Last week, a nice house came on the market in Woodley Park, a favorite neighborhood of mine. It's also a favorite for some clients, and the day the house was listed, I called to arrange to show it to them. Sorry, the agent said, no showings until the broker's open house (6 days later). OK, I am a patient woman, and I knew that no one else can get in, so last Tuesday I finally showed it.
The house shows very well. It was also very well priced, which was a good thing because there are two very similar houses for sale on the same block. My buyers liked it and we were discussing maybe possibly writing an offer.
The agent decided to help me out. She told them she expected the place to sell for way more than the asking price and that she was pretty sure there would be three other offers. She even speculated that they expected to get about $70,000 over the asking price.
Whoa! Pricing for that much less than your sellers want to get is a strategy that went out of style here about two years ago!
These buyers are what you might call motivated. They live in an adorable doll house in Georgetown, and baby number two is due very soon. But they are also being very smart about this move, and the thought of getting involved in a bidding war in this market did not appeal to them one bit!
This listing agent is an old pro. I really like her a lot and have enormous respect for her. But even the best of us have breakdowns of the old brain-to-mouth filter mechanisms.
And I think her listing will sell quickly, it just won't be to my buyers. Ah, what might have been!
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