A seller needs to sell here in Kankakee. My wife is way too nice. Here is what her client wrote and here is what I would have written. My wife is probably too nice to do this, or is she not doing her job by sending this response? Please let me know. Here is the letter from her client and my responses.
“Let’s wait a little while longer. We just had a couple in a Black Tahoe stop by yesterday to ask us questions. They also said the home was priced great. I think we just need the right buyer. The home North of us doesn’t help either.” [Walter Sanford] Well that is nice. However, If I had a desire to achieve the goal of ____________________________________, I would probably listen to the lady that has spent the time to research and understand the market everyday. Furthermore, since they were not interested in your home I am sure they felt it would be nice to make you feel good. If they were interested they would not be tipping their hand as to what they felt the property was worth. Furthermore, the least motivated buyers are always driving around by themselves. This is a good indication that your property is probably overpriced for this market.
“I appreciate your reference to statistics, but we are not in a traditional market or area. I also don’t think we have had 10 showings. We have been on the market over three months, but statistics are showing average time from market to closing has doubled. Also the number of families being created v.s. the number of homes being built is out of proportion which means existing homes and apartments for rent are starting to dry up. We have already dropped our price enough. We should at least be able to break even. My stock investments and 401k have done much better than the money we have put into our home of 8 yrs.”[Walter Sanford] Banks use statistics and appraisers use statistics. Realtors use statistics and then modify them for the property attributes. Here are your positive factors and here are your negative factors. This makes the property worth ________________________. However, the strongest indicator is that there are ________ agents in Kankakee County that have not brought a good contract for _______________ days. In order for you to obtain your goal, you need to drop your price to _______________________-
“If we have to go that low ($179,000), we will have do it without a Realtor”.[Walter Sanford] I am sorry you feel that what you need has anything to do with the market value of the property and I am not going to be afraid to tell you what you need to hear to achieve your goals. You could get lucky, but I believe there might be other opportunities for the buyers that are out there, to buy. This may be the worst real estate recession in the last 80 years with no sign of getting better. I need to keep you abreast of the market. “The showings we had seem to be time wasters”.[Walter Sanford] On the contrary, they were interested buyers in your price range that did not buy your home. Just because you did not like the message they send is no reason for me to say no to a buyer that wants to see your home. Want to see time wasting……Let them waste yours as a FSBO. You just had one in a black Tahoe do it. “Don’t Realtors qualify people before setting up a showing?” [Walter Sanford] I can speak for myself and the top agents that work in my office. Yes, there are lots of incompetent agents, but you never know if their buyers are competent. “We have to load up our three dogs and drive around for two hours just to find out they don’t even have their house on the market”. [Walter Sanford] There are lots of buyers that fall in love with a house and become super motivated to sell theirs. Furthermore, when they see a great home, they tell others. Not showing to a buyer that has a contingency sale would be another mistake.
“We obviously made a bad decision buying a home in this area”.[Walter Sanford] They don’ go up much and they don’t go down much. However, once again that has nothing to do with the market and me needing a price adjustment. “We were young and without children. We thought things would get better. The schools are still terrible and the area still has high crime and homeless wondering through the ally picking our trash”.[Walter Sanford] I need to keep you away from the buyers.
“We’ll see what happens over the next few weeks”. [Walter Sanford] I will keep telling you the truth because every day you have more carrying costs and take the chance of the market getting worse. I am also positive you could find an agent to tell you what you want to hear, but that is not my style. Sorry the market is not hotter. Everyone knows your home is there, they need to get off their butt and a lover price will help them do that..
Was I too tough?
