$625,000, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, parking, deck, fireplace, hardwood floors. What do see that is important here? The price or the features? If you are the buyer, the first thing is probably the price. Everyone loves prices, right?
But, in reality, what you are looking for is not the price, it’s the features of the house you are going to move into. You don’t move into a price. Right?
So, why should a house have a price? Why shouldn’t you just look at a property that you want to live in and have a real estate agent run comps and make your bid?
In Australia, they don’t have listing prices. They don’t even have a true marketing period. All they do is set a date for an auction. You see the home beforehand at an open and then decide.
This way, the Seller knows what day they are going to sell and when the closing approximately is. Pretty cool.
So, the idiot agent that gets their listings by overpricing them and then telling the sellers that the market has changed would be dead in the water with the Aussie method or what the idea of not having a listing price.
How would it all work?
You would do a search for the area that you want, the number of bedrooms, baths, features, etc. Then you can have your agent do the work of seeing what has sold in the last few months for that type of home.
Then go see the homes and place a bid based on the comps. Yes, I said, submit an agreement WITH the comps so that there can’t be any ridiculous arguments unless you put in a stupid offer or the seller and/or their agent is a lunatic.
Then, the seller knows what a buyer is willing to pay for their home. The listing agent then has an easier job of not having to have THE conversation.
What do you think? Yes, it’s a work in progress.
