Just a quick note to share some of the conversations listing agents (and potential listing agents) have with sellers in this challenging market.

A little over 4 months ago, a seller had called me as he was making phone calls to various agents to start the interview process…fair enough. We chatted a little bit about the market.  I had made the comment that it’s not likely much is worth more than $700,000 in his particular neighborhood in this environment.  (There may be exceptions of course, but in general…).  Well, that didn’t go over too well.  The seller was not happy about my comment especially since I “had not even seen his house.”  True.   The seller then asked if I had sold anything recently in this particular neighborhood.  I told him the truth…no I hadn’t.  (I can’t recall how long it had been..perhaps a year and a half or so).  Nonetheless, this is a neighborhood I know well and in the history of the neighborhood, there are two or three of us who have sold about the same number of homes.  In any event, the conversation continued down hill from there.  I was not invited in to have a shot at the listing.

So why do I bring this up?  The home went on the market not long after my failed conversation with the seller.  The home was priced higher than the number I had mentioned above.  More than 3 months has passed and they are now on their second price reduction….and…they are now at the number I mentioned was likely a ceiling for this neighborhood right now.

Agents do not set pricing for homes.  The market does that.  I am an active student of the market and do lots of pricing analysis.  Once in a while I get it wrong and the home is mispriced to the high side.  So sellers, you may not like me…and I get that, and you may not like what I have to say.  You certainly do not have to hire me, and I will be the first to admit I am not always right, but you may want to take the data points, opinion and or analysis in to consideration when ultimately pricing your property.

This particular example again just proves to me that the big agents with the big brand brokers and the global luxury networks can’t sell a house any better than anyone else in my opinion when it’s overpriced.  However, sellers continue to believe that if they hire the big agents with the big brand brokers who has the big global luxury networks, somehow they will get their home sold for more money.  Buyers today are not going to be fooled easily.  They won’t overpay for real estate…not even nice houses.