No Games: the Opposite

Fred was a middle-aged man with a number of properties here in Philadelphia. He was one of my first clients. I could write a number of things about him. Suffice it to say he said he'd been in real estate for 32 years and claimed to know what he was talking about.

The house he was selling was a 900 sq. ft., 2BR, 1BTH, home in South Philly. It had a number of defects, cheap everything, outlets with no outlet covers, holes in the vinyl siding, a front step in need of repair, and so on.

As one open house visitor said, "$139,900? Why should I pay $20,000 over market if I just gotta spend more money fixing those things up?"

I recommended he fix those things and others. He said there was no need to and put it on the market for $139,900, about $20,000 over comps. He got an offer for $119,000and countered with $159,900, "just to see what he would say."

The buyer refused to go up, and Fred wouldn't take the offer as written. It

After several more episodes like this, he fired me as a Realtor. One of my best days ever.

Don't play games with your realtor. He or she can't do their best work.

I'm trying to create savvier real estate customer. Is this working?

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