I drive by this For Sale by Owner almost every day. This poor guy has had his over priced house listed by a couple of Realtors with no luck. The last time it was listed, the house was at least $75,000.00 over priced. I don’t know why an agent would list a home at a price like that. The owner has had a For Sale by Owner sign in his front yard for almost a year.

The thing that the owner doesn’t realize is that he can’t sell his house unless it will appraise. That’s because most buyers need financing. To get financing a lender will order an appraisal. A house that much over priced will fail the appraisal and all real estate contracts have a finance contingency that will let the buyer walk away unless the seller will drop his price to that of the appraisal.

The only way this FSBO could sell that house is to get a cash buyer. A very unsophisticated cash buyer, totally unfamiliar with the Ocala market, who didn’t look at other competing houses either in person or online. What do you think the chances of that happening?

The moral of this story is “You can’t sell a house if it won’t appraise”.