Listings

Here are my market priced Salt Spring Island Real Estate listings.

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With the Salt Spring Island real estate market in a general downward (2008-2014) trend I had not focused my time on getting listings for the sake of getting listings.   I just can not see the point of having 20 or so over priced listings.   Prior to 2015 I had seen the same basic trend happen with so many of the homes that are for sale on Salt Spring.  See examples below of over priced Salt Spring listings.

This is what I have seen;  The sellers call 3-5 agents to chat about selling their home.  At first they think their home is so much nicer than the other homes of the street that have sold over the years and worth so much more.   So few sellers want to hear the market is down and actual market prices.   They just want to sell for as much as possible which is just basic human nature.  So what basically happens is they tend to list with the agent who tells them their home is worth the most.  In the real estate agent world this is called “buying the listing”.  I do not do this.  Usually the listing is for a 6 months to a year.  At first the sellers are so happy counting all their money they think they are going to get.  Unfortunately for the sellers the buyers are very astute and know the market.  So few will even book in a showing at an over priced home.  At the end of the real estate contract the sellers fire the 1st agent.  Then it is up to agent number 2 to list the house at a real selling price.  This usually does not happen.  Real Estate agents are generally sales people and do not like to confront people especially people who are going to give them a listing.  Again the home is listed at over market price and again it sits and sits.  Usually after 3 or 4 agents or so the sellers seem to actually get it.  There home is not going to sell at an over market price and they list at market price.  The main problem is Salt Spring is in a downward trending market with the market prices moving down.  What was once market price is now a over market price.   The sellers will have to really drop the price to hit the actual market price.

So why do agents list homes if they do not sell? The answer could possibly be found in Ray Wilson’s book Bought Not Sold page 46; “Listing agencies list to attract buyers!…traditional real estate business cannot survive without listing because that is what is uses to attract buyers.”

The old you have to “List to Last” saying is one of the oldest real estate agent myths there is and personally I do not subscribe to it. I’m not in the business of listing over priced homes.  What is the point? To attract buyers?  Overprice home do not sell.  The sellers will lose more in the long run.   Did you know that in BC real estate law there is no law against overpricing a property.   If an agent under prices a property they can be in big trouble.  Especially if it sells within days without proper market exposure.   Don’t under estate the ability of sellers to over price their homes no matter what the market is doing.  Only astute sellers know that to actually sell they need to have a sharp selling price.  Well price homes sell in reasonable time in any market.  Overprice homes sit forever.

Here are a couple of homes that have been overprice and listed for a long long time.  The first over priced Salt Spring home was listed for 1722 Days on the Market.  Scrolling down through the asking price and days on the market should be a lesson to sellers that the market does not want to over pay.  The original asking price was almost triple the selling price.

 

This next home was listed for a total of 1415 Days on the Market before selling.  Was it over priced?  You tell me.  Look at the original asking price then selling price.  It was more that double the actual selling price.

This last home was listed for years. I was the last agent to get the listing from this seller and the home sold for less than half the first listing price. Sometimes it pays to be last.

These are just random examples.  I could find more examples.  Overpricing and re listing seem to be common on Salt Spring.   Caveat Emtor Let the buyer beware is not just a saying it should be the warning for all buyers to do their homework.

Cheers
Scott Simmons