No matter what state you are in, I am sure you have had a seller who has asked you a similar question, maybe not the particular locations I have mentioned, but from some big city near you. I cannot tell you how many of my sellers actually believe this concept and feel I should be able to find them an out of area buyer. Somehow we are supposed to have a lifeline with the rich and famous for our sellers. They believe that we can just advertise in big city papers and magazines and the buyers will come. Sure I can take a one day ad out for $1,000 in the NY times...seller's believe this is the ultimate key to selling their house immediately. Why is it always the NY times, is this a magical tool I never learned about it real estate training? It is not enough that I am running around the house, doing circus tricks and fending off fire breathing dragons with my bare hands to get their house sold? The real reason their house hasn't sold all comes down to the only one factor, that we have allowed them to convince us to overprice their home... I always say I won't do it, but we all fall for it, no matter how much I try and stand my ground and have my morals intact, I still will overprice a listing or two. I am ashamed to admit it. We all know that no matter how nice, how ugly, how great or how poor a house is and its location, the bottom line is price. It can be a burned out shell in the worst part of a neighborhood, someone out there for the right price will buy it. A gorgeous home with a small kitchen and pink toilets will sell for the right price; an ugly dog of a house will sell for the right price. All our excuses we give as reasons to our clients about not being able to sell their home ultimately relates to pricing.
Nevertheless so many delusional seller's believe we must be missing those wealthy clients from the nearest big city waiting for their big move to the country to buy your overpriced listing. If we cannot secure one of these buyers then we must be doing something wrong. No matter how many ways I spin my argument about their overpriced house, produce comps on similar solds, they stand their ground with me and say: "Lisa someone from the city will want our house, this is cheap in comparison to what they would pay there."
I want to ask what planet they are from, how many buyers from the city do you think we have, I can probably count them on one hand...so your home out of the thousands for sale is the one they want. It is laughable but also serious, because there are many sellers who actually believe this.
So what to do you ask? I am still figuring it out myself. If anyone can come up with a great argument I would welcome the additional ammunition from the usual jargon I am stuck using.
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