For this home I just sold in Sunnyvale for $1,600,000, I was the agent for the seller, who was referred to me by an agent I know who lives out of the area. The seller interviewed me and a couple of other agents. In those interviews, at least one other agent pumped up the pricing pretty high, so it was a little tough for me to encourage the price I thought the home would sell for. It can be challenging when other agents do not know the market values and then I come along and have to nicely burst that bubble without actually losing the listing to another agent!
Since other agents had really pumped up the price, the seller was pretty set on those high prices, which is understandable. So, we did list higher than I thought was a good idea. But, it is a bit of a Catch 22 for me as an agent, in that if I don’t price it along those lines, and then the seller doesn’t get that pricing because they feel we priced too low, it looks bad on me. And, they feel we should have priced higher to get what they wanted, when in fact, it doesn’t work that way.
At some level, I have to price where they want to be and try my best to get that number, or higher, and then reconvene if things don’t go as the seller hopes they will. Most sellers go with my pricing, so this situation almost never comes up for me. But, because other agents were ‘off’, it just put me in a bit of a predicament this time.
We listed the home for the price range the seller hoped for and I did do my best to get that price, of course, but predictably on my end, we had no offers after the open house weekend, even in this crazy market.
The sellers were pretty surprised to see no offers after the open house weekend, asked me what we should do, I advised we go with the price I suggested, had another open house weekend, and woudn’t you know, I had an offer that was OVER the listed price I advised, and done deal! Sold! Frankly, the sale price wasn’t even that far off of what we listed in the first place, but it attracted the right buyers. It was a great offer, over the list price, waived all contingencies, and a super smooth transaction.
The reasoning behind my pricing is that the home is on a very busy street, plus the home is only 2 bedrooms. For sure, if the home was 3 bedrooms (and I did explain this to the sellers), then we would have gotten the pricing they wanted in the first place, but the buyer pool is MUCH lower for a 2 bedroom home than it is for a 3 bedroom home. There is just no comparison for buyers looking for at least 3 bedrooms, and FAR fewer buyers that are willing to buy a home that has only 2 bedrooms, especially at this price point. Plus, this home is unique. Bedrooms are downstairs and the main living area is upstairs. So, with all that in mind, that’s why price came in where it did. There is nothing I want to do more than to EXCEED price expectations of a seller client, but sometimes expectations are just too high…
Just sold in Sunnyvale for $1,600,000
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