Selling a House in Highlands Ranch CO - How Sellers can net LESS

Are you thinking about selling a house in Highlands Ranch Colorado? Are you going to use a Highlands Ranch Realtor® to help you with the sale of your house?

If you are, here is a story of sellers who managed to lower their net proceeds from the sale and put less of the green stuff in their pockets.

(I apologize now - this is a fairly long story)

Episode 1

One sunny summer day home owners decide it is time to sell their house (or put the house on the market as they frase it).
So they call three realtors® and make the arrangements to meet with them.
- so far so good -

The first local Highlands Ranch Realtor®, experienced professional goes to the interview with his stuff together, shows the comps, shows his marketing, and is confident about his numbers, stats and anything real estate. And the sellers are impressed.

The second Realtor®, not a local expert, but a friend of a friend, meets with the sellers, shows his comparative market analysis, and his marketing and the sellers think it all looks and sounds OK. The friend of the friend is also offering a discounted commission, "since he is a friend", which the sellers like, but the agent lives far away and that is of concern.

The third Realtor® is local (He claims to be the area expert), and is known to be a smooth talker... he talks and talks, flying through the comps and stuff, and then talks some more.
The sellers think this is going to be tough... who to choose.

- the average days on the market in their price range(over $500K) is around 70 and there are 60+ similar homes on the market for the buyers to choose from -

So, what it comes down to is that the sellers decide that they know how much their house is worth the best. All the interviewed Realtors® had arrived to a similar price range - but not near the numbers of the sellers. Then again Mary down the road just sold her house for a lot of money, and Henry next door figures the sellers should easily get what they think, maybe even more.
- oh no, the "expert neighbors" -

So, the sellers, clearly know that their house is worth at least $70,000 more than the professional estimates. The sellers ask the first Realtor® if he would list the house at their price. After explaining to the sellers why it is not a good idea to overprice the home, and not being able to convince them to come down on the price, he says no thank you, and walks away.

The sellers then go to the third Realtor®, who immediately says, "yes of course, no problem. Done".
The sign is on the yard.
And time starts ticking.
- the sellers were not in a hurry to move at this time, so they thought if it sells in 4-6 months, great -

Tick tock, tick tock, a month goes by, 3 showings, another month goes by, a few more showings. But no offers, not even close. The feedback for the showings in general has been: "the house is overpriced".
- now we are approching winter, when things slow down -

Nothing happens, a few more showings, that's it. So, after 5 months on the market, and now it is winter, the sellers decide that it is time to lower the price and they do so by 25K.
Tick tock, tick tock. Nothing.

At the end of the 6-month-listing-period the listing agent gets fired (well, technically he just let his listing to expire, so he wasn't really fired...).

The sellers pick another agent, somebody else that a buddy recommended and who was willing to list the house at this "lowered" price of 25K under the original list price. The agent didn't even do comps, just said over the phone, "sure I can sell your house for that".
After about 3 months the sellers decide with their new agent, that since now it is spring and the selling season is picking up, that they should just hold the price steady. Another month later, the price comes down another 25K, now 50K less that the original list price
- this price now is close to what is suggested by the CMA and comps -

Now the house has been sitting on the market for total of 10 months. Summer is fast approaching and the sellers are making moving arrangements out of state.
BAM, summer arrives and the price is lowered another 25K and the description on the MLS encourages "All reasonable offers considered. Sellers are Motivated."
Nothing. The listing agreement is up and the agent is gone. She thinks that the market really must have gone down in that neighborhood since the house did not sell...

The sellers pick another agent, now feeling some growing urgency. The sellers call a discount broker and pick him, with a very low discounted commission, "hey anything we can get at this point is good" think the sellers and "anybody should be able to sell this house now since we are practically giving it away". The price is lowered another 10K. So we are - is anybody keeping track - 85K lower than the original asking price.
- it is a good price, however the house has been on the market for over 370 days -

A few new buyers look at the house and there is some interest, but no offers: "surely there has to be something wrong with the house since it has been on the market for so long" say the buyers.
No, don't think so. It may not help any that the photos on the MLS are still the ones taken in the winter! And the interior paint could be updated with some "neutral" hip colors in some key areas.
- all this time the sellers have been blaming the agents for not getting their house sold -

Now fall is approaching. The sellers move out, taking all of their belongings, the house is empty. The price is dropped another 10K, just to get rid of it. (95K below original price)
- the house was beautifully decorated with the sellers decor and furniture and now empty it looks sad -

Finally just before the fall turns into winter, and before this listing agreement expires, an offer comes in, a low, low offer.  40K below the current asking price. The sellers are upset, but counter, desperate just to be done with it. And after some heated negotiations the price is agreed on at 125K Below the original asking price. Ouch!

Closing is another month later; the buyers got an excellent deal and a new home and the sellers want to forget that this whole ordeal ever happened.

The sellers had a good amount of equity in the house, yet their net, the money in their pocket came crashing down from the original near six figures to a mere pocket change.

This story was taking place in Highlands Ranch CO for the purposes of the story, but it could happen in any town USA.

This fictitious story shows what can happen when a house is overpriced. As you may have heard, PRICE is the KEY element to marketing and selling your HOUSE in reasonable amount of time and for the best possible amount.

Now it would not be fair to show just one side of the story, so...

Stay tuned for EPISODE 2 "HOW to net more and sell that house!"

Disclaimer: Kenna and Co. Blog does not guarantee nor is in any way responsible for the accuracy of the information provided herein, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied. Blog posts on the Kenna and Co. Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Kenna and Co. Blog does not express the views of Kenna and Co. or those of the broker.

Copyright 2008.© Kenna and Co. Rita Burke. All Rights Reserved. Aug 15th 2008. "Selling a Home in Highlands Ranch - How to net LESS!"