LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE?

[Maricela Chavez]

Ok so I have a house that I just finished. I bought it for 49, spent about 65-70k on it. I listed it for 180k. I did a FSBO on Zillow. 3 days later I get a full price offer on it. I negotiated to pay just at 3% commission and no closing costs. I am horrible human being that believes all we have in life is our word. So I told the agent that I would not look at another offer while we talked about adding a fence (at purchaser expense) to the contract price. I put a lot of detail into this house, it was a labor of love and it shows. So now I have someone else wanting to look at the house, and a realtor that wants to show it to another client. I can't help but feel like I left money on the table and that I underpriced it. The area where the house is located is red hot right now. Everything that was on the market is under contract right now. I know the right thing to do is to keep my word. However I can't help but feel that I could have made more money on it. I technically don't have a contract yet. Nothing binding. I just needed to get that off my chest!

[Kevin Prentice]

You're a smart, talented and creative agent. You know the answer here. You already said it yourself. Keep your word. There is no rule requiring us to pick up every dollar on the table. True, human nature provides a strong need to do just that but......that's just greed whispering in our ear. Years ago someone said to me, "leave some water for the other fish in the sea". Anyway.....never put at risk your word, your reputation and/or your integrity. Especially in a small market real estate town. It's just not worth it. Fostering allies and advocates with your fellow agents keeps the Karma Gods happy. I no longer believe in Santa.......but I'm a huge believer in real estate karma.