About 2 weeks ago I was referred to a person that wants to list their 2008 new home to move south to Miami. My short sale nerve was struck immediately but I hoped and prayed that maybe just maybe they put a boat load of money down on the house. It turns out, they didn't.
I'm a 2-stepper, so always preview the house before coming to any conclusion on listing price. Let's face it, any agent that is in the market frequently could price a house blind without using comps but It's more intelligent to have the proof so that when the appraisal gets cut you can prove your value. I explained to them my process and also that the tax card was blank so I had no idea what I was even going to see. I took some notes and some pictures and returned home to evaluate the property.
I found 6-7 qualify comps that were +/- $5000 as a whole. Rare is the time that i find this many comps so in my head I'm thinking this price is a no brainer. The house priced out at ~$180,000 without including any of their upgrades. At this point I didn't even need to go any further because it was destined for short sale. They owed 225,000 which is way beyond what I could get even with generous values for the upgrades. In order to begin negotiations I recommended a price of 169,900. If it's going to be a short sale we may as well get it moved.
I called and gave them the above information and a few days later followed up to see which broker they opted to use. They gracefully declined my services. Today I was in the area and figured I'd swing by and see who got the listing and at what price. I could have looked it up but hadn't thought to do it until I was driving by.
It's on the market at 239,900 conveniently what they owe plus commission. Have agents not learned their lesson by now? This is certainly a disservice to the client. There is no way it's going to sell for that price and even if it does go under agreement there is no way it will ever appraise. It makes me wonder what people are doing out there. It's not easy to give people the bad news, especially when the house is as beautiful as this house was, but I'll reiterate the point that the agent doesn't dictate the prices the market does.
Proof of value is the single most important element, more so than marketing, the agent, or anything else. A great agent always helps but a proper price will overcome a lot of potential obstacles.
Comments(6)