Saying No to an Overpriced Instruction

Every agent knows the seller who wants a price the market will not pay, and most take the instruction anyway, planning to reduce it later. That plan usually fails, and the cost is much larger than the commission that was never going to arrive.

What an overpriced listing actually costs

The direct cost is your marketing spend, your photography, and the hours of viewings with buyers who were never going to offer. That is the small part.

The larger cost is the listing itself. A property that sits unsold acquires a history, and buyers who have scrolled past it four times stop seeing it at all. You are consuming the asset's best weeks on a price nobody will pay.

It also costs your board presence and your reputation. A window of unsold instructions is what a prospective seller sees when deciding whether to call you.

And it costs the seller most of all, because the eventual sale price after months on the market is frequently below what a correctly priced launch would have achieved.

How to decline without burning it

Say the number you believe and show the working. Three genuinely comparable recent sales, the reason each is comparable, and what makes this property better or worse than each. An opinion is arguable; a method is harder to dismiss.

Give them the choice rather than the verdict. "At your figure I do not think I can do a good job, and I would rather tell you that now than in three months" is a professional position, not a rejection.

Offer the alternative you can commit to — a shorter instruction at their price with an agreed review, or your price with your full effort. Let them choose, and record which they chose.

Leave the door open explicitly. "If it has not moved in six weeks, call me and we will start properly." A meaningful share of these calls arrive.

When to take it anyway

Never criticise the agent who takes it. The seller will repeat what you said, and you will meet that agent again.

There are times to take it anyway: a seller who genuinely needs the market to prove the point, an area you want board presence in, or a property whose ceiling is genuinely unknown because nothing comparable has sold.

When you do take one knowingly, agree the reduction schedule in writing at instruction. An overpriced listing with a dated review plan is a strategy; one without is a hope.