Case Study · Corvallis, Oregon

When a home doesn’t sell, the listing usually failed — not the seller.

Richard and Kim’s home had been on the market for four months and hadn’t sold. Thirteen days after it was actually put in front of buyers, it had an offer. They kept $12,887 that would otherwise have gone to a listing commission.

Where the story usually ends

Their home had already been on the market for four months, and it hadn’t sold. That is usually where the story ends — the seller gives up, or relists with another agent at a lower price and hopes. For Richard and Kim, it is where our story started. They were our very first client as a company.

A three-bedroom, two-bath home in Corvallis, close to the hospital, in a genuinely good location. It was listed in September of 2018 at $379,900. It sat. And on December 31st, the listing expired.

What we found when we looked

When a home doesn’t sell, most agents assume one thing: it was overpriced. So I pulled every comparable I could find, and I came to the opposite conclusion — I thought it might actually have been priced a little low.

What I could not find was any evidence the home had ever really been marketed. It looked like the listing went into the Multiple Listing Service and everyone hoped.

So we did two things differently. We relisted it at $385,000 — higher than the price it had already failed at. And we actually marketed it.

The result

Thirteen days later it received an offer at $382,500. We closed that sale in 58 days.

Here is what it meant in real money. A 3.5% listing-side commission on that sale would have been $13,387.50. Richard and Kim paid a $500 flat fee instead, keeping $12,887.50 — the $12,887 figure we have used ever since.

They bought the home at $322,500 and sold at $382,500 — roughly $60,000 in equity gained over about three years, and they kept materially more of it than they would have under a traditional listing commission.

Why this story still matters

Richard and Kim asked us to sell the home for them. Most of the people we help now would rather sell it themselves and keep every dollar — so we coach them through it, for free.

And the four things that stop most for-sale-by-owner sellers have not changed since 2018: exposure, paperwork, pricing and negotiation. Those are the four things we take off your plate.

What Richard & Kim were on — and what has changed

This matters, so we say it plainly on the page rather than bury it.