As is clear from the title, I've got Digital Underground stuck in my head. Blame the Sirius Satellite Radio. In any event, I'm beginning today's post with the moral ... that way, just in case you don't read on, you still can enjoy the point.
MORAL: Just because it's a buyers' market doesn't mean sellers will give their homes away.
And now for the backstory ...
Last week I listed a home in Deerview, an older subdivision in Northwest Phoenix. We priced the home on the bleeding edge of the market, especially given the 12,000+ square-foot lot the home sits on and the excellent diving pool in the backyard. You see "priced to sell" on a lot of listings here in Phoenix these days, but this one truly was priced to move quickly.
We had a handful of showings the first few days (always a good feeling in a slower market) and on Thursday had the wife visit the home with her agent in the morning and the husband come through at night. By Friday I had an offer sitting on my fax machine - full price, less $7,000 to be applied to the buyers' closing costs.
Given the already-low list price, the sellers and I elected to counter by raising the price to incorporate some but not all of the closing costs.
Yesterday I receive a call telling me the buyers didn't like the counter offer. I said I'd check with my sellers, which I did, and their response was the counter is the counter. We're not budging. End of story. Unless ...
This morning I received a call from the buyers' agent. Upon further review, the runner was down by contact ... er ... the buyers decided the counter worked for them after all. I should have it waiting for me on my fax machine this evening.
Did the home's value jump over the last 20 hours? Of course not. But after looking at other homes in the same price range in this same area, the buyers discovered what we already knew: this was a hard-to-beat value.
Many buyers believe homes are there for the taking at any price. While I've got no issue with writing a lowball offer (it's hard to recommend offering full price, after all) the time also comes to take a second look and see where the home is priced. Though the vast majority of sellers want to sell, only a small minority are willing to do so thousands below current market value.
And so the moral of the story ... well, you know that already.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes | 
