Starting out over priced could hurt you. You may lose those people in the lower price range, who would just ignore your listing.

Are you the listing agent? What do your comps show, and how well does the house dhow? Good schools? Something that makes it more or less desirable than houses that have sold in that neighborhood? Hoa? Updated? One story? On the water, or water view? Avg days on mkt for that area? Is it the largest or most expensive house in neighborhood? On busy street?

Two showings in two weeks is pretty slow for a new listing. If you are the listingcsgent, did you do a realtor only open house, and if so what was their feedback? How are you marketing the house?

If it is overpriced by 20%, what good does that do for the seller?

You are in FL! No one is in FL in September unless they have to be. It's the height of hurricane season. Season for buying in the majority of FL is January-end of April during season.

I made it a point to not put my condo on the market last year until mid January, but at the very least I'd wait until mid October to put the house on the market.

Thanks for the replies. I am not the seller or agent. The sellers are older and convinced that the home is more valuable than the comps. It is in good shape, but nothing has been touched for 17 years.

They wanted to go even higher. The agent told them the price was above her top range and if they went higher they would need to find another agent.

For some reason they ask my advice, but then they usually dont take it. On the price I tried to gently tell them it's too high but with them it's personal. It's on the market already so I guess I like lily's advice to suggest lowering it in October. Other similarly priced homes take ages to sell and a number of mark-downs over that time. I think people from the north expect a similar market to the markets their kids are all talking about. Plus people over value their own homes.

We are planning to go there in October to help pack.

Thanks everyone.

Sellers often think their house is more valuable than it is. They also are willing to overprice it with the mindset, "Just let someone make an offer." Sounds like your friends have fallen into this trap. Overpricing sends a signal of a difficult, unrealistic seller. Buyers don't want to deal with that and won't just make an offer unless the house is so unique, special, and a rare opportunity that it warrants such. Very, very few houses fall into that unique, special, rare opportunity category.

And absolutely YES, the reason for the lack of showings is that it is overpriced. Waiting to lower the price 4 months creates a stale listing, and your friends will continue to chase the market downwards. Get the price corrected ASAP.

Lets just hope they don't need a quick sale so they can move into assisted living. They're in for the long haul with an overpriced house that has had no updates in 17 years.

Yes, it's a case of "but this house is really special." I think it needs to be demonstrated that they are overpriced which is happening now. But it will be a while before they come to grips.

I know people can take a long time. There's a car that's been for sale down the street for 3YEARS!! Obviously they are not serious. They think it's a classic. It's not.

Anyway, I am hoping they come to the realization sooner rather than later.

We ran into that recently. Tried to make an offer on 22 yr old home that's never been updated. Priced like homes in neighborhood with air conditioning and granite in kitchen. Home has a swamp cooler, fomica counters, no updates. Asking 267k (overpriced). Offered 230k cash, with quick close, no contingencies. They countered at 255k. Little old lady owner and her son think it's worth more, because she liked the house.

Home hasn't had any other offers.

Well it's understandable people, especially older people, are attached to their home and see more value in it. Especially if they are not in a particular hurry. If it was urgent to them they'd adjust their expectations and their price.

We bought our current home from an older couple-the doctor said stairs are not good anymore for their hearts, they should move to one story house asap. So selling their place in order to get one that would fit their new needs better, was a priority much more important than the perceived value of their house. It was priced right, we offered, they accepted, done.

As Anglophilia, I say let's hope they don't need a quick sale.

I'm not sure I totally agree with cpartist. It's true that snowbirds aren't here, but Orlando is a major metro area with millions of year-round residents. I can't say anything at all about the market in Tampa, but in S Fl it has been greatly overheated at the low-mid range. In both Martin county and the areas of PB county I follow, there was a ridiculous price run up in the first half of the year. For instance, in a townhouse community I was interested in, in Jan prices were around $100K. By June everything was in the $140-150 range,and selling within a week. But things have slowed way down, I think because. 1. Banks are starting to refuse financing at the current prices, and 2. People are beginning to be haunted by the specter of 2007, and they're uneasy that these prices won't last forever. I see way more houses that go to "under contract" and then back into the pool than I was seeing a year ago.

i spend a fair amount of time working in Orlando, and prices are getting pretty overheated in many areas there, too.

