Relocate to Wisconsin : CAUTION: Overpricing Can Be the First Step to Foreclosure

  We recently closed a short sale that had been listed by five previous agents over the course of a three year period.   The very distraught sellers told us that they listened to everything every agent before us had told them....they knew that real estate was not their business...they knew what they didn't knew. They painted, fixed, staged and priced the house as the agents suggested....and as the market slid and values took a dive, each agent listed the house either at the same price as the previous agent...because of course, their plan for marketing/advertising  would make all the difference...OR just a tiny bit less...and the sellers waited and waited for all the highly recommended realtors to bring them an offer. No offer ever came and they now owed more than the mortgage. It didn't start out that way.  Had the first...even the second...or possibly even the third, agent moved with the market, the home would have had some equity and the sellers could close the transaction with some profit.

    In some cases, we see selllers who want to hang on and want to believe, that the "market will be back"...and that is true of course...real estate has cycles...The cycle will not peddle fast enough, hard enough to bring back the equity that was snatched in time to have the sellers make a profit...or just break even.

   Sellers: Beware if you have to sell your home, the price you are given may not be what you want to hear...it may be what you have to hear...ask the agent you have chosen about their list to sale ratio.....ask for proof, ask for references...be safe...know that you have gotten the best experience a realtor can offer...you deserve the best.