Today I had a customer call me. She had in her own words "a small shack in Apple Valley that needs lots of work". It is a 600 square foot homestead property with 2.5 acres of land. It has Great Views, but the house needs lots of work. The plus side is that it has a car garage 700 square foot.
Now she had it listed for 6 months with an agent in the area for $85,000.00. Now this may sound reasonable to many. I sold a 1 bedroom home in Victorville with an Acre that the house needed no work for $80,000.00 and it was a nice property without a garage. So the trade off may be the same you may say close into town and not needing work verses out in the desert and needing work with views.
This is not the real story. What is? That the house was on the mls for 6 months the pictures were bad and you could not see the inside because the owner did not want to be disturbed.
1) Lets look at the pictures it does not show a great view, the pictures show a lot of dirt. The pictures do not show any of the inside. The angle of the pictures was not good. No professional pictures
2 ) You could not view the inside of the property until you wrote an offer. Now I understand this if a tenant is in the home. However this was owner occupied so how do you think you can offer your house for sale and not allow any interior pictures and also not allow any interior inspection until and offer has been written.
3) Now this house has been listed several times and in the comments are the same thing property needs a lot of work and the owner will not do any repairs. None of the agents that have listed this have changed what they write or what they have done. No interior pictures, and the listing has expired several times. Every time the house has bee listed above market at the time. It has been listed 11 time withdrawn 6 expired 5 times.
These are the glaring things that point why this house has not sold. I had a conversation with the owner this is how it went.
" Do you sell properties like mine?"
I don't know what type of property do you have?
"It is a shack in Apple Valley and it has a 3 car garage."
Sounds interesting and we have sold all kinds of properties. One of the agents in my office has a customer looking for a property like yours. I would like to see it then go from there.
"Well it has great views and a very nice garage an investor could tear down the house and build a very nice house here."
That sounds good can I stop by tomorrow to see it.
" What would you list if for?"
I don't know I have not seen it yet.
"It sounds like you don't want to sell it."
Why do you say that?
" This is a great opportunity for an investor to buy and tear down my house and build a new one, they could turn the garage into a house and build new garage, it has great views."
I'm sorry I can not see the views from here I can stop by tomorrow and discuss it from there.
" You just don't want to sell this property."
Well I don't know why you say that please tell me how much did you have it listed for?
" It was listed for $85,000.00."
How many offers did you get?
"Well I got an offer for 10,000 less than listed but I would not cut out my agent."
Why would you have to cut out your agent?
"Because the guy would not put offer in with my agent."
Did you have your agent call him?
"No"
Why Not? silence. It is not that I don't want to sell the property I don't want to waste your time and mine if I can not see the property or if customers can not see the property. Did you see the property before you bought it?
"Well of course I did and I would not buy a property without seeing it."
Isn't that what you are asking me and asking other buyers to do bye not allowing me to come and see it before giving my professional opinion of the property and how you previously did not want anyone to see the inside until they wrote and offer?
"Well I will just put it in the paper and sell it myself click.
It was not that I did not want to sell her property I sold a house not far from her 5 months ago for $50,000.00 it needed a lot of work. Lots are selling around the property the lady wanted to sell for $12-18,000.00 so if you add tear down, hauling and dumping fees it comes to about $7500.00 so the cost of the property would be about $92,000 for an investor. It did not sell because it is priced wrong.
The seller was uncooperative with the process and the agent allowed the customer to dictate to both of there harm.
This is not the first time this happened, it happened 10 times before and the issue has not been fixed. The customer had no respect for any of the real estate agents that came to list her property and they allowed her to dictate what happened and how and she has no real clue about marketing or business. The previous agents did not either. This is what is wrong with my industry.
The agent took the listing thought maybe they might get an offer or that after some time they could reduce the price to get it down to the point where it would sell. This did not happen. I looked at the several times it was listed saw the lack of price drops asked a few pointed questions to find out her motivation. If you do not have the proper motivation a buyer or seller will not make the right decision.
This lady wants to buy a better home which would not be hard yet I did not after my call want to work with her in any way because she would not let me come see the property before I made any price recommendations.
If you go by comps you can give an idea of value however you see the real value when you get there. The value approach to selling real estate is making it the best it can be to get maximum return. She was not willing to increase the value of the property yet she wanted above value for the property. How do I know that?
Well one on landscaping around the house nothing to make it look good as you drive up. The pictures had wood and other things laying around the house not pretty. She would not allow anyone inside to see the house before they write an offer. That is just ridiculous if you want top dollar. She had unrealistic business expectations. You can not expect an investor to offer cash for a property that will not make a return on the dollar. To expect because you have an emotional attachment to something yet brings no real value to the table is not realistic. An investor with cash has that because they do their homework and know what they can make before they put in an offer. It is not hard to know these numbers if you have been doing what I do for as long as I have it is an easy process. This lady was $20,000 over where she should be to sell. This is why I did not feel like I lost anything by not taking the listings. This listing would have cost me time and money and that is the real reason I am writing this.
I would have gotten her house sold. The problem as I see it other agents had allowed her to become a bad customer by their lack of professionalism. I do not like agents that allow the customer to direct what is going on. The customer is not right. That is why we are licenced, we go to classes, we have to go to continuing education classes. Agents that allow the customers to dictate to them are low information agents. They may sell a lot of properties that does not mean that they are good at protecting the customer. It is our job as agents to protect the public sometimes that even means from themselves. This may seem like a look rant. That is because it is. I apologize for this. I needed to get it out of my system. I hope is that you see that I am not like other agents that I am there to help and protect you, to get you the best return and do it quickly. Do not be surprised if I say that you are not right about real estate or that I attempt to get you to see it another way.
