Over Priced?
By Jim Palmer Jr.

One day I received a call from a buyer who was expressing interest in a property that I had listed in a rural county.  The persistent buyer first asked how much it was listed for then followed rapidly with, “You know this listing is overpriced, right?” His statement was more of a declaration than a question. He quickly followed with, “What will they really take for it?”
I carefully explained that “Since I was working as the seller’s agent, I couldn’t reveal that number, even if I knew that answer.  Since revealing a number to a potential buyer without permission from the seller could be a violation of agency law, I would never in good conscience make a revelation of that sort.” 

He continued his irritating dialogue by insisting that it was extremely overprice, and then justified his remarks by comparing it to a property down the road that had sold last summer.  “Compared to the house down the road this property should be half that price!” he exclaimed brazenly.  He continued, to denigrate the property by saying, “After all it is really mickey mouse with the logs in the front and the two story addition in the rear.”  I replied by saying, “Have you been in this home?  How do you know it’s mickey mouse?”  “Oh, I’m looking at it right now,” he said.  I smiled impatiently as I realized this caller was not qualified and was looking at the listing via his smart phone.  “I’ll call in a couple of months when you get the price down where it belongs! “ he defiantly stated, then abruptly ended the call.

The very next day, I received a bona fide offer from a different buyer who could obviously put his money where his mouth was.  The offering price was very close to the listed price, which validated the market research that was done prior to listing this nice home. 

So, what is a property really worth?  Is it priced right?  Who gets to decide that,… the seller, the buyers that don’t buy, or the Realtor®?  The truth is that the one ready-willing-and-able-buyer who actually makes the purchase decides what the market value is.  The seller’s opinion is really a wish.  The Realtor’s® opinion is only an educated guess based on analysis, and the non-buyers opinions (like the one in the above example) really don’t count!