Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in the
upstate of South Carolina I'm your host
Stan McCune realtor here in the greater
Greenville area of South Carolina and I
appreciate you guys tuning in to episode
100 this is the H 100th episode of the
show I tried to think of some
different ways to to make this a
celebratory episode but celebrations are
going to have to wait I have some ideas
we're going to have to implement
those in future podcasts but this is a
momentous 100th episode I've been doing
this for almost two years now and I
appreciate you guys all of my listeners
everyone that Tunes in that gives me
feedback I really do appreciate that
and I would particularly appreciate if
you could leave a fstar rating and a
review in whatever podcast app you're
listening in on I have had recently I
think on Apple we're up to 18 reviews on
the show not all of them are five
star by the way I've gotten a a one star
a two star a couple of three stars a
four star but mostly five stars and I
appreciate if you guys can hit that five
star button but you know what if you if
you don't think it deserves five stars
then just give it the rating that you
think it deserves okay and I'd
appreciate as well like I said a review
and as always all of my contact
information is in the show notes if you
need to reach me for any reason that is
the place to go all right today we're
going for our 100th episode to tell a
crazy story that I don't think the story
is going to take too long but it's a
story that's worth talking about because
this type of thing does happen but it's
not normally to the extreme that it
happened in this story but sometimes you
can learn from the extreme
this is a seller that left a lot of
money on the table and this isn't some
story I heard from a friend who heard
from a friend who heard from a friend
this is a story that came from someone
within my team so this thankfully isn't
something that happened to me and one
of my clients because that would really
bother me however it happened to
someone on my real estate team and I
feel bad for them and and for their
client so to give a little bit of
backstory here in
2019 this person I'm not going to
name names because that that could get
weird but this person on my on my
real estate team attempted to sell a
home on Lake kiwi for a client who had
purchased that home just before the
recession of 2008 they had purchased it
in 2007 just before the housing
market crashed and as we talked about in
past episodes most areas of the upstate
have more than fully recovered since the
crash of 2008 for the most part all
of our markets have far surpassed the
values that they were well back then but
there have been a few areas until just
recently that were still lagging behind
and as of 2019 Lake kioi was one such
area and so it interestingly enough the
seller of this home which was by the way
it was it was their second home a lot of
the homes unlik kwi traditionally have
been second homes for people the seller
wasn't able to sell the home for any
profit they were just trying to break
even and so they had originally
purchased the home in the mid 600s
and so they initially tried to sell it
for in the low 700s which you know would
have brought them quote unquote a little
bit of profit versus is what they
bought it for in in 2007 and they did
have some loans that they had to pay off
by the way you're hearing a nice
plane going overhead as you guys know I
live right by the airport but they
couldn't sell it in the low 700s even
though they had bought it in the mid
600s back in 2007 so they they
reduced the price they kept reducing it
and they finally reduced it into the 660
range a $660,000 range and that still
wasn't enough of a reduction to sell
again this is in 2019 so the sellers
decided to go ahead and just withdraw
the home from the market at that time
well that was the worst possible time to
withdraw a home like that because then
Co happened and as we've seen over and
over again the pandemic has caused some
very bizarre Trends in real estate
trends that we've never seen before in
the past and one of these Trends was at
homes that were traditionally seen as
second homes and I've already alluded to
most of the homes on Lake kiwi have been
traditionally second homes a lot of
these traditionally second homes lake
houses even cabins homes like that
have become more in Vogue as first homes
why well it's a pretty simple reason
and there are multiple reasons to it but
in essence people have realized
that they are are spending a lot more
time at home so they want to enjoy the
home remote work has caused that the
burden of traveling these days and the
perhaps the inability to travel
people want to be able to play more at
their home versus you know seeing the
home as where you sleep and then
traveling to play or going somewhere to
play people want to be able to to have
more opportunity to play at their home
and then obviously as as well tied
into that not just from a traveling
standpoint but you know as we've seen a
lot of businesses are closed at weird
hours a lot of the the recreational
events that we've done in the past going
to sporting events and whatnot they
might have vaccination requirements they
might have mask requirements not
everyone is okay with that and so all of
these things have combined for homes
such as lakehouses have
become seen more as primary residences
whereas in the past there were more
places that people owned as as vacation
