How to deal with an unrealistic FSBO seller?

**Notactingmyage** · 08-11-2008, 10:56 AM

I'm looking at an 18 year old FSBO villa/patio home in an upscale community. The owner is emotionally attached to the property (daughter selling for mother in nursing home, father is recently deceased). Asking price (260K) is on par with several comps in the same area that are in far better condition and better located. My repair, replace, and upgrade estimates total 55K using the project estimator at the HGTV website. Two other problems: the former occupants were smokers so the smell of stale cigs permeates the place, and the front door is 100 yards away from a 4 lane expressway that you can hear but not see due to buffering trees and berm. When viewing the property, the owner let it be known that she was not interested in "low ball" bids, and had in fact turned down several over the past 6 months that she's been showing the house. To at least come out even on this property, and discounting due to location near the highway, I can't see offering more than about $185K. First question, is it possible to ever completely get rid of the cigarette smell? How? Second, does anyone have any ideas or strategies that could help the owner come to terms with a realistic value of the property? Thanks.

**BeyondThePen** · 08-11-2008, 12:28 PM

I'm no pro at remodeling a property, but for the smoke smell you are probably looking at a minimum of repainting the whole home and ripping up all flooring. Sure, you can clean carpets and whatnot, but the smell will creep back eventually.

As for getting sellers into Reality-ville in terms of value...that will take time and desperation (on their part, not yours). As time marches on and no one buys the home and after several "low ball" offers, the daighter may start to soften, but will still try to hold strong because emotional attachments are tough to break. If the mother gets progressively worse, and/or money situation tightens, then the daughter will feel the crunch and have to make the move to lower her selling price (as well as her expectations). But there's nothing you can really do to make it happen or move that along, unfortunately.

**Codythebest** · 08-11-2008, 12:52 PM

There are several questions that you should use to get a property as low as possible:
Get to know the motivation of the sellers.
Why are they selling? what kind of money do they need? What for?
Google the art of negocation...It's too long to put it here...

**SellMyDigs.com** · 08-14-2008, 10:45 PM

Be as supportive as possible and answer questions and give good advice, once it doesn't sell she'll look to you for help. If it does sell, more power to her! Selling a house $55K over market is a skill we wish we all could have!