John's Back

There are several pictures of this room on MLS. 
Several.

 Remember John? He's my brother's friend who needed to sell a home in Sun City. Through the course of the past several months it became apparent that I was not the agent to help out John. Actually, I figured that out from the very beginning, but I love my brother and I hung on for a while. 

Anyway, I found an agent to help out John. Luke is top-notch. Plus, I was straight-forward with Luke  about what kind of crazy he was signing up for. He would have found out anyway, so why beat around the bush? 

It took eight months, but Luke listed John's house this week. The house still doesn't have carpet--the pictures show a dirty and ripped carpet pad. However, John doesn't think it is an issue. According to John, the house looks like a, "model home." I saw the pictures, I don't agree, but whatever, Luke is a saint.  

As you might have gleaned, John called me. He wanted a reality check on his agent, Luke. First, Zillow says John can get $100,000 more for his house than what Luke priced it for. What did I think? I thought I was going to have an ethics complaint written up if I answered this question (it was priced competitively). 

John also said that he was concerned that--and I'm not making this up--Luke would withhold higher offers and give John only the (hypothetical) lowball offers. And then, Luke would somehow be the buyer of this house, flip it to one of the higher offers and make a killing. What did I think? I think I was getting a headache. 

And finally, John's sister's friend, who went to real estate school in Ohio or Iowa but never got his license, felt that, without meeting Luke or knowing anything about the poor guy, Luke wasn't working in John's best interest. What did I think? I thought that Luke isn't making enough commission on this sale to cover his future therapy bills. 

I did talk John off the ledge. Luke is fabulous. It doesn't serve anyone for Luke to not give John the highest and best offer. Plus, Luke has to disclose if he is the buyer of the home. And don't even get me started on what I think of Zillow. I also told John that I would immediately be calling Luke to share with him what he and I discussed because if I didn't I could be brought up on an ethics complaint for talking to Luke's client, because I am not at liberty to really give John real estate advice at this point. 

When I called Luke to tell him John called me, all Luke said was simply, "I figured he would call you." 

Hopefully Luke will get this home sold sooner rather than later to some buyer who doesn't mind a dirty, ripped carpet pad holding down the floor. And when it sells, I am crossing my fingers Luke and I will still be friends.