Once upon a time, there lived a happy family in a big house on a nice street in a wonderful town called Mill Valley in Marin, California. The children loved to play in the grass and swing on the swing and splash in the pool and play catch in the street and go to the beach on summer weekends. And they especially loved their silly dog Elvis, who chased his tail around and around and around whenever he got excited. Mom and dad loved that the kids had so much fun there.
One by one, all the children grew older and eventually moved out to start their own lives. One day the mother and father realized that with no kids around the house (and just occasssional visits from kids and grandkids) and retirement giving them plenty of time to travel, that big house on the nice street in the wonderful town of Mill Valley just made no sense. They realized that it was time for another happy family to enjoy the home.
Mom and dad decided it was time to move into something smaller so they didn't have to mow the grass or clean the pool or worry about other things. They just wanted a nice little place where someone else took care of things and made sure that the roof was ok, the grass got mowed, and that things generally worked. So, they went to http://www.AllMarinCondos.com and found a lovely condo in Tiburon with spectacular views of San Francisco.
Now that they had their lovely condo, it was time to sell the big family house and get on with visiting all those places that they had always wanted to visit--it was time to go on that Safari. So they found an agent who told them about the recent sales in the neighborhood. However, because the housing market was experiencing some downward pull and interest rates were up some and and buyers were not buying and sellers were not budging on price, many of the recent sales that the agent showed them took place as far back as a year ago (and everyone knows that last year's sales prices are yesterday's news).
Nonetheless, preparations were made--window washers, the handyman, gardeners, lighting specialists, a stager, cleaners, carpet guys, and a dozen other folks were called in to work their magic. Indeed, when they were all done, the old family house looked fantastic. The lovely home was put on the market at the same price as a the next door house sold for last year.
Surprisingly to the mom and dad, the house did not sell. They dropped the price a bunch of times (small adjustments, mind you, as they "did not want to GIVE the house away!"), the commission was raised (to entice buyers' agents into showing the house), new paint was applied, they even considered putting in a new kitchen (after all, it was last updated 20 years ago). Nothing seemed to be working. The market was just ... changed. No matter how many price drops, nobody would come see the house. They joked with their friends about it, but it wasn't really all that funny. The old house was just sitting there--empty and sad. It wasn't funny at all.
One night, while sharing some desert wine and looking out over the Bay at the lights of San Francisco, it came to them--they were acting like Elvis, the family dog. Around and around they went as they tried to find some way to get their lovely house on the quiet street, with a grassy yard, and a pool, and an outdated kitchen, to sell. They were so excited by the price their neighbors got the year before (and that houes did go throuh a major remodel) that they failed to see the that things had changed.
So, they made a very exciting decision and did their secret handshake. They were going to LISTEN to what their agent had been telling them all along--the price was too high and needed a major readjustment.
The next day they called their agent and told him about their decision. As tears of gratitude welled up in thier agent's eyes, they signed some papers and "BOOM!", the house was old in 2 days. As a token of their appreciation, they gave their agent a picture of the family dog, Elvis. That agent still has that picture hanging in his office today. Just last week he got a postcard from them--they were in Australia (they did that Safari earlier in the year).
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