South West Florida Real Estate News-North Port-Port Charlotte-Venice-Englewood-Punta Gorda

Over the past few weeks my partner and I have acquired several new listings not because we came in with the highest listing price but because we were honest with the sellers.

One example is a home we listed just yesterday. The seller (who was a referral to us from another agent) contacted several local agents for CMA's, us included. We gave them a CMA, it was around $40,000 less than some of the other agents CMA's.

So, we get a call a few days after they received our CMA thanking us for our time and telling us that they had decided to go with an agent that had sold many of the same kind of home and would list it for $40,000 more than our CMA recommended. This seller was by the way "in dire need of selling." We chatted for a few minutes and after I  hung up with him I put the home on my "check back each month until expired list". I did some digging and it appears the agent had never sold a home like his, at least not though the MLS. OK, I thought good luck.

Well, just last night I get a call from this same guy saying that after going over the details of his home the agent says that she must have misunderstood the square footage and would recommend a price $40,000 lower. At this point the seller is pretty put off and calls us to see if we're still interested in listing his property. We got the listing for pretty close to our original CMA recommendation.

We'd rather be honest with them from the beginning and lose the listing than inflate the price, get the listing and have them be upset with us because it never sells. Don't take overpriced listings and be honest in the beginning. Your sellers will respect you more in the long run!