The meeting of the minds. I wish.

I was working with some buyers last month and we found a home that the husband and wife finally agreed on but it was just a bit higher than they wanted to spend (they have seen almost every home in their price range). The owner of the home was also the list agent. He was at the house during the showing and we talked a bit about the buyers situation and told the owner/agent this home was their favorite but the buyers would not be able to offer even close to full price. He told us to make an offer and "we would definitely be able to work something out" since he had to sell. We went back to my office and prepared the offer. The home was listed at $499,000 (priced way too high) and we offered $440,000, their max loan amount. The seller said he wouldn't take less than $455,000. My buyers ended up talking to their parents and asked to borrow the difference. The parents could only come up with $10,000. We went back to the seller and told him we did all we could they could only pay $450,000. The seller said no way. Needless to say my people were let down. We told the seller/agent their max was $440,000. He told us to make the offer. They even went above their maximum. Can you imagine being so stubborn over $5,000. The carrying costs for 1 month for the seller would most likely equal that $5,000 difference. Here we are over a month later and his house still hasn't sold, he's dropped the price down to $479,000. The previous comps for his house valued it at around $425,000. I just sold a comparable listing of mine on Friday for $350,000. The home is less than 200 yards away from his. My listing is larger, has 1.5 more baths, and is 8 years newer and has ocean views. I feel sorry for the guy for not taking the original offer. Now my people won't even consider making another offer on his home because of the hard feelings even though it's the one home they love. Plus the new comp (my sale) drops his value way down.

The funniest thing about this situation is the same scenario you get at listing presentations. You say, this is what the data says your home is worth. The seller usually says, but my home is better than all those homes and is worth more.