I encourage my sellers to list their property for sale with a realistic price.  Even so, I inevitably get a call where my seller says I wish that I would have taken your advice two or three months ago.  That’s hindsight after we looked forward together for 60 or 90 days.

For example, I recently met with a prospective client regarding his future listing in Bethesda.  I told him that a realistic, market based price was $1,300,000.  Well, he did not want to hear my analysis or my facts about recent buyer activity for similar homes.  So we listed the property at his price, which was 1,500,000 and in 30 days after no purchasers stepped forward with an offer, he reduced his price to $1,400,000.  Another 30 days went by and still no offers.  There were a few sales in his price range however, so buyers were looking at his listing but finding better value somewhere else.  My seller reduced his price a second time to $1,350,000.  As we approached our 85^th day on the market he obtained a contract on the property.  It was not at a price he wanted, but it was market value at that point in time.

I offered my opinion on accepting the ‘ low priced ‘ contract offer or countering the offer.  I looked at sales data for the past 180 days and told him that in those 180 days 6 homes in his price range had sold and 30 homes in his price range remained on the market.  It took this seller nearly 90 days to get an offer, and it could take up to 450 days to exhaust the inventory representing his competition.  His buyers had plenty of inventory to choose from if he rejected their offer, or countered to high.  Also, the home was vacant and the carry cost was nearly $12,000 per month.  Another 90 days could cost him $36,000 plus $18,000 while we waited for the deal to close.

I had my seller do a reasonable counter offer, the buyers stayed interested and we ended with a ratified contract.  The deal settled and we were slightly below my predicted sale price due to a continuing declining housing market.  The owner was glad to be rid of the property and hindsight said he could have sold the property earlier by being more realistic, but it took nearly 90 days to learn what I was trying hard to explain when we first met.  He was satisfied that he would not get any additional money by waiting, and it could have cost him dearly.  He was quite appreciative of my no nonsense reality check.

If I can help you with your real estate questions, e-mail or call me.