I was watching this real estate show yesterday where this family in Raleigh, NC had a 3800 sqft home that they bought for $360k a few years ago and wanted to sell so they can get a smaller more affordable home for their income. The owner thought that if he can get $430k that he’d be very happy.
Now cue the greedy realtor that moved from California. She believed that this area was undervalued and thought she can manipulate the market there and convinced these people she can get them $465 where the comps on the same street were for sale at $410 and on the market for months.
These people were skeptical but she insisted she can corner this market. Long story short about 6 months later with one price reduction of $15k they get their first offer for $425k. The owner who a few months ago before getting brainwashed by this realtor said that he would be happy with $430 now says that he won’t take less than $450. They counter and the interested buyer walks. These guys then waited 3 more months with no offers and end up firing this agent. They hire a new agent that lists the home for $425k and they sell it in 10 days.
It goes to show how these greedy realtors mess with people’s head and makes them so greedy that they just price themselves out of the market.
I would say the real estate agent was incompetent not greedy. If they were greedy they would have priced it at $410k and sold it in one day. Agents are much better off getting slightly less for the house in exchange for a quick sale since that means a lot less work. Why would the agent want the house to be on the market for 3 months, having open houses and showings etc. etc. They are paid on commission but 3% of $465K is not that much more then 3% of $430K.
As a general rule, people in the southern states (excluding Florida) do not easily get caught up with the hype that prevailed with the run-up in prices in CA. They are much more skeptical than the average Californian and not as prone to sell their home & move up the property ladder every few years. It’s a different mindset. I was born & reared in South Carolina but moved to San Diego for 30 years. When we moved back to SC a couple of years ago, it didn’t take long before I was reminded of the differences between the two cultures. I have a lot of relatives and old friends here that I had not seen in many years and I have discovered that 95%+ of them are still living in the same homes that they were living in when I left 30 years ago. It has nothing to do with money: it’s a matter of not trying to keep up with the Jones’.
If a local R.E. agent attempted to get people involved in a bidding war on a home, they would be met with the biggest ho-hum they had ever encountered and all the interested parties would be likely to just walk away, leaving the seller with no offers.
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