Thread: Is it legal to increase listing price?

Two weeks later, he submitted full price offer of $775,000. I told him that I wanted to counter offer $895,000. My real estate threaten me to sue me since I don’t want to sell the apartment at the original listing price.

I looked at the contract between me and the real estate agent. There was nothing in the contract telling me that I can’t change the listing price. It stated that I can’t get out of the contract or can’t change my mind on selling the apartment before 3 months.

If I can’t sell the apartment at $895,000, I am okay to continue keeping it. I bought it at $990,000. My apartment’s gross income is $98,000 a year.

Please let me know if it is legal to change my listing price and please give me some advices on what I should do in this case?

Thank you for your help!

You need to stop looking for free advice and talk directly to a real estate attorney in the area where your condo is located. If you wait too long to respond to your agent you could find yourself in a whole too deep to dig out of.

If you received a number of offers during the first five weeks you should be please with your real estate agent. If none of them were for full price, why do you think you should increase the price by another $100k? You were probably price perfect. If you were priced a little low your agent would likely have been able to get the buyers to submit competing bids which would have drive the price over your asking price but since this didn't happen the property was probably price just right.

It's likely that your contract with the real estate agent requires you to compensate your real estate agent for fulfilling the terms of the agreement. If your agent brought you a buyer for full price and you decided not to sell, that's fine but you may still need to compensate your real estate agent, even if you don't sell it. If your contract requires a 6% commission you could be required to pay your agent the commission even with no sale.

My guess is that if you increase the price of the property you're going to lose any potential buyers that were interested and in six months you'll sell it for $700k. I've seen this happen so many times. Remember, "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered"!

If you can't get the current listed price, why do you think you'll get more than the current listing price?

The person asked if it is legal to raise a listing price. The answer is "Yes". Always.

When it comes to buying a home, most potential buyers will use the price listed as number one factor to determine the home they are looking for. In list building niche there is a choice of techniques and tricks of trade expertise and techniques.

If there is no clause obliging you not to change price (i.e. agency commission which usually is percentage of the listing price - at least in my country ) then there should not be a problem for you to change the listing price, namely increasing it. You surely realize that most agents do not do anything special instead of uploading an offer, so they should not be annoyed if you are trying to cover your profit via higher price. Yet there is the doubt that you maybe do not want to sell the apartment, but actually this is why there are agency contracts, at the end of the day. Good luck to you.

I have to throw in with Greg on this one. Talk to a lawyer who knows the law in your state. There is a lot of money at stake.

While it is refreshing to see that you read the contract to see how these issues are addresses, a lawyer will be able to tell you the legal nuances of the contract as a whole and what your options are.

Not that it necessarily applies here, but also keep in mind that just because it's written in a contract does not mean that it is always legally enforceable.

Richard Duncan

Originally Posted by Larry The Expert

The person asked if it is legal to raise a listing price. The answer is "Yes". Always.

It's legal but it doesn't make sense. I'm guessing you're thinking that people are deliberately going under the asking price so rising the price will mean people will go under the new price but above the current asking price. If they were willing to go up to the current asking price they would increase rejected offers. This suggests to me that you won't get the asking price, so rising it will just mean the offers dry up.