Agent urged us to underprice our house now we regret it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen several houses relisted at higher prices and only one made sense (they did renovations)

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2115-Military-Rd-22207/home/11232946

This house just relisted higher. It is beautifully staged but it is small and cramped with low ceilings. We knew the owners prior to the ones selling now.

I think that they are crazy. You are on main street and across from a gas station.

They’ve now changed the price back to the original lower price.

I don't think that this is OP's house - I guess it could be. This is just an example of someone changing the price back and forth (weird). This house has a lot of issues from a buyer's point of view. The house is at a very busy intersection (not good for noise, pollution, children. or if you have dogs). It is located across the street from a gas station. And I also hate as a buyer when someone buys a place, does nothing to it and jacks up the price incredibly.

[Anonymous]

But
What does your agent have to say?

[Anonymous]

OP is not coming back. They had to sell their laptop and other possessions to pay for their realtor's mistake.

[Anonymous]

My motto has been, the first offer is usually the best offer. I know this is anecdotal, but I have seen it time after time. I’m not saying always, I say usually

[Anonymous]

I'd consider a couple of factors.
1. Now is not the best time to sell a house. School has already started and families are not looking to move.
2. What contingencies, if any, is the offer asking for? If they are willing to waive everything for "information only" like inspection, appraisal, etc. I'd factor that in. Not having to repair anything, worry they will back out if it doesn't appraise, pest inspection, appliances, roof ..... and being able to just sign and walk away is worth $$$$. Also not asking for any closing costs and getting your realtor to reduce fees would also be a plus.
3. How much do you love the other house? Would you be ok with walking away from it or would you regret it forever. How bad do you want out of your existing house? I hated my old townhouse and couldn't get out of it fast enough.
4. Would you at least break even for the offer price?
5. You could always wait out your contract, delist and then try again in the spring when the market picks back up. You will be able to ask for more money, but your new purchase will cost you more money too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure it’s not priced correctly? Do you really think you’d get more offers if it was priced higher?

Yes a very similar house same layout a few doors down sold for 75k over our list price last month. That one has a bonus screened in porch so we mentally discounted 25k from what we would expect

A screened porch costs $40k bare bones.

Wut? Not at all. Cut the price in half for a screened porch with lights, fans, and fully stained.

Who is your contractor??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is kind of silly to think that if you listed the house higher, some or even most people would have been willing to offer that instead. Most buyers have a hard limit for what they are willing to pay, and in most ranges a 50k difference is a total nonstarter. I’m fact, people filter online by price so it’s pretty likely that your original offer wouldn’t have even known your house existed at a price 50k higher (unless it’s in the 1 million+ range). You are totally ignoring the reality of how people find and bid on homes nowadays.

But like you said, it depends on the price range, and in this area $1M+ isn't uncommon. If OP's house is listed at $400K but she believes it should have been listed at $450, then I'd say maybe take the offer in hand because at that price point she would have had many buyers noticing the steep discount and making offers. But at the higher end, $50K just isn't a huge deterrent either way, and it's harder to get a unanimous conclusion regarding exact price. A small home in a neighborhood of almost identical homes selling for $425-475 is going to be much easier to price than a home in a neighborhood full of a variety of types of homes ranging from $750K - 2.5M.

I'm the pp who thinks my agent also screwed me. We listed and sold at $1.225 because she repeatedly swore up and down that price will correct up and by pricing it lower we would get a bidding war. Other agents suggested between $1.275 and 1.3. I don't think asking the $50K would have deterred the buyers, but they wouldn't go over list in the Fall market. It's much more of a buyer's market these days than it used to be, especially for anything that's not a flip in perfect condition in a hot area. I agree with the pp who talked about the list price anchoring the value. That's it. No one would pay more once they saw it had been listed at $1.225. Both buyers originally offered less than list, then both came up to list when they became aware they were in a competitive situation. But neither would go above. If we had listed at 1.25 or 1.275 then I believe it would have sold for that. Just my $.02.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is kind of silly to think that if you listed the house higher, some or even most people would have been willing to offer that instead. Most buyers have a hard limit for what they are willing to pay, and in most ranges a 50k difference is a total nonstarter. I’m fact, people filter online by price so it’s pretty likely that your original offer wouldn’t have even known your house existed at a price 50k higher (unless it’s in the 1 million+ range). You are totally ignoring the reality of how people find and bid on homes nowadays.

