FEATURED ARTICLE

SELLERS – BEWARE THE QUICK SALE!

 
It’s very common to see or hear the boast by real estate agents “Sold in One Day!” or three days, or whatever looks impressive. It seems that even sellers think this is a good and impressive thing; sometimes the boast will be theirs.

It isn’t a good thing. It’s a red flag. Especially in relatively hot markets.

When an agent sells a property on the first day of marketing – or sometimes even before the first day as an agent or office exclusive – in nearly all real estate markets that means that a host of prospective buyers didn’t have a chance to bid on the property. And that means that the seller never had a chance to confirm that he or she received the full market value of the property. Very often it means that the sale price was nowhere near the full market value.

Why does this happen?

One reason, a rare reason, is that some sellers like the convenience of not having the property on the market for long, of being done with showings very quickly. That’s fair enough, but they usually pay for it in lost value, often dearly.

Another reason, a much darker one, is that an unethical real estate agent has sold the property to a friend or pre-existing contact who was looking to buy under market, before other buyers were involved. A bonus for the agent is that she has minimized her marketing costs.

Yet another reason is that an unethical real estate agent was willing to sacrifice the seller’s receiving full value for the sake of keeping more of his commission. By selling quickly to his own buyer he doesn’t have to pay what would be a large part of his commission to the buyer’s agent. In our experience, this, unfortunately, is a fairly common reason.

Especially in a hot market, sellers should allow a period of at least several days on the market before reviewing offers and making any decisions. Ethical agents should suggest this.