There’s always something to howl about.

Priced Well? No Offers — Not Even Insulting Offers? My 2¢

Greg Swann just published a post lookin’ for help from the professional community for one of our own. Barry Bevis, a Realtor in Tallahassee, has a listing that’s been giving him fits. He and several knowledgeable agents around town are in agreement — the current listing price is where it should be. The house is well kept. The lot is over a third of an acre. Very nice yard, and a hot tub. He’s done just about everything right to get this puppy into escrow. Its own site. Buncha cool pictures. Even had a custom sign made. Still, no sale.

No sale? Not even an insultingly low offer.

I went to the listing’s site. Plenty of info, and many photos, easy to navigate, and easy to get ahold of Barry. He obviously cares, and has clearly gone the extra mile as he markets this home. So what’s the problem? What might be going unaddressed?

Before continuing, let’s be real here. We’ve all been where Barry is with this listing. How many of us have scratched our heads, totally mystified by a listing that simply seems to defy a mountain of empirical evidence dictating it should’ve sold a dozen times by now? I have, many times. It’s maddening. Shortly after studying what Greg Swann does to market his listings, I had an epiphany — well, actually two. For me it was a good news/bad news joke. On one hand I was elated to have stumbled onto such a gold mine — which is surely what it is. On the other hand, I felt like such a doofus as I mentally compared his method to mine. But as often admitted, I’m ‘Japan’. I’ll steal anything cool and make it mine — screw my ego. Thanks Greg

First, I realized as experienced as I am, and as many properties as I’ve sold in the nearly 40 years of my career, I still couldn’t carry Greg’s jock when it came to the nuts and bolts of marketing listings from A to Z. The guy is head and shoulders above anyone else I’d studied.

Then the second epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks.

How likely is it you’d be able to market a Kobe beef cheeseburger to a guy who’s been eatin’ burgers exclusively the last 10 years, but recently decided he wants and can afford a juicy porterhouse steak? It occurred to me the answer was — not freakin’ likely.

So quick! Check the fridge for a fresh steak, or you ain’t makin’ the sale.

It’s my contention this is what Barry’s seller is attempting to accomplish. He’s in a mildly upscale neighborhood with what I’ve always called an “I Love Lucy” home. I spoke to Barry while writing this, and he agrees with me wholeheartedly. Off the top of his head, he said homes offering what his doesn’t, are moving for $20-40,000 more than his listed price.

Epiphany: My firm needed to have an experienced interior designer on call. It’s been the best arrow we’ve added to our quiver in I don’t know how long. A miracle worker. I won’t list her resume here, but trust me, it’s impressive.

I told Barry of an eerily clone-like example my firm faced just last month. Sean Purcell, a brother Bloodhound contributor, is an eyewitness. Sean didn’t see the house before ‘Julie’ had her way with it, but he saw it after, and he also saw how quickly it sold.

Like Barry’s listing, this home’s area sported prices roughly 15-20% above San Diego county’s median — nice, but just a tad above average. It had been a rental for eight years. We advised our client to sell and move his equity outa Dodge and into an out of state growth region. As usual, we followed Greg’s marketing methods almost word for word. During this process we brought in Julie, our designer.

Note: Our policy when listing clients’ income properties is as follows: You must do what Julie says, or we’ll refer you to another local broker. Period. Don’t believe me? Sean just closed a sale on a listing I referred to him for that very reason.

Anywho, nothing sold in the neighborhood in less than 90 days. There were several expireds and many active or pending with 100-150 day market times. Here’s what Julie recommended our client do to obtain top dollar very quickly.

1. Eliminate entryway coat closet, thereby making the hallway bathroom roughly three feet bigger at one end.

2. Erect pony wall in master bathroom and change the way toilet faced, so as not to give showering spouse a front row seat to you know what. These two easy design changes made room for a fairly large storage closet at the end of this bathroom. Very nicely done.

3. Finish the garage in drywall.

4. Eliminate 18-20 inches of the wall separating the living room from the kitchen. That part of the wall wasn’t necessary, plus it had a claustrophobic affect. When done, it was amazing how much difference it made to what you saw. The living room looked bigger and airier. The transition from living room to kitchen no longer seemed like a prison passageway. It was amazing.

5. This one made our client’s eyebrows raise a bit. Julie hated the way the covered patio looked, and the affect it had on the living room and dining area. She told him to raise the actual cover on the house side, so it rested and was anchored on top of the roof, instead of coming out of the wall below the eaves. This move had an even better affect than shortening the interior wall. It allowed far more light to enter into the living and dining areas, which only added to the feeling of openness. It also made the patio itself feel much roomier.

6. Re-floor 70% of the home with hardwood laminate.

7. Repaint everything inside that didn’t move or talk. The outside was fine.

The total cost of all this work was give or take $15-16,000. My son and I, mostly Josh, spent much time studying the neighborhood to establish value. Our opinion before the above work was completed — $385-400,000 max. The highest, and most recent comp was $408,000 and that one took two price reductions, and over three months to sell.

We listed the home on a Friday (last month) and entered escrow after a couple counters on Tuesday morning. Our listing’s price range was $429-449,000. Realtor bylaws prohibit me from revealing the sales price. What I can tell you is that the offer came in 2-3 days after being published on MLS. It established a new high for the area by a significant amount. Our client got back all the money Julie made him spend and more. (almost 2 to 1)

That’s what I told Barry his client might wanna consider doing. He’s trying to sell a really nice burger to folks in the market for a steak. Not gonna happen, in my opinion. Home buyers want what they want. If Barry’s seller eliminates the negatives, he’ll then be marketing steak to hungry steak buyers.

Make sense?