There is a house recently on the market which is priced 3 to 4 times (300 to 300%) above what comparables are. And, no, the house is upper-end but does not have gold-plated whatever. Even accounting for some higher-end furnishings, it is way, way overpriced. And the realtor is an experienced one; she has sold a lot of houses and knows where the market is, and her other listings are in the market range. The rumor is that the couple that owns it is getting divorced.
Edit: This is not a unicorn house; it is in a suburb where the median price of homes is around $700,000, and at best, this house could go for $2-3 million
Why would an experienced realtor list a house priced at 3-4 times market value?
byu/watchful_tiger inRealEstate
Posted by watchful_tiger
25 Comments
Unmotivated sellers
Money laundering. Or a personal favor to a client of their spouse who is also delusional.
Did you see it? Could be some amazing place.
Otherwise, it could be someone who was told they need to sell the place but doesn’t want to (ie in a divorce as you suggest).
The last time I saw this, it was because there was a business model with contract tied to the property being sold with it.
The seller(s) said they only want to sell if they can get X price and the agent agreed to it, for whatever reason. Likely something like, “We can try, but if we don’t get a bite, we will need to heavily reduce within Y amount of time”.
Sometimes you have to let a seller (or a buyer) learn the hard way.
Could be anything, but without more info nobody can tell you. Just call the list agent and ask how they priced it and whether they can send you any info to support their valuation.
Post the link to the listing and we can speculate better…
Divorce Court Judge: “You must sell the house and give half of the proceeds to your future ex-wife.”
Bitter husband going through divorce: “I’m not giving her a dime! It’s my house. Besides — SHE cheated … why should *I* have to move?!?”
Judge: “Then you will be in contempt of court by not following my decree, which can result in more fines and potentially jail time. You are hereby ordered to place it on the market immediately and, once it sells, pay your ex-wife.”
Husband: “fine”
***two hours later [in my Spongebob narrator voice***]
Realtor: “You want me to set the price at WHAT? That’s 4 times more than what it’s worth!”
Husband: “You heard me.”
Realtor: “But it will never sell at that price.”
Husband: “Did I stutter?”
Here is the listing [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11812-S-71st-St-Tempe-AZ-85284/8147523_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11812-S-71st-St-Tempe-AZ-85284/8147523_zpid/)
Most of the time this happens the seller is just delusional regardless of how hard the agent explains otherwise.
I’ve also seen a few times where the property listed is a part of a package of properties the seller owns. Check the description to see if this is the case. Could have additional land or other SFRs included. Not the greatest way to market them because people see the initial price and don’t find out why. But I’ve definitely seen it.
If it’s genuinely priced 3-4X higher than any comparable house, then someone does not actually want to sell it. The listing indicates it is a new build, so the only other thing I can think of is that they WAY overspent getting the thing built and it did cost them way more than it should have.
One word.
Seller
Without details, nobody will be able to give any meaningful commentary.
3-4 times would be 200 to 300% more
Maybe seller took the listing, agreed to let buyer set price, is hoping seller says yes to a reasonable commission and the agent gets the commission? Fighting the seller on up-front price risks losing the listing.
Seller demanded it be listed at that price.
It’s almost always the seller pushing for that price.
An experienced agent wishes them well but refuses to take the listing. We don’t need a hobby (something we spend time on but never make any money from).
Newbie agents or not very good ones, will go along with it, hoping to later talk the seller into a more realistic price. How likely that is, almost always depends on how motivated to sell they are.
In case of a divorce, you might have one spouse asking for an unrealistic buyout value. So the other spouse says well let’s list it for what you think it’s worth, if it sells for that I’ll gladly pay you half.
or it may be the other side in the divorce playing games, who knows.
If this is an experienced agent, then it’s probably something like, we will test the market and see what happens. They may hope that at some point the court orders it be appraised, and listed for that value, so they will make some money eventually.
Sellers set the price.
First correction to this statement is agents don’t dictate the listing price home sellers do. Agents advise and sellers instruct. Agent may have said this listing price is insane and the house won’t sell. Owners said “we don’t care, list it at XXX
Because that’s what their customer wants to sell it for. You don’t have to buy it.
I think the options here are as follows:
1) since it’s a divorce the may be overpricing it so it can’t sell, but that’s going to result in contempt charges, plus if the Realtor is as good as you say, I can’t see them willingly getting involved in this. There’s no benefit to them of overpricing a house they know won’t sell.
2) there’s something about the house that makes it worth that, and the experienced realtor knows that and you don’t.
Agent takes on the listing and hopes they may talk the seller into lowering the price to a sellable price in a month or two.
Because that’s what the client wants it listed at?
Realtors don’t set the prices. The client does. Most like the realtor has a relationship with the clients and that is why they took the listing
You really buried the lead here.. @ $1176/sq ft – this is a STEAL!! 🤣