Today I've decided to cancel a listing, which is something i never like to do, but the seller has a friend. You know how it goes, the friend gave him some advice and they pass it on to me and then when the home doesn't sell, whose fault is it?
From the very beginning, the seller has never wanted to quite listen to my pricing suggestions and he is always one step behind the market. When we first put the home on the market, he had to have it about $5,000 above where I suggested. The neighbor who put his home on the market 5 days later at the price I had advised my seller, sold in 6 days. OK, Max, now I get it, lets lower the price. But now it has been 30 days since that home had the offer and if we only lower it $5,000 it won't sell. There is another home going on the market tomorrow at a better price and we need to beat them.
But my seller stands fast on his $5,000 price reduction only because the friend said, if they really want it, they will offer you less and you can just accept it. Well, guess what, the next buyer that came along liked both homes equally and put an offer on the other one (priced $5,000 less) and it was accepted. Hmmmmm, so if they had been equal in price, could my seller have won and had the offer on his home instead?
This happens over and over in our market, chasing the market down always one step behind. Six months is coming up and the seller still hasn't learned and wants to do it again (staying one step behind the market) on the advice of his friend. The moral of the story, if you are a seller, don't be one step behind the market and always chasing it down, get in front to the market and get it sold. The winner in any race is the one who sets the pace and finishes the race first, ahead of the pack.