The owner’s of the pristine little house wanted to move a state away to be closer to their family.  They had not taken advantage of the boom market and felt they had missed the boat.  They saw the price drop as a loss of money that belonged to them.  Their desire to move was stronger than the loss of equity that had occurred in the declining market.

 

I did my best to advise them during the listing period taking them into my office to show them how prices were dropping in their area.  I counseled them on the dangers of chasing the market when what they really needed to do was lower the price to get the attention of the buyers.

 

With each price drop, their piece of the pie shrunk and the money that they would be potentially leaving town with dropped.  When a buyer finally came in with an offer the reality of the situation and the impact the decline had on the value of their home became an unpleasant reality they could no longer ignore.  In order to sell their home they would have to come to closing with money and would be receiving none to aid them in their relocation.

 

Stay or go.  How badly did they want to move?  How important was it to them?  It was the reason their home was on the market.  It was important.  And in the end they were forced to make a hard choice in a tough market which they did with a great deal of contemplation, they sold and brought money to closing.

 

It is supposed to be the other way around when you sell.  You, as a seller, expect to be getting a check when you sell, not writing one.  However, the new market has forced many sellers to make these kinds of choices, weighing the importance of their motivation versus the reality of walking away from the sale of an asset with nothing, or worse yet like in the above example with less than what they have now.

 

As we signed the papers to accept the contract they expressed that they wished they had listened to me and lowered their price right off the bat.  They knew that they could have potentially sold the house for thousands more if they had.  I sympathized with their situation.  It caused me to take pause and think about the way I handled them and other sellers in similar situations.

 

As I reflected over the many meetings discussing price and showing them the market activity I realized that there was nothing more I could have done since I gave them my knowledge and expertise.  I did everything I could possibly do to show them their price needed to be reduced in order to compete within the market.  They made their decision to chase the market not on my information, but from the perspective that they had already lost so much that they couldn’t lose anymore.

 

This is a hard market for agents and their clients.  We often face the wall of denial that our clients put up and we try to make them see the market as it is.  We try to help them emotionally detach from their home as they see it and shift them to see it as a buyer does. 

We always strive to represent our clients to the highest level, but we can’t force them to make a price reduction, paint a room, or make a house more accessible.  The only thing we really can control is whether or not we take the listing.  Even in the best of times it is hard to walk away from a listing, but in this market it feels like career suicide.  Any listing is better than no listing…right???

 

Wrong, an overpriced listing is worse than no listing.  Why spend your time and resources on something that isn’t going to sell?  Inevitably the sellers will blame you because their overpriced home didn’t sell and you won’t see a dime of the money you spent marketing the home.  Even in a tough market, especially in a tough market, the best listings are the listings that can and will sell.