Someone once asked me what the worst offer I have ever received.  I asked them if they had all day because I have had several of them. 

I recently had a bank foreclosure home that had been listed for $1,399,000 when the owner had it.  The bank foreclosed on it and wanted to sell it quickly and priced it at $799,000 which I thought was a great value and most people agreed. 

I received an offer for $200,000; I thought the agent was joking when he called me.  Oddly enough, the agent said that he thought the bank wanted to sell it.

I told him that the bank did want to sell the house which is why they reduced the price from $1,399,000 to $799,000 but this agent was not embarrassed to present a $200,000 offer.

I would have personally been too embarrassed to present that offer because it would have made me look like I was crazy and my purchaser who thought he could have bought it for $200,000 would have been very unrealistic.  This was a brand new, never lived in 4,300 square foot house in one of the finest developments on Hilton Head Island.

I often have people say that if they really wanted to sell it, they will take an offer.  Yes, they will take an offer but there is a limit to what people will take. 

When I started asking other agents what the worst offer they ever received was I was amazed to hear that all of them had stories like I did.  One agent had a $1 million house listed and someone offered $100,000 was upset that they did not receive a counteroffer.  The market is slow, but is it that slow – I do not think so.

Last week we had 78 homes, 32 villas and 35 lots come on the market.

The Hilton Head MLS had 42 home sales last week; 18 on Hilton Head Island and 24 in the Bluffton area.  Following is the breakdown of home sales on Hilton Head:  4 in Sea Pines, 2 in Palmetto Dunes, 2 in Port Royal, 6 in Hilton Head Plantation, 2 in Indigo Run, one in Spanish Wells, one in Hilton Head Island off plantation areas.

We also had 14 villas and 3 lots sell. 

Even though activity is up from the last several months, we are still seeing too much new inventory on the market.  Real Estate supply versus demand is still putting a strain on prices.

Recently I was working with a client that we were listing her house. She had bought a house in the Cypress and kept saying that she wanted to go ahead and move to the Cypress, but she she needed to leave her furniture in the house because she knew a furnished house sells better than an unfurnished house.

You have to keep in mind that this was not decorator furniture. It was furniture that was over 20 years old. I tried to explain to the owner of the house that the house would sell better unfurnished than furnished. She said, “that can’t be right because I have always heard the opposite.” For years, people told her that, but the statistics don’t back that up.

The National Association of Realtors did a study that concluded that unfurnished properties sold better than furnished properties. That is what I always tell people.

There is one exception to that. That is what we call a professionally staged home. I recently had a house listed that I had had over 50 showings and didn’t get a single offer because there was too much white tile throughout the house. I had the house professionally staged and got an offer the first day the house was staged. People didn’t notice the white tile as much and the space was better defined, due to the furniture.

The mistake most people make is assuming that their furniture looks good. That is why a furnished house doesn’t sell as well. If it is professionally staged, it absolutely shines like a shiny penny.

If your house is unfurnished and hasn’t sold, you may want to consider having a staging company come in and stage the properties. There are a couple of companies that do a phenomenal job.

Now I would rank the homes easiest to sell as follows: 1)Professionally staged house 2)Empty house 3)Furnished house.