homes to stay at maybe for a few weeks
or a few months out of the year and as a
result the prices in Lake kiwi since
2020 have shot up and and it's seen
unreal appreciation the past one and a
half years I mean we've talked about
I've had several episodes since the new
year and also several episodes last year
as well talking about how the median
price point has in the greater
Greenville area has gone up Lake kiwi
and and we actually talked about this
just recently in a podcast Lake kiwi is
one of those areas that saw tremendous
appreciation in comparison to some
other areas unfortunately the owner of
this particular Lakehouse the owner that
tried to sell this Lakehouse in 2019 in
the mid 600s in the 660 range didn't
realize that this type of appreciation
had happened he did not realize that the
market had shifted so much and so it
just so happened that this person on my
team who had originally tried to sell
the home before the market got super hot
was
unsuccessful he happened upon
seeing that this house had been sold
recently as recently as as the end of
last year in the 760 range that and
the seller had sold it for sale by
owner now a few things here the seller
and this realtor on my team they are
friends and so they're and and they've
invested in other things together and
so they had a relationship outside of of
just a professional you know realtor and
client type of
relationship and and the owner of
this Lakehouse the seller of this
Lakehouse had not let the realtor on my
team know that he was looking to resell
it again in
2021 so that's the backstory there
but all in all he ended up selling it
for sale by owner for about $100,000
more than what he was attempting to sell
it for in
2019 and of course when you sell it for
sale by owner you save a little bit on
realtor fees as well so that sounds
pretty good right well again this
realtor on my team he is friends with
this seller and so they were having a
conversation about something else they
were they were talking shooting the
breeze discussing some other
things at one point and it came up in
conversation that the seller had sold
the house for sale by owner and the
realtor said that you know he really
wished that the guy had reached out to
him because it would have sold for at
least a million dollars and and he could
see in public records that he had only
sold it in the mid 700s well the
previous owner said you know it is what
it is he was able to dump it off
quickly painlessly got his money back
from his initial Purchase made a little
bit on top of that you know he
probably at the end of the day you know
he heard a realtor saying realtor
things which is I can sell I could have
sold the house for a lot more money
probably didn't fully believe it is is
what I had to guess well that
conversation happened in October which
is right around the time that this homes
sold in November the people that bought
the house in the
760soldskooljams was like you know I
I'm scared to tell you this but have you
noticed that your old house was listed
in the exactly the same condition that
you sold in for $1.4 million
recently and he said that you could
hear a pin drop it was just utter
silence and the guy on the other end
said no I I hadn't hadn't noticed
that and that was kind of the end of the
conversation I mean what you say and
and you know realtor wasn't trying to
rub it in his face but was more just
like you know just astonished I mean the
guy was going to find out I'm sure one
way or the other he would probably he
would have noticed it at some point
but that was just what it was listed for
right we don't you know what a house is
listed for particularly when you're
talking in the millions of dollars in
our Market things can sell a lot less
than that well shortly thereafter it
did sell
and it ended up selling for over 1.3
million and the spread between the two
sales over the course between just I
think it was the the time was about a
3mon window between when these people
bought the house in the 760 range and
when they sold the house in the over 1.3
million range it was 3 months and
they made the the spread was was over
$550,000 in difference between
between those two
sales and of course the the reals are
on my team he's not going to bring
that up he's he's the conversation has
already been had he's not going to bring
that up to the seller again and and
you know rub it in even more because now
it's just sad he left five over 500 half
a million dollars on the table and all
it would have taken was a single phone
call to someone knowledgeable about the
market and he would have been $500,000
richer at at least right I mean the
there are so many different things to
consider here but even without running
comps and doing analysis the person on
my team knew it was worth at least a
million
having you know once you actually get
into the weeds Custom Homes un like kiwi
are unique and you really have to
there's not a clean way of running comps
on a home like that but once you get
into the weeds then you start to see
okay it's actually worth closer to 1.3
or 1.4 or whatever million but
regardless the market would have figured
it out if there was a market at
1.3 whatever million the market would
have corrected for whatever it was
listed for at the end of the day it was
listed it was it was it sold for over
double what it was listed for in
2019 and that's not intuitive if you're
not in the market all the time but for
someone that is in the market all the
