One of my last listings was more difficult to price. It was in such a fabulous residential neighbourhood. Truly one of the most desirable convenient locations Penticton has to offer. I have known this seller for quite some time and she had lived in the home for several decades. It hadn’t been offered for sale before and the sales in her neighbourhood all offered pools and garages. She had neither but she had a unique home on quiet cul de sac and was very well cared for with vaulted ceilings. It has three bedrooms up, massive storage, beautiful ensuite, and an immaculate deck and yard. Old apple trees, hardwood floors, wood burning fireplace with a gorgeous modern kitchen granite counter-tops that were bright red with the passion that she had for her home. I did two CMA’s and came out about the same pricing having made adjustments but I felt her home was worth more and, believe me, she did as well. We had a wide spread of values but her home was better as far as I was concerned. It had everything the young families needed and suited a variety of buyer profiles.
I decided to have the office through for more expert opinions. I put the home on tour and I got the “squishy face” from my manager. You can’t put a priceless home on tour he said. I just did I replied with a smile and explained that I had the listing agreement signed but needed some input on pricing. We don’t often do this but he let it slide. Of course, I have my opinions but I was curious what the numbers would come back at. I wanted to show my seller just how difficult it can be to get that right price, more positioning. To position her home on the market so it would get as much as possible without being overpriced and not being under valued. Sometimes pricing can be quite easy in neighbourhoods where they all went up at the same time with similar plans and its easy to make adjustments for care and quality of finishing. This home had additions, upgrades, a new roof and it just felt like home. So, at the office, the realtors were skeptical of the priceless home but they all participated. Once they got in the home, many agreed it is a tough one. So I gave them each a piece of paper and had a few pens. Before we left the home I collected the slips with their names and their best guess for what to list it at and what it would sell for and some agents gave the range and some a price. I had their names as I did a wine draw for entering and partaking.
I was eager to take those papers to the seller as we had been working at listing her home for a while now. She had to be ready so I had the measurements done, the professional pictures ready, the blog post written, the marketing pieces almost proofed for printing and now we needed a price and she was not in a hurry to leave her beautiful home, preparing for the next chapter – the leap of downsizing….she didn’t really down size, just more of a lifestyle tweaking allowing for less maintenance of a single family home.
So back to the numbers. We pulled them out and went over the figures, some with shock and horror! Some with joyful grins. The range was fascinating. We had values as low as $460,000 (that agent approached me wanting to change his number to $500,000 after he realized he might be a little low) to as high as $650,000. So, with the range and the middle ground of 30 opinions, we settled where I thought the price should be. I had a leg up. I had been obsessing over comparables for weeks knowing this woman had complete faith in my evaluation but I don’t take that trust lightly. I need back up, I need proof, I need to be right and win!!! I have taken lots of courses through UBC on evaluation and I have been doing this for 10 years now but still I want to ensure the quality and consistency of my numbers. This is a unique market and the homes are very different. So we listed at $589,900.
It sold in a month for $585,000. The buyers were so happy to get this home and the seller was very happy we proved those low opinions wrong. One of the lower opinions won the bottle of wine. I did a fair draw! The neat thing about this sale is how much the Buyer loved the home. It wasn’t the “right” time for them, they had just started to poke around looking for a family home to move into during the year. The seller was not going to be pushed out and was waiting on new construction, so the timing could not have been better for either party. The seller is still in the home and the buyers will move in when the time is right. They will have one of my favourite homes and the layout works so well for their specific needs and young family. The kids will have a safe cul de sac just a block from the best elementary school to grow up in and the family can walk to the local market in the summer and truly enjoy all that Penticton has to offer.
See client testimonial about their home buying experience here.