I recently gave a presentation about the current real estate market to a group of home sellers in a city in the Northeast. That night, I explained to them that home values in their area were about to be negatively impacted by a surge of distressed properties entering their region over the next year. As I have often found to be the case, the homeowners were very receptive; many felt that they now had the information they needed to make a good decision with regard to pricing their home to sell in this market.After the class that night, several of the homeowners came up to me to privately discuss their personal situations. One of these owners said something I will never forget. He shared with me that he had come to a revelation that night.
This particular homeowner had put his home on the market with plans to move to Florida, where his daughter and his infant grandson live. He missed his daughter very much and missed his grandson even more. He hated every passing day that he wasn’t able to “hold the baby in my arms and rock him to sleep”. That night at the seminar, he thanked me for reminding him of the reason he put his home on the market in the first place – he needed to rejoin his family. I was struck by the wisdom of his final words to me before he turned to walk away.
“I thought I was putting a price on my home. While I hold out– hoping to get a few more dollars, I am actually putting a value on my happiness.”
He adjusted his asking price that night and sold it three days later. Very soon, he will be able to rock his grandson to sleep in his arms, both of them happy and content.
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