A few days ago, a home owner called and said she has been reading one of my outside blogs for her particular neighborhood. I asked her if she has been following the pricing and what is selling and what is not. It just so happens that she has been reading this blog for quite some time.
I made an appointment to view the house and I had prepared a market analysis in advance of my visit. These people were finishing up putting in new carpet and paint. It is a beautiful house. Right after viewing the house, the husband came home and we discussed the heated sq footage as the original building plans and the courthouse were not in agreement. Part of the basement was unfinished but heated and cooled and I told them the appraiser would not value that as much as the rest of the finished area. Also part of the upstairs had some area with the ceiling sloping down to about 3 feet. I explained that the appraiser would only consider the area from about 5' up to the normal 8' ceilings.
I got my calculator out and ran the numbers and at the same time gave the owners MLS sheets for the last 3 or 4 sales in the neighborhood and 2-3 current listings in the neighborhood. I then told the owners what the house is worth today(gave them a range value). However, the husband thinks it is worth much more than that because of the remodelling and the fact that they custom built the house themselves several years ago.
There is a house just up the street that has been on the market for about 500 days. I went on a listing appointment for that house but they gave the listing to a Realtor that gave them a higher value. This agent had only been in the business for 6 weeks. I have only been in the business since 1992.
The husband then told me thank-you and they would be in touch. I looked in the MLS 3 days ago and saw this house listed at a higher value than the husband told me he wanted. I guess they liked what they heard when this other Realtor came out.
Does this bother me? Absolutely not! I feel liberated from listing properties too high! I wrote a post a few days ago about apologizing to a homeowner whose house I listed too high!
For all of you Realtors out there reading this, do not take an overpriced listing. When the property does not sell, the homeowner will blame you and others will think you just are not a good agent and really you are not if you take an overpriced listing!
Copyright © 2008 By Mike Frazier, All Rights Reserved. *I am so excited-I lost out on getting a listing the other day*
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