It’s not just real estate agents, dear readers. Every marketer gets caught up in promoting their big wins. This month, however, we’re proud of navigating this challenging market. Our deal of the month is an example of that, even if it took nearly two years to help our Upper West Side seller find a buyer and get to the closing table. here’s the story:
For Sale By Owner
If you’re a salesperson, shouldn’t you be able to sell your own house? This Riverside Drive owner, in sales himself, thought that his lovely 2100-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath duplex should sell itself. The only problem? Our saga begins in September 2022, just as mortgage rates hit 7%. It didn’t matter if the sign said “For Sale By Owner” or not. Fall of that year was not for the weak of heart. Ultimately, sales volume that quarter was down 31%. Ouch.
We Step In
We entered the scene after a few weeks of tumbleweeds. Fast forward and we brought in a few knickknacks, added in some virtual staging, and removed $100,000 from the asking price. Quick sale, right? Unfortunately not. Buyers were reluctant to take action. After all, their purchasing power was dramatically reduced. Things puttered along until December 2022. We took the property off the market.
Third Time’s The Charm? Almost.
In January of 2023, we were optimistic. We were hopeful. We were downright ebullient.
We were wrong. We needed to adjust the price. We lowered the priced by another $100,000 in March, and that started to see interest. Spring 2023 wasn’t dead, even if some banks were dying that month. Was our timing smart? We soon had an offer in hand from a Columbia professor and his family. Exciting! Things were looking up.
And then the buyers walked away. It was just too expensive, they said. They meant that it was a little too strong for their budget. The market eventually demonstrated that it was also too expensive in general. The property sat on the market for another four months.
Down To Business
There is the old saw, that every real estate agent wants to be someone’s first love, second wife, and third agent. We were all three. We got along with the seller. They were completely plugged into what was going on with the market, and so we continued to work with them through the entire process. We had inadvertently chased the market down, along with nearly every other seller out there. Our property was not in mint condition, and had a few impediments to boot: low floor, facing the rear of the building, and in need of some work. Even with reasonable monthly charges, this was a property that was attractive for its value. And those buyers were all financing. So what was there to do?
Drop the price substantially.
Now this wasn’t just shooting in the dark anymore. As I mentioned, this was a duplex, comprised of two 2-bedroom units. As it happened, there were two other two-bedroom sales in process in the building, one that was half of this duplex, and the other another rear-facing unit that was only slightly larger. Looking at the traffic and response to those units, we knew that our math would be as follows:
- Look at the sales price of the same unit
- Multiply by two
- Add in a relatively small premium
- Subtract for the lower floor
With that in mind, we lowered our price from $2.395mm to $2.1mm ($2.099, actually).
The Fourth Time
After a few months off the market, we relaunched in February of 2024, having just seen our team do $50mm of business at the end of 2023, which is normally a very quiet market. We believed that this would be our last season marketing this property for our seller.
And over the course of the first six months of the year, we would end up selling over $130mm in properties in Manhattan. That included this unit, which finally found its buyer. Yes, they were a family of five. Yes, they financed the purchase. Yes, they were excited by the value that it offered. And yes, the fourth time was the charm.
In Summary
Should we be embarrassed that it took two years to sell this property? Should we hide this as one of our “failures”? On the contrary. We were very proud of the work we did. In fact, it perfectly exemplifies the challenges of the last 24 months, which, to my mind, have been the most difficult of our career. That we have had the two best years performance-wise of my entire career at the same time makes it worth showing the different roads to success.
It’s not all $10mm sales. It’s not all showing a buyer four properties and closing them. It’s often the tough work, done over time, iterating until we find the right match. This is usually not what marketers want to talk about, but it’s the truth. And it’s worth celebrating as our deal of the month this month! – Scott & The HRT