“On a recent listing presentation, I did a market evaluation for an older, dated home.  I concluded that the house was valued between $420,000 and $425,000.  My suggested listing price was $429,900.  The Sellers, however, wanted to list at $489,900—$60,000 more than I recommended.

I decided to take the listing and was surprised that there was good traffic, but it was still overpriced.  I finally convinced the sellers to reduce the price to $439,900.  That’s $50,000 less than they wanted, but now only $10,000 above the price I think it could sell at.

Within weeks after the price reduction I did get the sellers two offers on their home.  But the problems didn’t end there, as two of the three sellers refused to include an existing old fridge and stove in the deal.  Several back and forth offers later, the deal died.

After the listing expired they decided to list with someone else at $449,900—$40,000 dollar less than the original list price when I was working with them, but still overpriced.  I still don’t think the home has sold.

If I could’ve convinced these unreasonable sellers to list at my suggested price of $429,900 from the start, the home might have sold in a few weeks because we did get traffic through the home.  With a 3% commission, I calculate I lost $12,897—not to mention the time and expenses I put in.  The listing presentation is the time to get sellers to agree to a price reduction, or walk away from the listing!”

“Last week I was out showing handyman specials to a buyer client.  One property definitely stood out from all the rest.  As a matter of fact, in my 6 years of working in real estate I have yet to see its equal!

The home in question was a small 3 bedroom bungalow on a nice sized lot, and located in a mature and very nice subdivision.  There was no key in the lockbox, so I called the listing agent for the code.  He returned my call saying he would be right over to let us in.  The agent showed up in fine form…as drunk as a skunk!

He proceeded to warn us that the owner had a few quirks.  One being that he was a great collector of stuff, and the other was that the house was a little full.  Whatever that meant!  We entered the home via a side door (which I thought was odd) that opened to a small hallway.

To the left was a bathroom.  We couldn’t see the condition of the bathroom because of all the boxes piled in front of the doorway.  To the right was the staircase to the basement, which I’ll tell you about in a minute.  Straight ahead was a doorway leading into the kitchen.  Under the doorway was an old broken kitchen table and a few large garbage bags that were filled with clothing.  I would have worn proper shoes if I had known beforehand that we’d be doing a bit of mountain climbing

The kitchen was a total disaster! Bags after bags of garbage and used clothing littered the floor.  The counters were covered with half eaten food that was rotting and growing mold.  We really should have left at that point but our curiosity got the better of us.  The entire living room was filled with plastic storage containers and boxes stacked from floor to ceiling.  No wonder we couldn’t enter through the front door!

The owner was kind enough to create a pathway to the master bedroom which lead directly to the bed as this room was also filled to the brim!  We were unable to view the other two bedrooms because they were ENTIRELY filled with boxes.  It just kept getting better and better.  The basement however was the finale!

Just like the rest of the home, you could not see three of the four walls due to the amount of boxes stacked floor to ceiling. On the back wall of the home, the owner had dug through the foundation to make an opening that went underground straight into the backyard!  This ‘cave’ was about 4 feet wide, 5 feet high and about 9 feet in depth.

The listing agent explained that the owner could not afford to rent any more storage units, so he simply created his own storage space.  I happened to notice that one of the floor joists had been cut (approx. 12 wide) to accommodate a ‘clothes line’ (according to the listing agent).  There was maybe one inch at the top of the joist left to support the fridge sitting directly above this cut joist.  Yikes!!!  Frankly, this home should have been condemned.  The structural integrity had been seriously compromised. That’s my horror story and perhaps one very good reason to preview properties prior to taking clients out.”

“I scheduled a showing with an agent who specializes in an area my clients were interested in.  The wife was on time and the husband running late.  I showed the home to the wife with the other agent present and explained the husband was running late.

A few minutes later, as we walked out of the home, I saw the husband turn the corner.  I asked the other agent if we could see the home again with the husband.  I understand agents are busy and have schedules to keep.  She explained that ‘no’ she could not show the home again (as my client was walking up the walk way to the front door).

She did not have time and had to rush.  Fine, I would reschedule.  My clients were understanding.  When the wife’s car would not start we spent the next 1/2 hour getting it started.  All the while, the ‘busy’ listing agent is still in the house, not going anywhere, her car parked in the front….refusing to answer the door while I rang the bell.

Being a bit curious, my clients wanted to wait and see when she would come out (with her being in such a rush).  AN HOUR LATER she walked out, pretending she didn’t see us standing in front of the home.

The next listing of hers I showed (to the same clients), which was supposed to be empty, had the homeowner come out of the bedroom – even after I rang the doorbell, walked in with the key I got from the agent, and showed half  the house.

The homeowner scared us half to death.  Needless to say, my clients bought a home in the area – but NOT from that agent. They refused to see any of her listings ever again!”

“Some REALTORS^® think being ‘given’ a County Probate or Public Guardian house to sell is a ‘freebie.’  The County calls up agents and asks them to sell a house.  Pretty simple, right?

Last year I was given a home to sell by the County Public Guardian property division, just as the market in the East San Francisco Bay Area was beginning to tumble.  I submitted comparable sales to the administrators, estimated downward, knowing that the market was tanking.  I ‘won’ the listing and put the county’s run-down house up for sale.

For next 3 months, investors circled around like sharks and I presented low ball offers to the County.  Each time they rejected them, based on what an administrator ‘thought’ the market was doing and what she ‘thought’ the house was ‘worth.’  Meanwhile, foreclosures and N.O.D.s (notices of default) continued to blossom like mushrooms in the rain in this neighborhood, lowering property values by less than half.

For each of the next 6 months, every time the comparable sales dropped, I re-submitted an estimate of what I thought it would sell for, and the County administrators passed the papers around at the speed of paint drying, rejecting each new price, as the market continued to fall 6% in one quarter last summer!  It wasn’t until I produced data from the California Association of REALTORS^® that the County bureaucrats validated my requests for a price reduction.

When a perfect young man showed up to buy it at the now realistic price, and was willing to do the considerable fixing of a dilapidated property, he chose a friend of the family to do the loan.  This novice lender, very puffed up and sure of himself, delayed the close through two court appearances because he couldn’t close the loan.  Only because my intrepid buyer was heartbroken that he wouldn’t be able to ‘buy my first house before I turn 30′ and the County had stalled the sale for almost a year and now mandated it sold, did they allow me to find him a loan (which I had in underwriting within 2 days, at 1.5% lower than his so-called ‘friend of the family’).

It was looking more and more like a Keystone Kops movie, ridiculously scrambling down to the wire:  the underwriters insisted we have the Section One termite work done before funding, and the County broke their protocol and found a contractor who could whip it out, in the winter rains, in a couple of days to keep the loan locked, and finally the house sold just on my buyer’s birthday.  Lesson learned:  I’ve got to be much pushier about my knowledge of the market and loans, much more communicative (especially with local bureaucrats), and more persuasive with buyers to give up their silly loyalty to mediocre or inexperienced lenders.”