time and I'm not trying to to toot our
horns as Realtors but let's just be
honest a lot of people these days are
thinking that Realtors don't provide a
whole lot of value listen we're in the
market this is what we do yes
we're in a day and age where people you
know will try to trade stocks on their
own rather than you know hiring a broker
to do that I get it there's a lot of
information out there and and you can
educate yourself but this is what we do
for a living and so we know right away
if something is underpriced and then
or overpriced and then we can research
more and more to try to to try to hone
in that that's how I approach it when
I'm listing a house I look at two things
we've discussed this in the past You'
got to look at the comps you've also got
to look at the inventory the comps are
what has sold in the past the comparable
properties properties that are similar
in a similar location and similar
conditions similar size all of that in
again a similar location what have they
sold for the past 6 12 months then you
also have to look at
inventory are there a lot of homes like
this on the market are there not a whole
lot of homes like this on the market
right now whatever home you pick there's
not a lot of it on the market that's
just that's the inventory issues we keep
harping on and so it becomes a
little bit of a twofold thing the the
comps tell you what a home will appraise
for inventory tells you and and the the
low Supply can be an indicator of what
the home will sell for and I'm not going
to get too far into the Weeds on all
of that how I deter how I come up with
pricing my clients when I do a listing
presentation we go through all of that
I'm I'm not going to you know reveal
all my secrets here on the podcast but
if you want to list a home with me then
we can discuss it we can talk about what
your home is worth but all of that to
be said don't just don't just wing it
and that that is kind of I've got some
takeaways here that I want to discuss
briefly just so that not just left jaw
dropped on the floor that someone in
Greenville left five you know $500,000
on the table the market can change
rapidly and it is right now we know that
it is changing rapidly and even if
you've heard oh there's you know
prices are going up I've seen prices are
going up you might think the prices
aren't going up as much as they are or
you might not realize how high they are
going up
we again I see homes and sometimes I'll
see a home hit the market I immediately
I'm like oh wow yeah they underpriced
that by a lot of money and it might not
be completely intuitive on the front end
that it was underpriced same thing
with a Hess
overpriced and so you you I would
say probably the majority of people that
I talk to that are not real estate
professionals at least half if not
the majority that talk to me about
what they think their home is worth they
really don't know what their home is
worth they have some ideas that and
some very strongly held opinions but
those opinions oftentimes are incorrect
because they don't fully understand the
market dynamics at at play and people
rely too much on Zillow as well which is
you know the more unique the home is the
less accurate Zillow is this is a
case where you know when you're talking
about homes on kiwi which these are
not production Built Homes generally
speaking Zillow is not going to be
accurate and in this case specifically
Zillow did not even have a price on this
home Zillow had no idea what to do with
it you can't rely on Zillow Zillow
in a neighborhood where there's a lot of
sales of homes that are very similar
Zillow can be accurate but it will
not understand certain important details
like for instance it might not recognize
that there's a basement in your home a
finished basement or it might overvalue
the basement we've talked about that how
appraisers in in the Greenville area
how they don't like basement homes and
that artificially deflates the value of
them so long story short people rely
too much on Zillow and and that has
caused some misinformation out there on
home values even if I understand you
know the logic behind what Zillow is
trying to do
another takeaway again I already
mentioned this but all it takes is a
single phone call to call a professional
and get a professional analysis but at
the end of the day make sure that they
are truly a professional I mean not not
every realtor and not every appraiser is
a professional not every broker is a
professional and so you have to be
careful with this as well and and
I've again some of this is repeat from
previous from previous shows
but I will say that there are two
tactics that a lot of Realtors will will
use that you have to be hesitant about
and one of them well they're on opposite
ends of the spectrso the first one is
some Realtors will tell you that your
home is worth worth much more than it is
because they're telling you what you
want to hear and so they'll tell you
it's worth much more than it than it
really is get the listing they you know
they get you to agree to list it with
them and then when it doesn't sell
right right away because it's not worth
that then they keep dropping the price a
little bit well that's a really bad
strategy in episode 40 of the show I
analyzed a large sample of houses and
that analysis showed that overpricing a
home at least during the the range that
I looked at it on average loses you
about $12 per square foot on the final
sale of the home well that's a lot of
