I am a big advocate of pricing a property properly right out of the gate (i.e., I do not like to mark up to mark down). But, unfortunately, sometimes brokers are caught in a bind – a catch 22. The broker wants to get the listing, but the Seller “knows” the value of the property because he knows the market better than the broker (obviously) and his valuation happens to be higher than the broker’s (amazing). So, if she doesn’t go along with the Seller, then she won’t get the listing because she is “low-balling” him (even though she has hard evidence to back her recommendation, his property is different and should demand a premium to the comps, etc.). She gets the listing at an inflated price. When there is inevitably no action on the property, the relationship goes one of two ways; the Seller either starts to listen to her or does not think she is doing her job. Hopefully, he listens to her, she does a price adjustment and gets the property sold. If he doesn’t listen to her and thinks she is not doing her job, he’ll more than likely let the listing agreement lapse, hire another agency, lower the price and end up selling the property for what she originally told him or less. This is one of the harder catch 22’s a Nantucket broker (or a broker in general) has to deal with.
I listen to my own advice. My wife, Jenn, and I owned a property on West Chester Street that we were preparing to sell. We thought we knew the market value, but to confirm, I asked three respected brokers from different offices (I did not ask brokers from my office because I did not want bias recommendations considering I’m their boss) to tell me at what price they would list the property. They graciously agreed. I said, don’t worry about our feelings, give us your honest opinion. The result was truly amazing. All three prefaced their number with, “Don’t be offended” and all three came up with the same number, which was actually our original number, too. We looked at the evidence objectively, put the right price on it and had a deal within 2 months.
So, the moral of the story is, listen to your broker. They are not trying to make a quick buck (for the most part), they are trying to get the goal accomplished.