What Do Sellers, Vegans & Priests Have In Common?

What Do Sellers, Vegans and Priests Have In Common?!

Uggggghhhhhh ……….

That’s how we are starting this conversation today. Now don’t get this confused, it’s not an angry ‘Ugh’, more of a disappointed ‘Ugh’. The kind of ‘Ugh’ when you’ve come home after working all day long, cooked dinner for the kids, cleaned the house, washed the dishes, put the kids to bed and you finally get to sit down and relax…… only to realize you have to get up again because you forgot to take out the garbage - Yes, ugh! 

Yes today’s blog is based on something which is so mind boggling, it will make you question if people are losing their marbles! Our honest answer to that is a resounding yes, it would appear.

Corrections, price adjustments, macro economics, days on market, etc. What can POSSIBLY be any worse right now than NOT selling your home due to it being overpriced……. Wait for it ……

“Re-listing your home, at a HIGHER price!”

Yes, you read that correctly. People are genuinely not selling their homes and are re-listing them at higher prices. 

“But they must have completed a renovation” I hear you say…….. Nope

“They must now be including furniture too then” ……… Nope

More relevant to our blog title, this is the equivalent move of a Vegan going to Rio Brazilian Steakhouse for dinner, or a Catholic Priest entering a Mosque to teach their faith. It Just is not going to happen, and if it does, it will not be successful. In some cases, even more disastrous than just not selling the property.

Especially in this market, it does not matter what your rationale is. Whether you priced low and wanted multiple offers (and didn’t get them), want to ‘show buyers your serious about your price’, had an offer at asking price on day one, so thought you’d pull off the market and try higher…… It’s a cardinal sin.

This price change is public knowledge. You’re competing with other sellers left, right and centre to get buyers even through your door to view your property right now, let alone an offer. It’s hard enough getting someone through the door when you are just overpriced, let alone when you are overpriced AND unrealistic. This move will single handedly kill your chances of selling by 99%. The buyer or their Realtor sees that, and unless you have a super unique property, the first thing they are going to do is skip to the next. Trust me, we’ve done it.

The last couple of months have reported figures that suggest Vancouver is stabilizing, what this really means, from a very high level, is pricing is less likely to keep reducing and realistic pricing will result in property selling. It DOES NOT mean prices are back on the up and you can set your price high and wait for the market to reach it. You’ll be waiting a long, long time.

For the sake of your own success, and by success I mean the sale of your home, as I'm assuming that’s what you want by putting your property on the market in the first place. Put your ego aside, look to rational thinking and you will be able to achieve that success. 
Last week we were invited to carry out a listing presentation at an apartment downtown. The seller had not been successful for the past 8 months on market at $775,000. His words to us when we arrived:

“We believe we are great value at $775,000 and we want to work with a Realtor who believes in our  $775,000 price”

They were genuinely thinking of relisting at $799,000 on the basis of ‘having negotiating room’ and ‘showing buyers they are serious about their pricing’. In their mind, It didn’t matter that they had not received an offer in close to a year, with barely any showings.  We left that meeting right away and told them we did not want to waste their time as we would not be the best fit for one another. Even though we pulled ourselves out, as a courtesy we promised to follow up with an email that highlighted their current market value and why, in the hopes it would help them. 

In reality that condo was an original condition 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom worth closer to the $600,000 mark. To “believe in his price” as he so put it, would mean being incompetent at our job and providing a disservice to a client.

We’d love to tell you the above example is rare but it’s still happening, a lot if you can believe it. The sad thing about it being, is these people do not realize the damage done (The Damage Done, good book, by the way, you should read it.)

As always, thank you for tuning in this week, and don’t forget you can also see/listen to the video or podcast version of this blog too!
Until next week,

Jay Mcinnes
T: 604.771.4606
jay@mcinnesmarketing.com

Ben Robinson
T: 604.353.8523
ben@mcinnesmarketing.com