Melissa Ballman:
Salt Lake Home Seller Loses THOUSANDS!! Sellers, would you lose $50,000 when it came time to sell your house? Well, that is exactly what I’m talking about today, a seller that left $50,000 on the table in a seller’s market.
Hi, this is Melissa Ballman, and I am a real estate agent here in the greater Salt Lake City area. So what that means, if you’re looking at making a real estate move, I’d love to connect with you. Shoot me a text, send me an email, do what you have to do, but get in touch with me and let’s talk about your real estate goals. But today, first, I’m going to tell you a recent story that happened and how a seller left $50,000 on the table that they could have gotten.
So first let me start by saying just a couple of things. One, it is 2021. It is a seller’s market. Insane things that I haven’t seen since I’ve been licensed in 2006 is happening in this market, above asking price, waiving contingencies like appraisals and inspections, and $50,000 over asking prices still not winning bids. I mean, it’s insane. But it doesn’t matter if you’re watching this video today or in 2025, and it might be a buyer’s market by then, the principle is still the same. The dollar amounts just may be different. So today I want to talk to you about the importance of who you hire. I always say who you hire matters, and I’m going to give sellers a look at exactly what I mean by that.
So let’s jump into this real life example that just recently happened in March and April of 2021. I listed a home for sale in a subdivision. It was actually a townhouse. I’m going to throw a slide up so you can see the numbers broken down. I’m a visual person, so just hearing somebody doesn’t quite set in the same. But listed a townhouse for sale. When I pulled the comps, because it’s such a seller’s market, I actually reached out to sellers agents that have recently sold, that was a comparable property, or was currently under contract to find out where things were at, what the situation was and get a really good, clear picture for my seller.
At the end of the day, I came back and said, “I think you should list between 490 and 500. I think if you list it 499, you’ll have no problem.” The sellers were carrying two mortgages. They were moving out of state. They had already closed on their home in their new state. And they were like, “Nope, let’s list it the 490.” Fine, did that. We listed on Friday, April 12th, 2021. We had multiple offers over the course of the weekend. Reviewed offers on that Monday.
I will say on this home, the basement was 25% finished. So what that means, there was a laundry room and a family room in the basement. That home had, like I said, multiple offers, and because we’re a non-disclosure state, I can’t go into a lot of specifics, but we ended up taking an offer that had waived the appraisal contingency, like so many offers you see right now. The home was vacant. The sellers had moved out of state, so we staged the home and had a professional stager come in and do that. We ended up closing on that home for over $520,000. We actually had offers higher than that, but like I said, we’re a non-disclosure state, so I can’t give you specifics. I’m just going to say it was over $520,000.
One month later, actually on April 12th, 2021 … If I said April 12th was my listing, sorry, it was March 12th. April 12th, 2021, same subdivision, same floor plan, just a different street, so one street over, another unit was listed. And that unit had a basement walkout, which my listing did not. House number two, we’re going to call it, actually had a view lot. Now I’m not talking about some spectacular views, but it had some views where you could look out and see some other cities and things like that. Their basement was not finished. And I’m going to tell you what an appraiser gave for that. They listed their home at 449,9, so $40,000 less than what we listed for. Now I will say that I never received any calls. So I don’t know what the seller’s situation was for house number two. I had heard through neighbors that house number two was aging people and their kids were selling the home to help pay for assisted living, but I don’t know that for sure.
But I will say that the comp for the home that I sold had closed and had been updated on the MLS prior to house number two even being listed. So it was a comp that was easily available for everybody to see who is an agent that would need it as a comp. That home was vacant and not staged. And again, I can’t give specifics, so I’m just going to say it was listed at 449,9, but it actually sold for under $470,000.
I hope you’re enjoying my video so far. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the bell, that way you’re alerted each week when I drop a new video. And if you’re on Facebook, hop on over to our private community page called Salt Lake Life. And there we talk about all things that have to do with living in the greater Salt Lake City area.
So that was a real life example of something that recently happened, but also I heard somebody say one time and it really stuck with me, you don’t know what you don’t know. And that is true. So maybe the sellers’ kids didn’t realize that there was 50,000 plus dollars that they were leaving on the table. Maybe they weren’t versed in the market. Maybe their agent didn’t run comps. I have no idea what happened there, like I said. But as a seller, if you’re looking at listing your property, I’m going to drop a few videos in the description below of things that you can do and interview questions for agents when it comes time to selling your property. And this will just give you some unique ideas.
Now, it’s Utah. The market is saturated with real estate agents. We all know at least one agent, but I come across people that are like, “Nope, I’m only going to use my family or my friend.” And that’s awesome. I’m sure that that person really appreciates your loyalty, but I also come across a lot of sellers and buyers who are like, “I just don’t want to mix business with pleasure,” so to speak. “I refuse to use any agent that I know, because I don’t want them either knowing my finances and my business situation with real estate,” or because they don’t want to risk that relationship, mixing it with a business transaction. Regardless of what situation you’re in, take a look at those videos that I drop in the description to see if it gives you some really good ideas of things to ask an agent either way, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or somebody you’ve never even met that you’re interviewing, and understanding what they’re going to do for you.
Now, there’s some very basic things as a real estate agent that we do when it comes time to selling a property. Pulling comps and doing a CMA is one of those very, very basic things. When you talk to an agent about listing your home, that agent should come prepared with that. Another thing that I like to provide my clients is what are the average days on market for that area. And the reason I do that is because that helps set a realistic expectation for the seller of how long they can anticipate their home being on the market. Now, every situation is unique. So I’m not saying it’s set in stone, but let’s just say you as a seller think that your home should sell in five days or less, but your average days on market statistically are 32. Well, of course you don’t want to drop your price on day seven or 10 if you know that the market is currently averaging about 30 plus days. So I hope that makes sense to you.
I hope you enjoyed my video today. If you have any real estate related questions, feel free to reach out to me anytime. I’m here to help. But as always, make it a great day.
