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Do you think an experienced real estate agent (who only gets paid via commission when they actually sell the house) would price a house several thousand percent
by hotpotamus 3y ago
Do you think an experienced real estate agent (who only gets paid via commission when they actually sell the house) would price a house several thousand percent above a rational asking price? If anything, selling agents are incentivized to lower prices and up their volume; a change of a few tens of thousands of dollars might affect the home owners bottom line a lot, but the selling agent only loses 3% of that amount.
- HWR_14 3y agoObviously I choose an extreme example. But yes, I think a professional real estate agent (especially a part time friends and family agent) could misprice a house and need to lower the asking price. Or that the homeowner could insist on a higher price. Apparently, one of those is exactly what happened! That doesn't tell me anything about the housing market.
- hotpotamus 3y agoIsn't it also possible that the local housing market is softening and that a price that would have been competitive 3 or 6 months ago is now considered too high?
- HWR_14 3y agoThat's also possible. My point is that it's impossible to know anything. "The house wasn't selling, so we painted it" could be a story about how the trendy colors on the outside have shifted if it's a recent remodel done by someone who flips houses successfully, or a testament to the bad taste of the previous owner if it was hot pink. Especially since the realtor cannot just price it at whatever they want. Indeed, the homeowner has to agree, and may need to be shown that their price is too aggressive by sitting on the market for a month. My point is that without more context, e.g. how realistic that price would have been 3 months ago, it's not a meaningful statement.