Don’t call me until you listen to the market

Sellers need to be all ears. (Flickr photo by Daniele Sartori)

I’ve sold my own homes a few times, so I get it: All owners want the best possible price for their property.

But wanting and getting are two different things. Consequently, I just won’t be an enabler.

I don’t see the point of accepting a listing for which the owner insists on a price that it is way above my estimate of its market value. Here’s why:

The High Road: The customer is not always right

There can come a time when a broker has to say good-bye. (Photo by _6ft5)

A real estate broker infrequently has to bid adieu to a buyer or seller who is devious or merely mischievous.   And it  always is regrettable when that situation arises.

The fact is that, when it comes to real estate, the customer is not always right.  In that case, the customer or client should be fired.

Out and About: Ignore that old thing?

Living room of apartment on the market in the low 70s for 42 weeks.

Consider a one-bedroom apartment that lingered on the market for 42 weeks after it was first listed for $575,000 last September.

The 725-sf co-op in the low 70s on a corner of West End Avenue has suffered the indignity of no fewer than four price reductions, to $550,000 in October, $529,000 in January, $499,000 in February and, finally, $489,000 in June before it slunk from the market two weeks ago.  (Monthly maintenance for the unit is $1,290.)

If ever a listing could be viewed as stale, this was it.

Any of us can imagine what deficits a stale unit might endure.  Where to begin?