I went to a West Bloomfield lake home last year to talk about listing the home.  I knew the house as I had been in it back in 2011.  The owner had originally listed it $725,000 and then dropped it to $650,000.  It was on the market for about 4 months and it did not sell.  There were many problems with the house.

•   *  The wood exterior was rotting in many places.
•   *  Their was very limited parking
•   *  There was no garage
•   *  The interior had a unique layout because it was added on to and on to
•   *  The construction of the additions was just mediocre
•   *   The house had so much stuff it was hard to get around in some rooms
•   *   It had an appearance of being dirty because of the disorganization of the homes
•   *   The home wasn't updated at all
• So it did not sell back in 2011.  Yet in 2018 the owner was asking for a 61% increase on a lake home in West Bloomfield that did not sell in 2011.  It sat on the market for a whole year and did not sell.  Yet the owner was no smarter than he was back in 2011. He still was no smarter than he was back in 2011.  

I went over to the owners house and toured the house.  It was in worse shape than it was back in 2011.  The owner now was trying to sell the home in 2018 and now for just the value of the land.  So I sat down with him and brought out all the comps.  First I brought out all the vacant land sales.  There were no vacant properties on any of the big all sports lakes in West Bloomfield, or Bloomfield that sold for over $800,000.  I had checked out Pine Lake, Walnut Lake, Orchard Lake, and Cass Lake, and Wing Lake to name a few of the high end prestigious lakes.   I was trying to keep apples to apples so I compared vacant properties that were 3/4's of an acres or less because the seller's property was a 1/2 acre.  There were lake properties that sold for more but they had 2, 3, or 4 acres.

I also pulled out the comps of any homes that sold on the lake.  There was one 1000 square foot home that sold for $645,000 and a 5500 square home that sold for $1,050,000.  There also was a bigger home that sold for 1.2 million dollars.  When I showed the owner that....... he says "wow, my house is worth a lot of money".  I tried to explain to him that people will pay a high price just to get on a prestigous lake.  There were no other little homes or any homes that had sold for less than $700,000 on the lake.  The owner didn't seem to listen.

Next I went over how builders liked to keep the value of the land at less than 25% of the total price of the home.  So if the owner wanted over a million dollars for a property a builder would have to build over a four million dollar home.  Builders feel and try to keep land cost well below the 25% level.  The next phase I went over was homes that sold as tear downs in the last year.  I pulled every home under the list price the seller had.  I went through and pulled out all the homes that fit the bill of being a tear down.  Once again there were no homes that sold on similar lots that sold for over $800,000.  Some of the homes and vacant lots sold as low as $500,000.  $800,000 was the very high end for the property.

Bottom line is .....the house or the property was not worth more than $800,000.  Sure there is a slight possibility that somebody just had to be on the lake that they would pay more, but that is a very, very slim chance.  Sadly the owner kind of laughed at me and went and listed his home with another realtor.  A year later the house still hasn't sold at his price.  So if you are calling a lake realtor and you won't listen and won't look at the comps then you deserve to not sell your home.  I mean not just look at the comps, but I mean to really take the time to understand what they mean and how to price your home correctly.  For more information on home selling tips on or off the lake go to http://www.michiganlakerealestatehomes.com/Lakefront-homes-for-sale-West-Bloomfield