Arrogance In This Market Will Kill You!

ARROGANCE IN THIS MARKET WILL KILL YOU:

We’ve spoken a lot about being realistic when it comes to a listing price for your home. But now we’re looking further down the line to the offering stages.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past 12 to 16 months, you will have noticed our market has undertaken a drastic correction. We’re not here today to discuss the ins and outs of this downturn, but it’s safe to say it has made selling your home far more difficult than we are typically used to in Vancouver. Don’t believe me? Ask any home seller in Vancouver!

Previously you would have your listing price, your home would hit the market on a Monday, Open House that weekend and then 9 times out of 10, your property was sold (sometimes for more than you were even asking.) That’s not the case now. The hurdle between your home hitting the market, to you receiving an offer has become A LOT bigger.

So if this step wasn’t hard enough to overcome, arrogance is the equivalent of you putting on Iron Boots whilst trying to jump this new shiny hurdle.
It’s important we recognise ‘arrogance’ can come in a variety of forms:

  1. Unrealistic expectations (See last weeks blog on that here)
  2. Minimal flexibility (Closing dates, price negotiations, subjects your willing to accept.)
  3. Personal emotion (The most devastating of all in our opinion)

First, let’s set something straight. The line “I don’t need to sell’ or ‘I’ll only sell if I can get the number I want’ is complete BS. Sellers, it’s not your market, trying to manipulate and play the game to get the most out of your property is not going to work in this market. Everyone and their dog knows buyers are in a more advantageous market right now, so your hardball is not affecting anyone other than yourself. Sorry for the bluntness, but we pride ourselves in calling a spade a spade. If that’s really the case, take some advice and take your home off the market and wait for a hot market.

Now we’ll give you an example of a scenario we had this past week. We have a client who wanted to purchase two units. These two units had been on the market for about 8 months in total over the past year, with no offers. These units happened to be next to each other too.

We submitted an offer for each of them, justified them with pricing comparisons, included our subjects and so on, all being very fair and realistic with the chance for them to sell both in one fell swoop. Now we’re realistic so we expect some negotiations to be had and we were prepared for that. So what happened next?

We got a counter offer on each ….. They would only accept a full asking price, would not entertain the justification we put through and refused to entertain a subject to sale condition altogether. The feedback from the agent was ‘They don’t need to sell’.

Well we passed on responding with a counter offer. In our mind, they are not willing to be realistic and we have so much on the market to choose from right now so we are happy to look elsewhere. No need for us to partake in that back and forth trying to grind each other down. 
Now what’s the reality here for these guys, not opinion, but the factual reality:

  1. This justification we sent shows with numbers, the market value for their properties at this time and in the present market.
  2. ‘They don’t need to sell’ - Being on the market for 8 months on and off suggests otherwise
  3. Unhappy with a Subject to Sale? Totally get it, then they could have included an out clause which allows them to accept an equivalent or better offer should one come through, a win win for them
  4. They now have two homes on the market that continue to stay on market and lose value the longer they are on.

Now these are the facts. They own these apartments so are 100% entitled to do whatever they want to when it comes to offers etc, that’s their prerogative and totally fine. However, this refusal to understand the market and need to negotiate will literally not allow them to sell their property.

It is what it is and that’s the game of real estate. But if you, as a seller, want to see results. Don’t let arrogance work against you. In this market it is enough to kill your chance of sale completely. Clearly by the above example, it took these guys 8 months to get one offer and less than an hour to shoot it down. I wonder what will happen to that market value if it’s another 8 months until the next offer? 

Be smart, be realistic and realise an offer (should you get one) is just a negotiation between two parties. Don’t get personal, don’t take things as a personal insult and be prepared to discuss realistic options based on justification. Follow these steps and you’ll up your chances incredibly to achieve a successful result!

Thanks for tuning in!

Until next week,

Jay Mcinnes
T: 604.771.4606
jay@mcinnesmarketing.com

Ben Robinson
T: 604.353.8523
ben@mcinnesmarketing.com