THE IDEAL SELLER

Try to define the perfect seller. You probably can’t. Realtors have been trying to figure this one out for years. And still can’t. But I think it looks something like this. I have known a certain client for over 40 years. Quiet man, but VERY self-directed. Knows what he wants and makes it perfectly clear. So when I receive a call from him a few years back that I need to come down and let him know what his recently deceased mother’s home would sell for, well, I just went with the flow. He had a bit of an idea what it should sell for, in his opinion, but totally deferred to me about what next steps were. So away we went. Home was lovely. A modest bungalow built by a very reputable builder. (Weird sidebar here – I used to sell this same builder auto parts when I was in high school. Yikes) at any rate I viewed the property and suggested a whole bunch of things that needed to be done to present in the best way possible. Floors needed to be upgraded as did the light fixtures. The back deck was a mess and needed to be replaced. The whole home needed to be painted. The yard was good. Had a small pool that needed work. But overall it was a beautiful property in a very desirable area. So he went to work on this. Never questioned one thing. I suggested having the home staged. I had a super professional photographer come in and put his spin on things. It looked great. Then the wacky brother got involved. I had a price in mind to list the place so it would generate the most interest. Seller was sharing this with his two siblings as the mother had passed on and they were the 3 heirs named. This particular brother wanted the place listed for 400K more than I suggested. Uh....No. So I pushed back. We were trying to generate interest and the price he was suggesting was way out of line. So I went to the top banana and asked that the others please not get in the way. All the heavy lifting was done. Place looked unreal. Pictures done. I looked at the pics and thought this doesn’t look anything like the place I looked at 3 months ago. It was superb. We ended up with 7 offers. 6 legitimate and one from a knucklehead that wanted to negotiate the price over the phone. Uh.... that’s not going to work. In the end I got them exactly what I said the home would sell for with no funny dealings. It just worked out that way. If you do your homework and find comparables to said property and really dig in, you should have a really good idea of what it should sell for. The only variable would be the buyers and what they valued the place at. Which goes back to one on my main tenets. A property is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. That has been proven time and again over the last 6 decades or so and will continue to do so. The main point here is this seller totally trusted me to do what I said I would. And as a result he got more than expected for his property. Made everyone happy all around. That’s what counted the most.