Go Big or Go Home: When It Doesn’t Work

[Juan Diaz]

You know what they say, go big or go home. Go with your bold and crazy ideas. Sometimes they’ll work and succeed spectacularly, and other times you’ll have to reassess. We just tried an experiment with our recent house in west Oakland, and it didn’t quite go the way that we wanted it to. We tried listing for a $1 (our goal price is around 510K), but we actually received very few offers, likely because it wasn’t within peoples’ search criteria. After some thought, we hiked the price up to 188K. We had a fabulous response in both cases, but ultimately, no offers were near what we were looking for.

So we tried to go big, but ultimately, it didn’t work out in this case, and we’re pretty sure why. You live, you learn, you adjust your strategy, and you do better next time. Thought I’d share my experience with you all, best of luck in the real estate world!

The house: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Oakland/927-33rd-St-94608/home/1562219

[Patsy Waldron]

I am a little confused about the numbers you posted above. You originally posted the house for $1????? I can imagine why you wouldn't get many offers.... When you raised the asking price, why did you settle on $188K when you really wanted $510K??? Seems that people who are looking for houses in the $500K range would filter out homes that are much cheaper...

The living area, dining room and kitchen look great! Your staging really helps the place look nice. But the bathroom is really dated, and I imagine that people who are paying $500K won't want a bathroom from the 70s, even in Cali...