The Tampa market is still hot, lots of properties are selling. Even in September.

Yes this is outside of Tampa. Way outside. It's not really a retirement or resort community. Maybe half and half.

One issue is they are still selling lots and building new homes. The area got slammed bad during the financial crisis. But things have picked up. I think retirees are apt to buy lots and build new homes, which they can do for less than what my friends are asking for theirs. "But we have xyz..." Doesn't matter...people don't really care about that. People are seeing the glass block and shiny brass and 17 year old carpet everywhere.

An updated home just came on the market with 36" range, pro hood, all stainless, granite, no carpet, etc. 500 square feet bigger. Only $9k more. We will see how that one goes.

Thanks for the replies!

Writers block, I'm not in Tampa, but yes, our market is still hot. So hot they're building 3 or 4 new hotels, and something like 7 condo buildings just downtown. And in our area anything from $100,000-$400,000 is selling quickly.

However, even though stuff is still selling now, it's slowed down compared to during peak season. We have a few condos still available in our building (we're renting a different condo in the building where we sold our place) and the people selling have told us that they're lucky if 1 buyer comes in a week, whereas during season it was at least 1 person a day.

However reading jn3344's post, it seems that yes, they are overpriced and that too will be a disadvantage.

On the other hand, we bought our current home that had stained carpet almost everywhere, and shiny brass. We changed the carpet, and I noticed the shiny brass only lately, when reading about shiny brass:) If it bothered me so much, I'd change it too..

But it had one of the best layouts I've ever seen, and I liked the architecture and the community.

Shiny brass is kinda less important, in the overall context of a very big purchase.

Just an example.

I have a friend who describes today's real estate market as a thousand foot journey.

Your friends are on the first steps of their journey. They will need to do a few more steps before they are ready to accept reality.

Point out to them that they haven't bought or sold real property in the last 17 years. There has been a huge change in how most people view real property. No longer can you be guaranteed a profit. Rather, a roof over your head and a place to sleep is the best you can do in this market.

Tell them that they hired an agent to represent them. They should follow some of her advice. If I was the agent, I wouldn't be putting a lot of effort or money in the listing until they are a few more steps in their journey.

Can you get market analyses from multiple agents to show them that it is not just one individual's opinion? We started off with listing our home over-priced too (also due to an emotional attachment - my husband's!) and it just led to about 4 months of work cleaning and showing the home for nothing, until we lowered the price to what was reasonable. I would show them the finances for what they will be paying into that house each month for the next 6 months, because it might sit that long, and then get them to lower the price by at least that much. With a faster sale, they come out even in that case.

This happened with their previous home as well. It did sell eventually after languishing for months, while the market around them was cooking.

They didn't want other opinions when I suggested it.

16 days, only those two showings. They refused a showing to a couple that had a firm budget 4% below their asking price.

Yes, I think that is probably the correct tack.

Today the excuse is "its priced too low. People looking for a nice home will pass it up because it's so cheap."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm out, hehe. I said call me when you want us to come pack...which is looking more and more like "never."

WOW!

Seems a lot of people nowadays are living in a dream world.

Give it one more shot. Tell your friends that if it were priced too low, everyone would be beating down the doors to come see it so they could get a bargain. Don't say anything else.

I'm sure you're all wondering what happened with this? Or maybe not. Anyway...

Short version - still for sale.

There are ppl buying in the area. This house hasn't had that many showings but at least 4 lookers have ended up purchasing comparable properties nearby. They have all been less money/greater value situations.

Excuses:

That's not a lake view, that's a swamp.

Who would want to live on the golf course like that?

That house was built by the drunken contractor. Should I call their realtor and tell her she is committing malpractice?

The last showing the feedback was, for that price the buyer would expect at least granite counter tops, new SS appliances, and some better landscaping.

The price has been reduced once. It's still at the very top of the range. All these buyers were in the market for a house and serious.

They all purchased properties similar, and at prices our friends realtor had suggested they price their house at. Will there be more buyers? Sure! But the house could have been sold by now. As it is, they will move out and have two places to care for now.