money on a small th000 squ ft house
that's $12,000 that you've lost simply
because you overpriced the home and then
you know cause the market to sour on the
home it is never a good option to
overprice a home on the other side of
the spectranother tactic that
Realtors will use is to convince you to
underprice the home to cause bidding
wars and get the home to sell quickly
now I will say that this can work in
some unique situations I'm not saying
that this is a completely illegitimate
strategy however it's not one siiz
fits-all I know some realtors that this
this is just what they always do it's
always their sales pitch and let me tell
you this if you're living in the home
and you
underprice your home when you sell it
dramatically you're going to get a ton
of showings and a ton of offers and I've
got news for you that's very very tiring
and so I try to when I list a home I try
to list it for right around what I think
it's worth without over or underpricing
it and and also try to keep it to where
it's it's not going to be a super
invasive time for my clients as much as
possible in the ideal world if we are
in the ideal world we always get a
multiple offer situation when we're
selling a home obviously that doesn't
always happen it's more frequent in
this market than in most but still
some homes you know are unique in some
ways they're not to get multiple offers
obviously that home on lake kioi that
sold in the 1.3 million range did not
get multiple offers because it
originally listed at 1.4
million but at the end of the day I
really don't want my clients to have
more than 10 offers and you you might be
thinking well that sounds that's kind of
ridiculous no that's not ridiculous if
you have 10 offers or or fewer that
means that you pric the home
appropriately and that means that there
are going to be very good offers that
are going to be at the top of the market
for that home and you might have gotten
those offers as well if you underpriced
the home but you certainly would
wouldn't have gotten better offers than
that if you had underpriced the home
because the market doesn't work like
that so you're still getting topof the
market offers but without having 60
showings and 30 offers and by the way I
have to present as a realtor I legally
have to present every single offer so
even that process is tiring for my
clients and if you're having to get out
of the house for 60 showings I mean you
might as well just just move out you
know at that point and so you have to
take all of these things into
consideration and in terms of of
when you're communicating with a
professional realtor you know if you
want to talk to an appraiser whatever
the case may be assessing your home and
determining the value of your home make
sure at the end of the day that they
have your best interest in mind and not
theirs because that is is an important
distinction so if you're looking to
sell a home don't just assume that you
know what it's worth and then you know
go to your neighbor and be like you know
hey do you know someone that wants to
buy buy my home and you know they're
like oh yeah you know my friend wants to
move here my aunt wants to move here
and then you end up selling it for what
you guys agree to without actually
giving the market opportunity to say
what the market thinks the home is worth
and and at the end of the day my
personal opinion you need someone that
is in the market to help you determine
that and to do it in a way that is most
effective to get it out there to the
most eyes to make sure the people that
need to see it do see it I had a
listing
recently that was a very unique home
in a lot of ways and I identified that
one of the things that really set set
this home apart was that it had the
potential for an in-law suite and
there's not a whole lot of homes on the
market that had that potential so I
intentionally designed the entire
listing all of my marketing to draw
attention to that that wasn't the entire
focus of my marketing but that was a
major aspect of the focus of my
marketing and guess what that was the
buyer that we got we had a buyer that
immediately they they saw they saw
how I marketed it you know the way I
described it the the photos I use the
order of the photos that I used that
focused on the fact that it could
potentially have an in-law suite and
that's exactly the buyer that came along
offered well above what we listed it for
with great terms and here we are you
know we we marketed it to the right
person the right person came along and
that's that's perfect for everyone the
sell's happy the buyer's happy
everyone is happy in that situation
and so that's what I'm striving to do as
a realtor is to connect connect the
parties that otherwise wouldn't be
connected
unfortunately in terms of the late
kiwi house someone got shafted all
right some I don't know I don't even
know all the backstory about how the the
seller the initial seller found the
initial buyer off Market I don't even
know all the backstory about that but
unfortunately at the end of the day it
costs them half a million dollars and
even if you're super wealthy half a
million dollars hurts all right guys I
appreciate you listening thank you for
tuning in to the 100th episode of
selling Greenville we've got a lot more
to to come a lot more content to come
here in the year
2022 as always please leave a rating
leave a review all of my contact
information is in the show notes and
until next time have a great great week
and stay safe
[Music]