What a world

What a world, what a world.

I am so thankful that this past weekend I showed like sixty homes to three different couples. I am also tired. Thankfully there are offers on some of my listings too. Regrettably in some instances I have to do the work of other agents, but that’s what a professional who wants to get deal closed does.

An offer came in on one of my listings on Saturday morning. I knew when the buyer’s agent phoned me before nine thirty in the morning that the offer would be low. Typically human tells are pretty consistent. The offer came and it was indeed some fourteen thousand dollars below asking price and a market analysis and lengthy explanation was included too. I presented the offer to my seller late Saturday evening. He wasn’t thrilled. This seller couple is very savvy and knowledgeable.

Cutting to the chase, we countered the low offer, I included some comparables and the buyer’s agent called to debate shortly before eight o’clock last night. In a nut shell, she challenged our pricing, she challenged the seller’s ability to close and she challenged my comparables. All of this challenging made me question myself, so as soon as the conversation was over, I went to multiple listing to check myself.
Simply put I found three perfect and recent comparables that justified my seller price range. I did follow up with an email to the buyer’s agent and haven’t heard back from her yet. While in multiple listing I pulled up the other agent’s sales records. Here in the Raleigh/Durham Triangle, she’s had six sales, six sales!

So, what is my issue, do I have an issue? I do, first, any of us can make numbers justify anything that we want to justify, a high asking price or a low offering price. It’s important to understand that fact going in the door. Second, the late evening phone call last night took us all down a path that none of us belong on, that being trying to play mommy or daddy to adult people. My seller clients are adult, we’ve reviewed comparables, they know their property and they are very aware of their responsibility as adults.

My question is; are the potential buyers in the same place. Their agent has explored what she believes is an accurate accounting of the seller’s financial standing, per public record and based on that information has drawn erroneous conclusions and fed those conclusions to her buyer clients. This causes anxiety and trepidation in their minds and really takes everyone’s eyes off the ball; getting the house sold.

So seeing through the minutia I hope that my counterpart carefully reviews the comparables sent last night and can counsel her clients back from the edge. Unfortunately I see the writing on the wall with this one; it will be difficult and trifling right to the end. We have stated on the wrong foot.