Price the house correctly is the lesson here.

Well, they have lowered the price once. The next time won't hurt as much. Some people just won't or cant' learn. Be patient with them. It sounds like they are elderly. Yes, they will have two places. The drain is real money and lost opportunity. We all know that. When they complain about two places, just nod your head and say that's too bad. They will get around to a real market price later rather than sooner.

Good advice. I try to only provide feedback to them when asked, as they are my spouses relations and I am just the manual labor.

Lots of people have unrealistic expectations of the value of their homes. Me included. I try to temper that by listening to the professionals.

We go down there in 2 weeks to pack them up. I'll keep my nose to the grindstone and let the chips fall where they may.

Well..as much as I agree with you they're probably seriously overpriced and extremely unrealistic..the realtor could spare their feelings and not tell them word by word what buyers say

The one of the positives of working with a realtor in this country, being absent for when the showings are, etc-is not needing to hear what buyers say

Because my elderly MIL was selling her "dacha" that her late husband built himself with his own hands, with the garden they planted around and all, and spent years working on it, and for her it was one of the dearest memories,those days spent there together-and it was very hard to hear how the potential buyers say "ok, this we'll demo..ok that gets demoed too"..etc etc.

Your relatives need to come to terms with reality of course, but it's on their realtor to do it in a way that doesn't bring them additional suffering.

Also when you get hurt and offended-it's usually much harder to listen to the voice of reason. You go into the defense mode. Instead of doing things differently.

Update. Oh golly, I feel kind of sick about this. The 6 month listing with the agent is almost over. The price has been reduced 4 times. Right now it is at the point where I recommended they start almost 6 months ago. But the market punishes those who overpriced their homes at the start...people walk in with a "I wonder why this hasn't sold yet" suspicion.

This last reduction has brought 3 offers. All at around the same price, which is lower than the listing by about 7%. They haven't been able to work any of them successfully.

They want to pull the home off the market. Put in the cheapest new appliances and carpeting, and relist with a new agent for MORE than they started at last year. I said "thats crazy."

Sometimes there's nothing you can do but watch the trainwreck happen.

it is crazy

but they are not ready yet, in a painfully obvious way. they're still processing. who knows what-a home is never just a home

we bought our previous place in 2010. i loved it with all my heart, and didn't think of moving ever. by the end of 2012 we knew though we'll have to move-a death in the family, and everything goes awry. it was not urgent just yet but we knew we had to part with the house, in the near future.

it took another four years to actually move-nothing happens as you exactly plan

(and two years of paying two mortgages lol)

but i had these four years to process the things. to part with the house i loved madly. it's much, much more than most people get, and much, much more than i myself got under other circumstances.

it was bad financially, it was very hard sometimes on us and on the family, yet there were still four years of my life, and for most part, after all said and done, i'll remember them fondly. it was a long good bye..but who knows, maybe long good bye was what i needed. after so many short good byes i had.

you can't really do anything. they'll either say they good byes soon or they won't

you obviously worry about them, you stand by them-you can't sell instead of them.

you can just continue to be there. watching. what one can do. hopefully they'll come to terms with it, before you needing to get them from under that train-wreck.

All you can do is stand back and watch the train wreck. They can't be told anything different. Keep you mouth shut. Some people are their own worst enemies.

My guess would be they will end up selling at the 7% off price even after they put in the new carpet and cheap appliances. With three offers, they've found the market price. They just haven't found a performing buyer.

or, more aptly, a performing seller.

Thanks for coming back and giving an update. I agree with homechef. Your job is just to say, "well, I'm sorry to hear that." And then walk away. Not your problem, not your responsibility.

I have found it is hard for the elderly to remove their attachment to their long term home. Frankly, as an agent, I would have been a bit more insistent on getting it priced right from the beginning or not taking the listing knowing that the seller needs additional time to get to reality. The one thing we have in our business is our word and if you know you are taking a listing that is overpriced by 20% you won't be able to keep your word (to sell the house for market value). The sellers don't know because the last time they sold a home was many years ago. It is best to be brutally honest right up front and tell them what the market comps show their home to be worth. The market certainly told them that the house was overpriced (lack of showings).

