By Rich Levin

Two weeks ago we successfully moved our home and offices from Rochester, New York to Atlanta, Georgia. We sold our house in Rochester (after a year on the market). We are now renting in Atlanta (Toco Hills) while we look for a house. As an expert in Real Estate I thought I’d share some of the insights and experiences. In many ways I felt and behaved like any other Seller and Buyer. In other ways, my knowledge and experience gave me an advantage. You, as Sellers, Buyers, and Agents may find this useful, perhaps interesting.

That’s an easy question to answer. We overpriced our house. When an Agent does all of the things that normally sells a house and it doesn’t sell. It is one of three things: location, condition, or price. Since you can’t change the location you have to change the price. You can change the condition. If that doesn’t sell it in two or three weeks, then all you are left with is the price. We didn’t change our price hoping someone would overpay for our house because we were not under pressure to sell and move.

It is a common mistake for an Agent to say, “This house priced right.  It’s just not selling.”  That is a naïve and amateur statement for an Agent to make.  By simple definition if a house is “priced right” it will sell.

When the feedback from people who looked at your house is that, “The bedrooms are too small.”  “We want a larger yard.”  or any other structural comment; when you get this feedback consistently the true message is that the Buyers are confident they can get that feature in your area for the price you are asking. In other words, the house is overpriced for what it offers.

We had one of the biggest homes on the street, the only two car garage, a killer master bath and we thought all that and more would get us a lot more than the other homes that sold. Once we reduced the price to the price our first Agent had told us a year earlier, it sold to the next Buyer that looked at it. Our first Agent was right. Our ego attachment to our home was wrong. (at least wrong for the purpose of selling)

The other factor is that we were not eager. We were motivated but not eager. We were moving to be in a warmer climate closer to our son, his wife and their new baby. A year later with a second grand child on the way and the baby having become a speaking toddler we became eager to get with them before the next baby was born and not spend another winter in the north.

We made two buying trips to Atlanta when our home was not sold. We made offers on two homes. One we didn’t buy after a very bad inspection. The second sold to another Buyer who was willing to pay more. We decided to rent with a clause in the lease that we could vacate to buy a home with sixty days notice. (We paid $800 to have that clause in the lease.) Now that we are here we realize that up until now we were feeling pressure to make compromises in order to buy in a certain timeframe. That pressure is gone and we are more eager and more excited to buy what we really want with less compromise.  Buying has turned from a chore into a pleasure.

Is this helpful to you? I’m not sure. It’s honest and it’s real. I’ll let you as Sellers, Buyers, and Agents decide what lessons may be learned from it. We are living in the warmth, five minutes from people we love, with no regrets. Hmmm, yes, I believe I can say with no regrets. If we had waited longer to sell or bought the wrong thing more quickly, then I can imagine regretting those decisions.

Rich Levin is a National Real Estate Expert now living in Atlanta, Georgia. For information contact Rich at 585-244-2700 or rich@richlevin.com. Website: www.RichLevin.com