Rich Idiot Theory Exposed

I assist people in the buying and selling of real estate...for a living, not a hobby. I do this in a small Colorado mountain town that has primarily for years been monetarily propagated by a few southern and western states. (Of which I will pick on only one for this post). Please forgive me all of you "Big Star State" people, but the slogan around here (with the exception of a few oil bust years in the 80's) is "Texas keeps Colorado green"

Now, all of my REALTOR colleagues understand the Listing battle in a flat or declining market such as we are experiencing currently. Taking listings in 07 at 05 prices does not always pay the bills. I have recently come across a few potential clients that have the idea they can ask whatever they want for their property, and soon enough someone will pay them for it. No matter the inventory or comps.

I CALL THIS THE RICH IDIOT THEORY ...and it goes down something like this:

-A potential client during a listing discussion informs me that they would like to list their property 3 to 5 times what it could possibly bring in the current market. To rationalize this they say "Well you know with all the rich Texans coming up here on vaction this summer, one of them will fall in love with my mountain views and just "have" to have it."

The BIG problem with this kind of thinking lies in the fact that someone, primarily our subject the"rich" Texan, came upon their wealth by way of throwing it away on emotional real estate purchases...of course that makes perfect sense. Thats how they became wealthy!

OR (to take this a little further and seal my fate at NOT getting this listing) I say

1. Our wealthy traveler must have won the lottery 3 days ago, found his way from San Antonio all the way through the Panhandle WITHOUT someone else taking his money and happened into my office just in time for me to show him YOUR property!....and
2. The insulting part is that you think I would drive our RICH IDIOT southern customer past 3 wonderful properties that are priced correctly, show him the elk standing on the other side of the road so he does not see them, and sell him yours at the super-inflated price! (thus sealing my indicated lack of integrity)

This conversation has literally happened almost verbatim in our office. It usually does not get the listing but it makes for a humorous afternoon.