Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I hope most agents would prefer underpricing to end; perhaps I’m being too generous to my people.

As frustrating as it is, I don’t see this marketing strategy disappearing any time soon; it’s an effective one for many sellers and their agents for the very reasons you’ve mentioned. And sellers will always have the right to offer their properties for sale at whatever price they choose. It’s one of the fundamentals of owning real property.

That’s why I’ve spent so much time highlighting the underpriced listing issue with buyers in mind. I want buyers to be successful in this market. They need to know how this strategy works and avoid wasting their time on making offers on properties that are seemingly underpriced, yet actually out of their price range. When buyers spend their time and effort on these offers they’re providing a valuable service to sellers: the buzz that drives bids and bucks. And they shouldn’t expect any thanks from the seller for doing so. They’re also missing out on opportunities to find and bid for properties that are actually within their reach. While they’re frustrated and disappointed over being on the losing end of yet another multiple offer scenario, someone else is scooping up a great house that could have been theirs.

I’ve noticed a surge of traffic on the site related to this topic. Maybe my message is being heard?

So while the seller is likely going to get what they deserve from the home, and the agent is going to look like they can really sell a house and then add that “sold for over-asking” to their website, they are really toying with dozens of peoples emotions, not to mention wasting hours upon hours of potential buyers time, and money when you consider many will fork out for a certified cheque they will never use.

This unscrupulous practice needs to end and it’s the same realtors, time after time, that are doing this. A great solution: an agent only gets commission off the asking price or less.