Unusual Open House

I met a gentleman a one of my open houses this weekend that asked me a question I have been asked before.

Will your clients be willing to do a lease option?

I probed for his motivation and it seems his home in the Columbus Ohio area has been on the market since this past September. He is being relocated to the Cincinnati area and his wife and children are tired of staying in Columbus.

I had to explain to him that my clients are not willing to do a lease of any type because they will lose relocation benefits.

They wonderful company they are with is giving them a monthly stipend to defray expenses until their home sells. Their companies idea behind this is that they want the employee to worry about the job not the old home.

He asked me how long the home has been on the market and I truthfully told him we are at the 12 month mark. We are also offering the home at 5,000.00 than the sellers paid for it 3 years ago.

He asked me why their home has been on the market so long ?

All I could do was explain that about the same time we started to offer the home for sale our local paper started printing about how bad the housing market was. At the time we listed the home we priced it for last 6 month sold comparable properties. Cincinnati was on its way to a record year and with the print exposure sales slowed way down. We are now well under our initial price to be on the leading edge of the market instead of chasing it. But the little devil in me had to come out.

I asked him why has your home been on the market so long it been on only 1 month less than this home?

He did not have an answer for me except to say that the market in Columbus was slow also. I hope he understands that it is not a good thing to ask why a home has been on the market so long when your own home has been on the market for 11 months.