You remember how to read and do math, right?

As a buyer, many times you use a REALTOR® to guide you through the process. You hope that they can provide you with extra helpful information as a real estate professional.

But, it really annoys me when REALTORS® can’t read or do math.

I had a pretty waterfront home in Hollywood Lakes that was listed at $625,000. We had a contract in the lower $600s, when we found out that it would not be able to pass the insurance inspection requirements, which meant that it could not be financed.

A new roof would cost around $25,000 and my seller was not going to put a new roof on.

Since the buyer under contract was financed, we had to cancel the deal.

My seller and I discussed the situation, and being that we could only appeal to cash buyers, we dropped the price $50,000 (you could put on two new roofs for that price drop).

So on the listing, I put CASH ONLY in the remarks, for buyers and REALTORS® to see. And, I also put in the REALTOR® notes section, that the price drop reflected that the property needed a new roof.

Yet I kept having REALTORS® call me with financed buyers or buyers offering $550,000 or below.

Look, I already did the price drop factoring in the problem. You can’t then ask for another $25,000 or more because you feel like it. 

I hope that we soon can bring back the fun concepts of reading comprehension and math back into real estate.

I bet if people started reading the background information and using their math skills, more properties would be selling.