Buyer Beware

by Darrin DeRoches October 13 - 19, 2011

A few weeks ago I wrote about a house that was overpriced by close to $100,000 dollars, guess what? It sold. The house had had a couple of $10,000 dollar reductions and we viewed the home when they were still asking about $445,000 dollars. The agent called me and asked for “feedback.” In today’s market a lot of agents call each other to get their remarks. They are trying to find out what is wrong with the property and any suggestions one can offer to help sell the house. So when I was asked about the problem with this overpriced house I told her that it priced about $70,000 dollars to high. She then asked if we would consider writing an offer. I just told her that her listing is pretty much ridiculous and she is hoping I can write a ridiculously low offer to “shock” her clients into reality. Of course I declined since my buyers were not interested but more importantly why should I be doing her job? It is the realtor’s job to properly price and market their client’s home. So without being too condescending I simply told the agent she is not even close to reality.     A week passed and the same agent called me with a smug call. The sellers have drastically reduced the property by $50,000 grand. That is a lot of money. The property was now listed at $399,000 which is now priced close to the right price. It sold for around $390,000 which is still a very high price but about $75,000 dollars under the original asking price. Who knows what would have happened if it was priced at $399,000 originally. More buyers may have considered it and they may have sold for higher or may have not. The thing that amazes me is would you ever think of using that agent again? If you want an agent that will list your home for any crazy price, waste a lot of time, miss a great deal of potential clients – than you get what you deserve. More mortgage payments and less money.     The house sold and everyone moves forward but the part that really bugs me is the agent is expecting for everyone else to do her job. If you cannot convince your sellers to price it right than you should not be an agent. The seller is walking away with a bad taste since they probably believed they were going to get a lot more money for their home since their agent agreed to list the property $100,000 dollars over reality. The buyers may be happy since they just bought a new home but when their time comes to sell they will realize that they over paid. This property is above the top price for its area and unless they live in it for a long time, they are going to have a hard time when they sell it. I would usually not comment on a property unless I was 100 percent positive about the background, neighbourhood etc., but in this case I helped the original owner who did all the amazing renovations etc. and I just sold him a new project. Buyer Beware! V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.