My FSBO Listing in Endwell, NY

As I sit here on the night before another Open House on my listing which was previously a FSBO, I am contemplating releasing him from his listing contract. I know what some people are saying, "Why would you do that ?" Well, here is the story...

I visited the FSBO's Open House back in December 2009. I visited the house with the intention on previewing it for any future buyers that I might have had. Once inside the house I could tell right away that he was way over priced. In my opinion it was approximately $45,000 over priced. Now this is a huge amount of money in my market where the average sales price is $110,000 (SearchBinghamtonMLS).The seller was asking $159,000.

I did not solicit him for the listing but did offer my advice if he wanted it. He asked me what i had thought about the price and the house. I told him that I would need to do my homework and would love to make an appointment to come back and speak to him. He asked me for my marketing presentation and I, of course, told him that I would be happy to show it to him.

After doing some comps for the area I figured he should be priced somewhere between $105,000 - $109,000. We all know that we don't hold crystal balls and if we did we wouldn't be selling real estate. He was very impressed with me and my company's DigitalMarketing Strategy (Patting myself on the back) and decided to list with me.

He wanted to start the list price at $118,000 and I agreed with the understanding that we would look at the activity and adjust it accordingly. After one week I suggested he lower the price, my suggestion to him was to lower it to $109,900 knowing his situation and that he really wanted to sell it. He refused and lowered it to $114,000. After 45 days on the market we received an offer. I don't want to disclose the exact amount but after some counter-offers it was very near what I had suggested but not near the amount that he wanted. He still would have made money from the price at which he purchased it but was concerned because of the money he has layed out to help the family member cover the mortgage and other expenses. He is trying to recoup that money.

After this Open House I think I will tell him he has 2 options at this point... he can either rent it or drastically reduce the price to get it sold.