Selling a house today is as difficult as at any time in my lifetime and I am constantly amazed at the ways people work to make it even more difficult.

Recently in doing research on another topic I came across a parable purportedly from a fourteenth century French priest that seemed to articulate the dilemma of the modern home seller.

The fall guy in the parable is a donkey and I want to be really clear that I am not making any comparison between people who have not been able to sell the homes they no longer want and the donkey. You could change the parable to any animal you want. I am just sticking with tradition.

In the story, the priest had two very tasty and plentiful stacks of hay prepared and then placed his donkey half way between the two hay stacks.

Look Both Ways Before Eating Hay

The donkey looked longingly at the hay stack to his right. And then he looked left. He estimated both stacks were equally delicious and equally distant.

And with two equally desirable goals, eventually the donkey starved to death. When you transfer this principal to selling houses, death is not the likely outcome, but there are other problems a plenty.

While the real estate version of the Starving Donkey is common, I remember s specific instance several years ago when a widow answered one of my ads and wanted me to buy her former house, that was now vacant. Her former house was listed with a real estate agent and I have a real estate license so I was required by real estate tradition to deal with the agent.

We met and I covered the facts that we both knew. Her house had been worth $80,000 and was now worth $40,000 and she wanted $80,000. I said, “I will pay $80,000 in this manner. I will pay the real estate commission and all closing cost, which will leave about $72,000 which should go to your client. Then I will pay her $300 a month for 20 years.”

“If your client sold the house for $80,000 and put the money in the bank in a savings account, she would be getting maybe $120 a month at current rates.”

You Can Have What You Want, IF

“This plan gives your client the price she wants and the sale of the house which she wants, and more monthly income that the bank would pay. You get the full commission, which you want. And I get a house I can rent for $750 a month, minus the costs which include paying her $300, taxes, insurance, vacancy and repairs.”

He said, “She just wants her money.”

I believe she had two hay stacks. She wanted to sell her house and she wanted to do it her way. Three years later I saw the home sold for an extremely low cash price, after she had paid taxes, insurance, lawn care, repairs (based on the sale price she may not have paid much in repairs), utilities, paving assessments, and so on.

Now a smart donkey could have chosen to live life ala carte, visiting one hay stack each day, alternating between the Vegetarian Burger King one day and Mickey Dee’s Hay House the next: There are answers, but they require deciding what you want most, or a creative way of getting both of the things you want most by giving up something else.

George Beardsley has written extensively about business, as a financial reporter for the Chicago Tribune, editor for Dow-Jones Irwin, and articles for financial publications. He has written two books on options and recently published “911 for Landlords,” an eBook combining cutting edge scientific research and “ancient secrets. For the last two decades he has been buying houses from folks who want to sell fast, fixing and renting houses in Tampa Bay

George Beardsley has written extensively on finance, business with Chicago Tribune, an editor for Dow-Jones, Irwin, worked for Merrill Lynch. His book 911 for Landlords tells how to rent houses fast and is a real estate broker in Tampa Bay area of Florida, VIsit him at http://www.1gr8deal.com

Author Bio: George Beardsley has written extensively about business, as a financial reporter for the Chicago Tribune, editor for Dow-Jones Irwin, and articles for financial publications. He has written two books on options and recently published “911 for Landlords,” an eBook combining cutting edge scientific research and “ancient secrets. For the last two decades he has been buying houses from folks who want to sell fast, fixing and renting houses in Tampa Bay

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: sell house fast, sell my house, we buy houses, estate homes, for sale by owner