Question:
“Hi Gary. Thank you for coming by my condo, but I’m going to hire Joyce from ABC Realty [names changed]. You said I could only get $475,000, but I’d like to get $550,000. Joyce seemed really positive that she could get me the $550,000.”
Answer:
When an agent walks in your door, they can take one of two approaches:
They can SELL you.
Or they can ADVISE you.
When you had me by, did I try to sell you? Did I push you to sign anything or get you pumped up that I could get you the $550,000 you said you wanted?
No.
Instead, you may have noticed that I toured your home, suggested some easy fix-ups to increase the price, went over what price you can expect, and discussed your needs and how to make selling your home the best possible experience.
Here’s my suggestion:
Call Joyce and ask her for her comps, specific addresses of condos like yours that recently sold that support the $550,000 price that she’s promised you. And also the addresses of all similar condos for sale to see if any are below the $550,000 price she promised you. (Hint, there are two!)
If she doesn’t manipulate or selectively choose the data, she can’t justify the price.
How do I know?
Joyce and I go to the same place for our “comparable sales data.”
I also know because she’s trying to pull the oldest real estate trick in the book: In the business, we call it…
“Buying a listing.”
The idea is an agent promises a homeowner a high price to fool them into listing with him. Then when no one pays the price, the agent pushes for price reductions until the home sells or the owners give up and take their home off the market.
This is the oldest real estate trick in the book. And I’ve seen it happen, oh, about 2,000 times in my 29 years.
So don’t be fooled and taken advantage of. Ask to see the data and draw your own conclusions.
