value was $369,063.00.
I then took him to the agents MLS site and showed him what was on the market comparable to his along with the inside photos of these properties, and the asking price. Comparable meaning square footage, school district, lot size, area, basement, garage but not condition, because we could find nothing on the market comparable to the condition of his house. John was not looking happy!
We then looked at recent sales comparable to his home in the past year, inside and out photos as well. Not one home comparable to John's sold for over $400,000.00. The highest price was $395,000.00 and the house was in perfect selling condition.
Next we looked at the number of homes on the market comparable to his. There are currently 44 homes on the market comparable to his and only two have sold since January 1, 2014. Every property currently on the market was superior to John's house as far as condition was concerned.
After doing this research (which I had done prior to our appointment) neither John nor I felt very happy but we were facing reality which is important for John to do because for him to not do so would end up being a very costly mistake.
I was with John for over 3 hours so I could write on and on and on... But I'm not going to... the bottom line is John has some work to do, and some decisions to make. He has 50 years of clutter to get rid off, and once he has emptied the house I will do another evaluation for him and together we will come up with a price.
He wants out by July which is not realistic unless he sells to us for all cash and I see no way for him to sell the house for a price that will cover all of his dept with the house needing at least $100,000.00 in renovations no matter who buys it.
I left John after getting a big hug and a big thank you for being honest with him feeling sad that I was the bearer of such bad news and I hope that some how this story will have a happy ending.
Yes.... John still wants me to list his house and I will do so but only at a price that will bring a buyer to his door.
The lessons learned...
#1 When it's time to sell your home don't listen to Zilliow, contact a Realtor and request an on site evaluation.
#2 Sellers always pay for maintenance, they pay when they live in the house or they pay when they sell, but they always pay...
#3 Keep posting in the Rain because that's how John found me and I truly am happy to have met him and I look forward to working with him...
Happy Day!!!
...Awesome Job! 
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