Your asking too much for your home and that’s why your only getting jerks who make low offers.
by Dave Williams

I’ll start by acknowledging that is a blanket statement, I don’t know your specific details and haven’t done a detailed market analysis on your home or your selling situation.  However if I were chatting with someone at a party and they asked me “How come I just get jerks with low ball offer on my home?”

I’d say you’re asking too much.  Let me tell you why.

Most people are polite, courteous and respectful of other peoples feelings.  Personality profiles report that anywhere from 67-73% of the population fall into the rather say nothing than hurt someones feelings category.

What that means is three quarters of the people you’ve show your home to probably didn’t like everything you thought they did, they were just being polite and even though they might have liked your home enough to want to buy it…probably not at the price you’re asking.  So they just went away and said nothing.

Now if you are like most people, you built in a buffer.  You knew what you wanted to sell the home for and you are asking a little bit more so that when someone makes an offer a less than that you have some wiggle room.  Your thoughts are bring me a reasonable offer and we’ll work towards the middle, you’ll get a good deal, I’ll get a good deal and everybody wins….except the only offers you’ve gotten are incredibly low, and only seem to be a win for the jerks making those offers.

The challenge you are facing is those same people who might have made a reasonable offer, were actually afraid to offend you.  They know the home is worth less than you were asking (you know it too) that’s why you built in some wiggle room, but the polite buyer really didn’t want to point that out to you and risk being rude.

Now let’s talk about the 4-7% of the population that see what they want and go for it, without noticing who’s feelings they hurt.  They’ve been honest with you, your home is not worth what you’re asking but at least they made an offer.  They were expecting a bit of a fight for the price, they see disagreements as working in the right direction.  The negotiation is part of the process and you would have ended up somewhere in the middle, maybe a deal could be made or maybe not, but hey at least they gave it a shot and stuck to their plans.

So how do you bring all this together and get the home sold?

You know what your home should sell for, so you either need to bring your asking price closer to what it will sell for, or improve the home so it matches your asking price.

In Ottawa, through REALTORS®, homes sell on average for 97% of their listing price and 80% of homes sell between 95% and 100% of their listing price.

If you want your home sold it needs to be the best home for the dollar in the whole neighborhood and if you bring your price in-line with what the house should sell for you’ll weed out the jerks and get some more reasonable offers.

Hope this helps you understand real estate a little better.

As always if you have any real estate questions ask them below, or contact us directly at 613-788-2113