WE had listed a lovely little three-bedroom home with a couple who were very motivated to sell.
They had set up a fabulous motor home rig and planned to spend the foreseeable future travelling this great land of ours.
They were keen to get rolling as soon as possible.
Naturally, we had spent considerable time studying the sales in the market to come up with a challenging list price and started to market the property in earnest immediately.
In addition to all our advertising for the property, we sent communications to our personal buyer base, inviting them to our first planned open home showing.
And we had a great first showing.
One couple fell in love with the house, and seeing all the other lookers, decided to put in a cash offer for the full list price with settlement in three weeks.
The house was perfect for their needs. A match made in heaven.
So naturally, the Martins were very excited to be presenting this offer to our clients.
Now this is where the story goes sideways.
We sat down, walked them through the offer and then we saw that little glint in their eyes… greed.
“If you got full list price so quickly, surely we can get more than that?” said the seller.
And just like that, they decided to knock back the offer and put the price up by 20 per cent.
As their agents we told them this was way over market value, but ultimately it was their property and so we would start marketing it at the new price.
We went back to the couple who had placed the offer, and they said they couldn’t possibly pay that much and that they had done their homework and knew that the new price was way over market value.
They offered a little more which was knocked back.
So, they walked away.
After three months of enthusiastic marketing there were no offers.
The couple fired us.
Then decided that they could do a better job of selling it themselves.
After several months no sale was made, so they appointed another agent and almost one year to the day, they ended up accepting an offer that was 15 per cent lower than the original price we had listed the property for.
This meant that they spent 12 months waiting to go on their national tour, paid 12 months of mortgage payments, council rates and extra marketing to come out with less.
The moral of this story is to find an agent that you believe is honest and ethical and then listen to them.
Remember, a property is only worth what people are prepared to pay for it.
The current market is wobbling, so listen to it.
– Lorraine and Brian Martin are principal directors of ONE AGENCY The Martins Real Estate Bayside at Capalaba Park Shopping Centre (Near Chemist Warehouse).
