Discounting an Already Discounted Price for a Home

The thing about selling Sacramento real estate is the landscape and climate continually changes from year to year, the market is never the same. The only thing that manages to hold true is the shape-shifting of the challenges. We Sacramento REALTORS always tackle challenges, it’s the name of the game, they just change form.

A few years ago, it was things like the REDC Happy Thanksgiving short sale, in which the negotiator demanded that the seller stop celebrating with his family and start digging into his file cabinet for documents. On Thanksgiving Day. Today, most sales are no longer short sales anymore in Sacramento. They are regular equity sales with traditional sellers. Not only that, but our market has shifted a bit more toward normalcy, even with limited inventory; it’s more balanced.

Buyers seem to present more challenges. It’s like they are tiptoeing around on little mice feet, afraid of their own shadow. They make offers and then vanish. They don’t respond to counter offers and sometimes their agents go with them into that dark hole somewhere. One agent I have emailed, texted, left voice mails, over and over and nothing. Maybe she is in the hospital?

I am also hearing that some buyer’s agents do not present comparable sales to buyer before advising them on writing an offer. They tell the buyer to name a price. So the buyer looks at the list price and then deducts the (inflated) cost of upgrades and improvements the buyer would like to make. The buyer doesn’t realize the price might be a discounted price and instead might try to discount it further. Not to mention, upgrades don’t really factor in.

I’ve heard buyers sob, I would have to pay $50,000 to install a swimming pool so you need to knock 50 grand off the price. I suspect their agent is dying to say, hey, psst, this home doesn’t come with a swimming pool; get over it. But they smile and suggest that the buyer instead tour homes with swimming pools buuuutttt the buyer wants THIS home AND a swimming pool. I don’t envy buyer’s agents. They know a discounted price doesn’t often work.

Some fixer homes, well, they’re not every buyer’s idea of a new home. Buyers generally want to buy a home in move-in condition. This means the homes that need a bit of work can take longer to sell because they don’t appeal to everybody. But just because the days on market are longer than the flipper homes doesn’t mean the price isn’t right. The price might be just right.