Now she had it listed for 6 months with an agent in the area for $85,000.00. Now this may sound reasonable to many. I sold a 1 bedroom home in Victorville with an Acre that the house needed no work for $80,000.00 and it was a nice property without a garage. So the trade off may be the same you may say close into town and not needing work verses out in the desert and needing work with views.
This is not the real story. What is? That the house was on the mls for 6 months the pictures were bad and you could not see the inside because the owner did not want to be disturbed.
1) Lets look at the pictures it does not show a great view, the pictures show a lot of dirt. The pictures do not show any of the inside. The angle of the pictures was not good. No professional pictures
2 ) You could not view the inside of the property until you wrote an offer. Now I understand this if a tenant is in the home. However this was owner occupied so how do you think you can offer your house for sale and not allow any interior pictures and also not allow any interior inspection until and offer has been written.
3) Now this house has been listed several times and in the comments are the same thing property needs a lot of work and the owner will not do any repairs. None of the agents that have listed this have changed what they write or what they have done. No interior pictures, and the listing has expired several times. Every time the house has bee listed above market at the time. It has been listed 11 time withdrawn 6 expired 5 times.
These are the glaring things that point why this house has not sold. I had a conversation with the owner this is how it went.
" Do you sell properties like mine?"
I don't know what type of property do you have?
"It is a shack in Apple Valley and it has a 3 car garage."
Sounds interesting and we have sold all kinds of properties. One of the agents in my office has a customer looking for a property like yours. I would like to see it then go from there.
"Well it has great views and a very nice garage an investor could tear down the house and build a very nice house here."
That sounds good can I stop by tomorrow to see it.
" What would you list if for?"
I don't know I have not seen it yet.
"It sounds like you don't want to sell it."
Why do you say that?
" This is a great opportunity for an investor to buy and tear down my house and build a new one, they could turn the garage into a house and build new garage, it has great views."
I'm sorry I can not see the views from here I can stop by tomorrow and discuss it from there.
" You just don't want to sell this property."
Well I don't know why you say that please tell me how much did you have it listed for?
" It was listed for $85,000.00."
How many offers did you get?
"Well I got an offer for 10,000 less than listed but I would not cut out my agent."
Why would you have to cut out your agent?
"Because the guy would not put offer in with my agent."
Did you have your agent call him?
"No"
Why Not? silence. It is not that I don't want to sell the property I don't want to waste your time and mine if I can not see the property or if customers can not see the property. Did you see the property before you bought it?
"Well of course I did and I would not buy a property without seeing it."
Isn't that what you are asking me and asking other buyers to do bye not allowing me to come and see it before giving my professional opinion of the property and how you previously did not want anyone to see the inside until they wrote and offer?
"Well I will just put it in the paper and sell it myself click.
It was not that I did not want to sell her property I sold a house not far from her 5 months ago for $50,000.00 it needed a lot of work. Lots are selling around the property the lady wanted to sell for $12-18,000.00 so if you add tear down, hauling and dumping fees it comes to about $7500.00 so the cost of the property would be about $92,000 for an investor. It did not sell because it is priced wrong.
The seller was uncooperative with the process and the agent allowed the customer to dictate to both of there harm.
This is not the first time this happened, it happened 10 times before and the issue has not been fixed. The customer had no respect for any of the real estate agents that came to list her property and they allowed her to dictate what happened and how and she has no real clue about marketing or business. The previous agents did not either. This is what is wrong with my industry.
The agent took the listing thought maybe they might get an offer or that after some time they could reduce the price to get it down to the point where it would sell. This did not happen. I looked at the several times it was listed saw the lack of price drops asked a few pointed questions to find out her motivation. If you do not have the proper motivation a buyer or seller will not make the right decision.
This lady wants to buy a better home which would not be hard yet I did not after my call want to work with her in any way because she would not let me come see the property before I made any price recommendations.
If you go by comps you can give an idea of value however you see the real value when you get there. The value approach to selling real estate is making it the best it can be to get maximum return. She was not willing to increase the value of the property yet she wanted above value for the property. How do I know that?
Well one on landscaping around the house nothing to make it look good as you drive up. The pictures had wood and other things laying around the house not pretty. She would not allow anyone inside to see the house before they write an offer. That is just ridiculous if you want top dollar. She had unrealistic business expectations. You can not expect an investor to offer cash for a property that will not make a return on the dollar. To expect because you have an emotional attachment to something yet brings no real value to the table is not realistic. An investor with cash has that because they do their homework and know what they can make before they put in an offer. It is not hard to know these numbers if you have been doing what I do for as long as I have it is an easy process. This lady was $20,000 over where she should be to sell. This is why I did not feel like I lost anything by not taking the listings. This listing would have cost me time and money and that is the real reason I am writing this.
I would have gotten her house sold. The problem as I see it other agents had allowed her to become a bad customer by their lack of professionalism. I do not like agents that allow the customer to direct what is going on. The customer is not right. That is why we are licenced, we go to classes, we have to go to continuing education classes. Agents that allow the customers to dictate to them are low information agents. They may sell a lot of properties that does not mean that they are good at protecting the customer. It is our job as agents to protect the public sometimes that even means from themselves. This may seem like a look rant. That is because it is. I apologize for this. I needed to get it out of my system. I hope is that you see that I am not like other agents that I am there to help and protect you, to get you the best return and do it quickly. Do not be surprised if I say that you are not right about real estate or that I attempt to get you to see it another way.
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