OP, I see that you are in a difficult spot with these sellers being your relatives. Your best bet is as others have said - don't get too involved. Your position is much more delicate than the Realtor's position. When the seller comes around to understanding the market they are likely to get much less than if they had started their list price much closer to actual market value. Buyers do see when a home is stale and offer accordingly. I just hope they come to their senses sooner rather than later.

I'm out, hehe. I said call me when you want us to come pack...which is looking more and more like "never."

Even if they are moved out, the problem is in their minds it's still "their" home. They look at the house through their rose colored glasses and don't realize that their house is dated now. They put their heart and soul into the house and to them it feels like a loss to leave it. I don't think it's the money. I think it's the emotional feeling.

To give you an idea of what I mean. I'm a full time fine artist. Many years ago, I did a drawing to honor 9/11. It was a still life with a lot of symbolism in it and there were times when drawing it, I got emotional. After finishing it, I had no desire to sell it so I priced it higher than any other drawing I had ever done. I sold it and to this day it's the only drawing I've sold that I wished I hadn't. It sounds like these people are having a similar reaction. The difference is I knew how I felt when I purposely priced it high. These folks probably don't understand it themselves.

Such a classic story of how homeowner's emotions can kill a sale. Too many don't understand that pricing 20%- sometimes even 10%- brings in buyers who are seeing other homes (correctly priced for market and price) that are superior.

The other thing that happens with mis-listed properties like this is that they get "stale". They may go down in price, but the agents and buyers who see them, at a too-high price? Their views are now colored, since many saw it already- but in comparison to properties that were better, and correctly priced. Everybody starts to ask "what's wrong with this property?" And that's how it gets stale.

To the OP- best thing you've done is to separate yourself from trying to "save" the situation. Best of luck.

Heavens to Murgatroid, the saga continues.

After a price reduction put the house almost at my recommended price, activity picked up. I thought I was going to update you all with a happy sale. But no...

The accepted offer was almost exactly 20% below their starting price, and just below the new reduced price. There was a contingency on the sale of the buyers home, which was under contract. Sadly that home never closed. After 2 extensions the deal is cancelled.

They will relist. But have insisted on a price INCREASE! I'm just flabbergasted.

I said "the only two offers you received were when you lowered the price this last time. Why would you increase it?"

Crickets.

Realtors sometimes do this- move up and down the pricing scale trying for any target.. At this point, the listing agent is just playing a shell game.

My best advice- if you can- is to take it off the market for a month. In that month, look for a Reator who can give you up-to-date sales comps- this season, not last year. Then list competitively.

What a game...

Good advice but sadly I am merely a bystander at this point.

Sold! It took 8 months.

They reduced the price (again) because the agent threatened to walk, and got a cash offer with immediate close. There was much yelling and gnashing of teeth but in my opinion they got about what the house was worth.

Noted:

1. Selling a house is business, not personal. Don't make it personal.

2. Nobody cares about your superior taste, your 17 year old "upgrades" or your brilliant alterations to the builders floor plan. You have to detach from all that.

3. Willing buyer. Willing seller! This is how price is determined.

4. Trying to extract a few more percents can cost money. 8 months of taxes, insurance, electric, water, pool service, yard maintenance, etc.

If you want to sell a house, price it properly. Otherwise the message is you are not serious.

Good luck to all you sellers and buyers out there!

Excellent advice jn3344. I'm glad to hear they finally sold it.

It's hard for some people to detach especially as they age, but as you said, it needs to be thought of as a business deal. Ideally, they do what we did with our condo. Removed anything of meaning to us. Staged it and instead of pining for our condo, we are looking forward to our new build house. Harder for folks to do if they don't know where they're going before they put it on the market.

Congrats! yes, willing buyer and willing seller.

(actually people do care about taste, to a certain extent..some poor multi million dollar home in the area is sitting two years or more on the market, numerous price reductions and all, because its great location amazing backyard and ocean view can't compensate the very strange facade line "how about we make this part chateau and this part mission and pile another seven different strange looking towers and eight different kinds of windows and doors, to cover a lot of worldwide architecture existing over the centuries." Some taste would be cool..not necessarily superior, but you know..just a regular one lol)