Here in the Tampa Bay Area, we are in what we call a sellers market. We have less than 6 months worth of inventory right now. (more than 6 months would be considered a buyers market). Market research within our MLS Shows that homes priced accordingly are selling around 98% of list price. Which in our opinion is pretty darn good.
Now if you over price your home, it will remain on the market, eventually you will have to reduce your price to where it should be before you will get an offer and then sell your home. We have a client we will call Bob (to protect his identity)
Bob is looking for a home here in the Tampa Bay Area up to $500,000. He needs a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, bonus room, three car garage and a pool. Sounds pretty modest considering the price point he is looking.
Sellers, exactly what are you thinking?
With it being a sellers market, it is actually a little tougher than you would imagine.
We found Bob a home that met all of his needs to a tee. It was listed for $500,000. We looked at the comparable sales and it showed that the homes in the same community that sold for $500,000 were larger than this home and would make the value of this home around $485,000. So Bob submitted an offer to the sellers for $475,000 and they rejected it. The sellers indicated that they were holding firm with the lsit price of $500,000.
So Bob decided that he would submit an offer to the sellers at $500,000 with additional language that said “Seller agrees that if appraisal comes in from $485,000.00 to contract price that they will reduce price to appraised price and continue with the sale. If appraisal comes in under $485,000.00 then renegotiation will occur.” Which we and the sellers agent both thought would be a win-win. Bob did not want to spend money on inspections, appraisals just to have the sellers say when the appraisal came back that they would not continue with the sale. And we all believed that the home would appraise somewhere between $485,000 and $500,000. Which Bob was more than willing to pay appraised value of the home for he and his family.
So we submitted offer to the listing agent for Bob. Typically here in the Tampa Bay area, sellers take up to 24 hours to respond to an offer. So 24 hours past, we called the listing agent and they said the seller was still considering the offer and we would get a response the next day. So we updated Bob, and we waited. Around 4:50pm the following day the sellers agent calls us and tells us that there was an emergency and the owners would be discussing the offer and they would be back with us in about an hour or so.
At 8:30pm the sellers agent calls us back and says. “The Sellers Have Decided to raise the price from $500,000 to now be $525,000” Yes there was a long pause by Nick, I could not believe it, the home had been on the market for over 45 days, Bob submits a Full Price Offer and the owners decide let’s increase the asking price by $25,000.
I have to admit, I am at a loss on this one. In all of our dealings over the years we have been assisting buyers and sellers here in the Tampa Bay Area, this is the first time this has ever happened to us. We conveyed to the listing agent that Bob would extend his offer to the owners if they decide to reconsider or their circumstances change. So now after finding Bob the home of his and his family’s dreams, we are back out looking for them.
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