About once every few months I hear a comment like this. 'I cannot believe you sold that home down the street for X!!' 'You've KILLLED our home prices in this neighborhood.'
As a point of order WE did not force a seller to sell or a buyer to buy at this price. A seller wanted to sell and a buyer was willing to accept the price the seller offered it at.
Let's clear another thing up. At whatever price said home sold for.....in a few months its no longer a relevant comparable sale for your neighborhood anyway given that appraisers are only allowed to use data that's very timely.
'Well you told them to price it like that.' Really? How would anyone outside of the immediate sale even know that? How does anyone know what the seller's motivations are or what the condition of the home is in the market? If the seller has a family member who is sick in another state and wants to be gone to help them TOMORROW, that may have contributed to their motivation or price. Maybe the furnace, AC & roof are all needing replaced. That can be at least a $25K price change. Perhaps there's some other form of financial distress that can be at the center of it. How does anyone know that there isn't a very unhappy spouse and there could be a dissolution coming?
Oh...and then there's this. Do you really think we WANT to sell a home at a vastly reduced price and have everyone upset? Of course not...but that's the first place everyone goes because they think it's immediately about them. The truth is it's RARELY about them. It's usually ALWAYS about some issue that is relevant and probably not very pleasant. When you see a home get priced or sell below what YOUR perception of value may be, take a moment. There may be a lot more discomfort being felt than simply the price of a neighbor's house and it's affect on yours.
greg cooper top selling Indiana realtor agent broker
