Yes, Virginia, There are Still Buyers in the Market

As the wonder of the Christmas season comes upon us, we are reminded of the simple gifts we look for.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Man (and Woman, of course) and maybe a buyer for this wonderful Greenbelt home in Lakeshore. OK, that last part might be a little selfish for the season, but you get the point.

Anyway, with 4,470 homes on the market and, lets see, count ‘em, one, two, uh, three… um, six buyers, its a far cry from the go-go days of 2004. Of course, a majority of the agents in the business here locally weren’t even licensed in 2004, but that’s a rant for another day. Nonetheless, my exaggeration(s) notwithstanding, there are Buyers out there. I know, I am fortunate enough to have a couple of them (and I am NOT telling anyone where I have them hidden).

In a recent moment of nostalgia for those gory glory days of 2004-05, I recently had a Buyer (yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) sit down to write an offer on this adorable ranch home over on the east side. We are discussing comps and price points and timing and negotiation and strategy and, well, stuff. The house has been on the market a whopping 50 days or so, a proverbial New-York second in this selling season of this year. It did recently have a price reduction (now there’s something different, NOTE: sarcasm alert!), which brought it in line with my Buyers starting point for negotiation.

In an effort to extract some additional concessions clarify some basic pre-offer information, I call the listing agent. At this point. it all starts to get a little fuzzy, but here’s my take on it. First, we must have had a horrible phone connection, because I could swear he said that they had just finalized a signed-around offer. Certain that it was the call quality, not my hearing, or -gasp- the truth, I did what anybody would do in that situation… I hung up and called back. Unfortunately, the technology was fine, the house had…wait for it…patience…here it comes… an “accepted offer”. Wow.

Now I remember the multiple-offer days of lore… remember historically 71.4% of my business is on the Listing side, so I know what it’s like to be part of the “sorry, we have another offer (or two)” conversation. Many of those, in the day. Ahhh. Oh. Sorry, was getting all misty-eyed there. Must be the dust.

I actually have a point (enough with the Bronx cheer, already). Point is, there are Buyers out there. Really. I know there are sellers who doubt the validity of this theory about now, but even with the number of transactions down sharply, this house sold and had other potential buyers, because it was A) priced reasonably, (although it did need one reduction to get there), and 2) was impeccably staged. Really. The house was relatively small for the price, but the statistical analysis of those comps were ignored (at least by my Buyer) relative to the staging, the creation of the atmosphere of home, that this house had. I have talked before about pricing and staging and the fact that only the best deals are getting done. “Best” in this case, and many others, is defined in subjective terms.

I give kudos to this seller and their agent for positioning the house to sell. However, I am certain that Santa would have preferred the transaction to have included my Buyer. Now I have to figure out how to explain this to Virginia.