One thing you can always count on when you consult us on selling your Jacksonville home is the truth.  We will be honest about the value of your home even though it may hurt both you and us.  That is because the truth just "is" and anything other than that will be found out.

This topic has been on my mind for a couple of weeks but I wanted to talk about it in the right way so I've been thinking it over.  It's a sensitive topic but crucial to understand.  If you bought your Jacksonville home when it was worth more than it is now this is likely something that causes you a lot of anxiety, lost sleep and even pain.  We understand!  This is amplified when you reach a point where you can no longer maintain payments on the home that has dropped significantly in value.  Sometimes this is caused by job loss or income reduction.  Sometimes it's caused by other life events that can make a homeowner need to downsize their monthly obligations.  It's a hard situation to handle emotionally and financially...no matter what the cause.

Last summer we had an unfortunate Jacksonville home seller contact us about short selling their home.  We had great sympathy for this seller as we do all sellers in this position.  We ran comps of their home and determined that the price should start in the low 200s.  Because we had recently sold other homes around it, we also knew that there was an appraisal problem in the area.  So we were not confident it would even appraise at $200,000.  Because so few homes had sold recently in the area and there was an oversupply on the market some recent foreclosures had moved the price down dramatically in the area.

It is very rare that we do not have a Jacksonville short sale under contract in the first month on the market.  That is because we know how to price homes at market value that should be the next home in the neighborhood or area to sell.  Homeowners that are no longer making mortgage payments do not have time to waste while their home languishes on the market.

At the same time we will not underprice your home because that is not doing anyone any good either.  The bank will not approve your underpriced Jacksonville short sale!  The contract price has to be "right" for both the seller's lienholder and the buyer's bank for the deal to come together.

We took this listing then almost immediately heard from the seller that they were pursing "other marketing options."  We wished them the best and terminated all work on the home.  I didn't think anything else about it, but ran across this same home recently while I was searching for a buyer.

They had found another agent who listed the home at around $500,000.  We don't know what transpired to list the home at this price.  We don't know if the seller was led to believe that we were nuts and the home was really worth far more than we told the seller.  We only know we would not have listed the home for such an outrageous amount since it was more than double the market value. We will not take a listing that is not priced at a level that we can successfully sell it at.  The home has been on the market for around two and a half months now and the price has already been dropped by $200,000.  Our guess is that it needs to drop by another $100,000 at this point to even get a contract on the home.

Who does this help?  Not the unfortunate seller (very nice person, I might add!) who may or may not believe their home could be sold at this high price and has had to endure significant price drops from the initial list price in a short period of time.  The seller  is also headed closer to foreclosure every day if they are not making mortgage payments.  The agent who is spinning their wheels did not gain anything by overpricing the listing.  

If you are in the position where you can no longer maintain payments on your home and need to downsize your monthly payments we have to ask, "Do you want to "list" your Jacksonville real estate or do you want to "sell" your Jacksonville real estate?" We are Jacksonville short sale specialists.   Call us if you want to sell.