Once upon a time, in another market cycle, I spoke with an elderly man about selling his house as the summer was ending. His neighbor had referred me, and he assured me that I would represent the seller. His home was vacant, well maintained, and pretty much ready for the market. All I needed to do was to go to his assisted living facility to have him sign the paperwork.
Having not spoken with the seller I brought all my usual listing materials, including an analysis of the comparable neighborhood sales. The conclusion that I reached was the property should be listed $200,000 -$250,000 less than the seller thought. In general, I typically don't represent sellers who want to list their houses more than 10% over my valuation, and this was a lot more than 10%. The seller told me he needed to speak with his family, then he would get back to me.
Well, he didn’t get back to me, and not too long after the property came on the market with another Realtor who listed the house a solid $100,000 more than I had advised. Pricing can be very tricky, and the most important thing to remember when selling a house is that the market will tell you if you priced the house correctly or not. The seller did not listen to me or market, and likely not to his Realtor either whom I imagine advocated for a price reduction after getting no acceptable offers. The seller decided not to lower his price when he had the opportunity that fall.
The house came off the market for the holidays, then it returned the following spring at the same price. There are some years where that strategy is fine because prices typically rise as the weather warms up and the days get longer. The spring crop of buyers took a look at the house when it came back on the market and still it attracted no acceptable offers. Finally, the seller reduced the price by $50,000 to get it under an important psychological barrier. The seller’s living situation in the meantime had taken a turn for the worse, as he had to move out of his assisted living situation and into a relatively inexpensive rental. Meanwhile the house sat vacant, accumulating days/weeks/months on the market, hoping to attract the right buyer. What a horrible mess!
I can just imagine the stress that put on the elderly seller, and I felt very sorry for him. Regardless of hiring me or not, I truly wished he would have taken my advice and priced the property appropriately from the get-go. I am 100% certain he would have sold the property in the fall, and he wouldn’t have had to deal with the fallout of clinging to an unattainable price.
I’ve been selling homes full time since 2004 and I’ve seen a lot over the years. Most of my experiences selling homes have been positive, and I surround myself with knowledgeable, capable people who I bounce situations off when they come up. I am always open to different home selling strategies, and I believe in changing things up if what I'm doing isn't working.
In the end I feel like I dodged a lot of misery when the seller and I didn’t agree on the valuation. It just wasn’t realistic, and I wish he didn’t have to learn such a painful lesson so late in life.