I was taking a walk with my elderly neighbor, Mary, the other day. She has had her house on the market for over a year now and is puzzled why it’s not selling. We happened to walk by the home of another neighbor who has had her house on the market for several months as well. She was gardening outside and stopped us to say hello. To my amusement, the conversation went something like this:
“Mary, how’s the house-selling going?”
“Oh, hi Fran, it’s not going. What about you?”
“Nobody’s comin’ around. I can’t get anyone to look at the house.”
“Same here. I wonder why that is.”
“Mary, I just found out that it’s not us, it’s the buyers! The buyers just aren’t buying right now!”
The humorous part of this exchange was Fran’s revelation-like statement about buyers not buying, like all of sudden, buyers were afflicted with some mysterious virus preventing them from contacting a realtor to see a house.
Since watching Mary’s house languish on the market forever has bugged me, as we walked away from Fran’s house, I used this opportunity to ask her about why she thinks herhouse is not selling. She’s a widow and is getting too old to care for a house. She really needs to sell it, and I’m feeling anxious for her. Yet, everytime I broach the subject of the real estate market, she makes it obvious she doesn’t want to talk about it. The last time we talked, she was hoppin’ mad about someone’s low-ball offer and later that day I overheard her say on the phone to her son in a tone rivaling Donald Trump or Joan Collins from Dynasty, “I won’t take a penny less than my asking price!”
Yet, despite her stubborness, I’m curious about what’s going on insider her head. She’s a pure study in irrational and ignorant home-selling during the worst correction in history. I honestly want to know what’s making this woman tick.
She paid $275,000 for her home three years ago and is listing it for sale at $375,000. I asked her how she chose that price. Her answer?
The house down the street which is “not as nice or as big” sold for $385,000 two years ago.
She revealed that the “lowball” offer she had received was for $275,000 – the same price she paid for the house a few years earlier. Frankly, given there haven’t been any improvements (the same 1960’s carpet, cabinets, and out-dated hardware are still there), that was probably a fair offer. But because she’s been brainwashed by 20-30% year-over-year price increases, Mary cannot or will not see it.
Finally I see this morning that her For Sale sign is sporting the tell-tale “New Price!” language that stinks of desperation. Excitedly, I looked up her house on MLS hoping to see something significant. My hopes were dashed when I saw that she had only conceded to a crumb-like $10,000 discount.
At this point, she’s not even walking the market down. She’s miles behind it, riding the back of a snail, and so far away no one will even notice her crummy price change.
The good news is that she’s a great neighbor and my kids love going over to her house to bake cookies and raid her candy jar. And by the looks of things, they have a lot more oatmeal-chocolate chip and butterscotch encounters in their future.
Best,
Mels
