When I go on on one of my marketing presentations the first thing I look for is what the true motivation of the seller is going to be and I do that by asking them this question..."Do you want to sell it or own it?"  . 

As a Realtor® it is my job to try correctly price any home we list for sale but if you have a loyal client who has done quite a few other transactions with you..... then sometimes you have to go against the grain and make an exception. I guess you can see a little transparency in me with this post.

I had this really nice listing.The client has done 6 other transactions with me. She bought this home from me about 5 yrs ago and spent a few bucks on some renovations. She is a very loyal client and she purchased the home for $260,000 back in 2003. She had talked to me about putting it up for sale for about a year ago but held off until she retired. Her late mother was also a very loyal client of mine. You see...they both had a home next to each other and they ended up listing both homes for sale with me...hows that! When I sold both of the homes almost simultaneously .....I put them into this one home. Unfortunately..... after a few years her mother developed cancer and passed away right after Thanksgiving.

I had finally listed the home for $424,000 few weeks before she passed away. It was one of my best quality listings as far as condition goes. It was a 3BR 2BTH home on a 12,000 sq ft. corner lot.... but my client was in no rush. The other problem was it was overpriced. I went through our normal drill of debate with her and there were no showings up until the New Year. Then all of a sudden we had our first and only showing. The buyer loved the home and made an offer. The buyer came in with 20% down.... so I was pretty confident that the deal would go through and there wouldn't be some last minute mortgage meltdown.

Here's where the problem began. They settled for a purchase price of $369,000. I originally felt it was worth between $350,000-$380,000. So if I sold it at $369,000 then my list to sell ratio would be at 87%. That's pretty low since most of my listings were generally selling at around 98% or higher. Then the problem got worse when the home only appraised for $350,000. We also gave the buyer a $1000 credit for some fixtures the seller wanted to take. So at $349,000 ...my list to sell ratio is down to 82%. Although at the time I listed the property for sale.... I didn't agree to list this home as high as my client wanted.....but it still sold and my client was very happy in the end and still made a normal rate of return. I still believe if it was priced much lower that we would have ended up around the same number but in a shorter period of time.

The difference was that she had enough equity in the property and made a reasonable rate of return on her money over a 5 yr period. 

For more information please contact Neal The Real Deal Bloom-CRS-Realtor® /Remax Hometown

2500 Weston Road ,Suite 103

Weston FL 33331

(954)608-5556

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