But like you said, it depends on the price range, and in this area $1M+ isn't uncommon. If OP's house is listed at $400K but she believes it should have been listed at $450, then I'd say maybe take the offer in hand because at that price point she would have had many buyers noticing the steep discount and making offers. But at the higher end, $50K just isn't a huge deterrent either way, and it's harder to get a unanimous conclusion regarding exact price. A small home in a neighborhood of almost identical homes selling for $425-475 is going to be much easier to price than a home in a neighborhood full of a variety of types of homes ranging from $750K - 2.5M.

I'm the pp who thinks my agent also screwed me. We listed and sold at $1.225 because she repeatedly swore up and down that price will correct up and by pricing it lower we would get a bidding war. Other agents suggested between $1.275 and 1.3. I don't think asking the $50K would have deterred the buyers, but they wouldn't go over list in the Fall market. It's much more of a buyer's market these days than it used to be, especially for anything that's not a flip in perfect condition in a hot area. I agree with the pp who talked about the list price anchoring the value. That's it. No one would pay more once they saw it had been listed at $1.225. Both buyers originally offered less than list, then both came up to list when they became aware they were in a competitive situation. But neither would go above. If we had listed at 1.25 or 1.275 then I believe it would have sold for that. Just my $.02.

If your house had been worth more than $1.225, the would-be buyer who would otherwise lose would have been willing to counter above that. Neither of them went higher because neither of them valued your house at more than $1.225. If you’d gone with the higher price, you might not have sold the house at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is kind of silly to think that if you listed the house higher, some or even most people would have been willing to offer that instead. Most buyers have a hard limit for what they are willing to pay, and in most ranges a 50k difference is a total nonstarter. I’m fact, people filter online by price so it’s pretty likely that your original offer wouldn’t have even known your house existed at a price 50k higher (unless it’s in the 1 million+ range). You are totally ignoring the reality of how people find and bid on homes nowadays.

But like you said, it depends on the price range, and in this area $1M+ isn't uncommon. If OP's house is listed at $400K but she believes it should have been listed at $450, then I'd say maybe take the offer in hand because at that price point she would have had many buyers noticing the steep discount and making offers. But at the higher end, $50K just isn't a huge deterrent either way, and it's harder to get a unanimous conclusion regarding exact price. A small home in a neighborhood of almost identical homes selling for $425-475 is going to be much easier to price than a home in a neighborhood full of a variety of types of homes ranging from $750K - 2.5M.

I'm the pp who thinks my agent also screwed me. We listed and sold at $1.225 because she repeatedly swore up and down that price will correct up and by pricing it lower we would get a bidding war. Other agents suggested between $1.275 and 1.3. I don't think asking the $50K would have deterred the buyers, but they wouldn't go over list in the Fall market. It's much more of a buyer's market these days than it used to be, especially for anything that's not a flip in perfect condition in a hot area. I agree with the pp who talked about the list price anchoring the value. That's it. No one would pay more once they saw it had been listed at $1.225. Both buyers originally offered less than list, then both came up to list when they became aware they were in a competitive situation. But neither would go above. If we had listed at 1.25 or 1.275 then I believe it would have sold for that. Just my $.02.

If your house had been worth more than $1.225, the would-be buyer who would otherwise lose would have been willing to counter above that. Neither of them went higher because neither of them valued your house at more than $1.225. If you’d gone with the higher price, you might not have sold the house at all.

That might have been true a couple years ago, but not in today's market.

[Anonymous]

The house finally sold

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2115-Military-Rd-22207/home/11232946?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

I think that it still probably sold for too much since they put zero work into it from the prior listing

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2115-Military-Rd-22207/home/11232946/mris-AR9964066

And the location is at a busy intersection across the street from a gas station. Apparently the realtor was right to not price so high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The house finally sold

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2115-Military-Rd-22207/home/11232946?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

I think that it still probably sold for too much since they put zero work into it from the prior listing

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2115-Military-Rd-22207/home/11232946/mris-AR9964066

And the location is at a busy intersection across the street from a gas station. Apparently the realtor was right to not price so high.

Some cosmetic stuff was done - but the old listing was better in some ways than the changes that were made - a lot of which look cheap.