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In our recent home selling experience, I've noticed a trend in people expecting deep discounts because of the way you've decorated a home, or the furniture you've arranged, or the fact that you own a pet. Keep in mind, all of these things are temporary attributes inside the home and would be leaving with the owner once they move out. Even as it pertains to the pets, it's not as if the home has taken on damage from the pets; it's their mere existence that provokes this request. Obviously, we'd be open to offering minor credits at closing for any cleaning/repairs that may be required as result of our own doing.
I've had a number of people tell me I should drop the price significantly because of these factors. Is this normal behavior? As someone with more of an engineer mindset, this seems completely impractical and unreasonable to me. These are not things being sold with the home; the home itself is what is being sold and should be valued based on its own condition. Am I crazy for thinking this way?
Sometimes one deal with people with offbeat opinions. And sometimes it's just a ploy to reduce the price. It's sort of a game really. You just see what you can accept as the end offer. If it won't work out, politely move on.
In our recent home selling experience, I've noticed a trend in people expecting deep discounts because of the way you've decorated a home, or the furniture you've arranged, or the fact that you own a pet. Keep in mind, all of these things are temporary attributes inside the home and would be leaving with the owner once they move out. Even as it pertains to the pets, it's not as if the home has taken on damage from the pets; it's their mere existence that provokes this request. Obviously, we'd be open to offering minor credits at closing for any cleaning/repairs that may be required as result of our own doing.
I've had a number of people tell me I should drop the price significantly because of these factors. Is this normal behavior? As someone with more of an engineer mindset, this seems completely impractical and unreasonable to me. These are not things being sold with the home; the home itself is what is being sold and should be valued based on its own condition. Am I crazy for thinking this way?
Price the property at market value based on CMA, comps, appraisal or whatever metric you want to use then see what offers you receive. When I sell, I don’t give much import to the buyer’s reasons for wanting a price reduction. I look at what my bottom line is on the property as far as minimum price I would consider and look at the buyer’s offer thru that lens. Unless there is some obvious issue I failed to consider that would impair the value, I usually don’t discount much if any.
I've never heard of someone asking for a discount because they didn't like a seller's furniture. "Decor" - if it means outdated colors and styles, it is a legitimate reason that the price is lower based on comparison to a more updated property. Pets frequently cause damage to floors, walls, landscaping and a "noseblind" owner isn't the best judge of whether that is present.
With all due respect, this seems like frustration because you aren't getting offers for your desired price, but the market is telling you the house isn't worth it. Even in relatively hot markets, you can still be overpriced and in my experience, that means your house sits without any offers or maybe gets a "lowball" based on the listing price, but the price isn't realistic to start with.
Say what? Discounts because of the decor? You're not selling them the decor. I don't understand. If the decor is somehow so horrible that they cannot see past it and cannot imagine themselves in the home, then they wouldn't make an offer. Having some kind of outrageous or horrible decor is a marketing mistake, but not some flaw that a consumer (buyer) could demand some kind of discount for.
If there's some kind of smell or damage due to the pets, they could ask for some kind of credit. But just having the pet reside there shouldn't matter -- if they are aware that a pet lives there and they are that upset about it, they shouldn't make an offer.
I've never heard of someone asking for a discount because they didn't like a seller's furniture. "Decor" - if it means outdated colors and styles, it is a legitimate reason that the price is lower based on comparison to a more updated property. Pets frequently cause damage to floors, walls, landscaping and a "noseblind" owner isn't the best judge of whether that is present.
With all due respect, this seems like frustration because you aren't getting offers for your desired price, but the market is telling you the house isn't worth it. Even in relatively hot markets, you can still be overpriced and in my experience, that means your house sits without any offers or maybe gets a "lowball" based on the listing price, but the price isn't realistic to start with.
Our home has been recently updated in the last five years. Comps are easier for us, because we live in a conforming townhome/condo community. We are by and far more updated than many of the recent comps we’ve seen sell for more. Some have another bed or bathroom, but they also sold for $5-15k over what we are asking. We also have lots of updates those recently sold homes do not.
There is no damage to flooring or walls from our cat. She has been potty trained for the past 10 years that I’ve owned her. We’ve asked friends and neighbors for their own input about a distinct pet odor, and none of them agreed there was any. So who do we ask next?
We are priced in the middle of the pack. Not the highest or lowest. I’m not saying we couldn’t be priced too high. But we are also not getting that feedback from our agent or other agents. In fact, more the one buyer’s agent said it was priced well. Their client balked only because they wanted a certain feature we didn’t have.
With all due respect, it’d be nice if just once people inquired more about these things rather than make assumptions about one thing or another. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it and not be receptive of feedback. But any time I seek out specific advice about something, I get responses making inaccurate assumptions about this or that.
- No our home is not in terrible shape from our cat
- The home has been updated in the last five years; we like it, but I can't guarantee it's to everyone else's specification
- We did even more mechanical updates after we moved in: new disposal (didn't have one), new electrical panel (used to be a fire hazard), ceiling fans
- We are priced in the middle of the pack of homes that have sold recently in our own community
- Our realtor suggested the price it is currently listed at, we have not demanded anything
- We have decluttered and decluttered over the past few weeks; our home is fairly barren at the moment
Our home has been recently updated in the last five years. Comps are easier for us, because we live in a conforming townhome/condo community. We are by and far more updated than many of the recent comps we’ve seen sell for more. Some have another bed or bathroom, but they also sold for $5-15k over what we are asking. We also have lots of updates those recently sold homes do not.
There is no damage to flooring or walls from our cat. She has been potty trained for the past 10 years that I’ve owned her. We’ve asked friends and neighbors for their own input about a distinct pet odor, and none of them agreed there was any. So who do we ask next?
We are priced in the middle of the pack. Not the highest or lowest. I’m not saying we couldn’t be priced too high. But we are also not getting that feedback from our agent or other agents. In fact, more the one buyer’s agent said it was priced well. Their client balked only because they wanted a certain feature we didn’t have.
With all due respect, it’d be nice if just once people inquired more about these things rather than make assumptions about one thing or another.
Some people have a real aversion to cats or their smell. When we sold our house for every showing I'd take the cat, the cat box and food with me in my car. The buyer's agent was shocked when she found out we had a cat because there was no evidence of one.
Some people have a real aversion to cats or their smell. When we sold our house for every showing I'd take the cat, the cat box and food with me in my car. The buyer's agent was shocked when she found out we had a cat because there was no evidence of one.
Out of 30+ showings, only one buyer agent made a fuss about this. And we think it was because they saw the litter box under the staircase. We've since moved the litter box into a more discreet storage closet location in the basement. We don't really have any other cat storage options at the moment.
Out of 30+ showings, only one buyer agent made a fuss about this. And we think it was because they saw the litter box under the staircase. We've since moved the litter box into a more discreet storage closet location in the basement. We don't really have any other cat storage options at the moment.
Even if that one buyer makes an offer including such discount requests nothing says you have to accept it.
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