He Chased His Home's Price for 2 Years

By Chris Schmalz

Chris has lived in the Idaho Falls area for over 40 years and has been helping sellers and buyers realize the American dream and build wealth through real estate for over 20 years.

There’s a hard truth I share with sellers who are tempted to save on commission: the market doesn’t care what you need to get for your home. It only responds to what your home is actually worth. And the longer you argue with it, the more that argument tends to cost you.

I learned that lesson alongside a couple here in Idaho Falls, and I still think about their story every time a seller tells me their price is firm.

A property worth holding out for, or so they thought. When I first met them back in September of 2023, they were selling on their own, for sale by owner. It was a genuinely desirable property: almost 2,500 square feet on just over 11 acres west of town, with a four-car garage and a large detached shop.

They’d priced it above a million. The trouble was that the comparable sales at the time pointed closer to $800,000, and they’d already moved into their next home. So the house sat empty while they held out for their number.

The same mistake, three times over. What happened over the next two years is really the same mistake repeating itself. For sale by owner above a million went four or five months with no sale. A flat-fee discount broker in the 900s expired after about six. A traditional agent priced it around 800,000 expired in 2025 at $799. Three attempts, three price points, and every single time the home was listed ahead of the market. Every single time, the market said no.

The quiet cost of an empty house. Meanwhile, the house was quietly draining them. They drove back nearly every week to mow, water, and plow the snow, carrying the utilities and every other cost of a vacant home, for two full years.

What finally sold it in a single week. By the time they sat down with me after that third expiration, we did the one thing no one had done yet: we priced it for the market it was in, not the market they wished it was in. We listed at 765,000, and it sold in a week with multiple offers. Because it was priced right and marketed to draw those competing offers, the sellers didn’t even end up paying a buyer agent commission. They got what the market supported, fast, and kept more in their pocket.

The number that still stays with me. Here’s the part that still stays with me. When we first met, I’d told them the home could sell around 850,000. Two years later, in a market that had softened while they waited, it brought 765,000. Those two years didn’t just cost them stress and the carrying costs of an empty house. They very likely cost real money.

Why this happens to smart people. So why does this keep happening to good, smart people? Because when you’re focused on saving a commission, it’s easy to gravitate toward the agent who tells you what you want to hear instead of the one who tells you what you need to hear. The others promised them their price. I told them what the market would bear. That was the whole difference.

Going it alone usually backfires. The instinct behind going it alone, that you’ll pocket the commission by doing the work yourself, usually backfires. A homeowner can put the home on Zillow, plant a sign in the yard, and post it on Facebook. A good agent is running open houses, prospecting, door knocking, and putting the property in front of the entire MLS and buyers from out of state. That exposure is what actually drives the price up.

The gap dwarfs any commission. The National Association of Realtors bears this out: the median for sale-by-owner homes sold for around 380,000, while agent-assisted homes sold at a median near 435,000. That gap is real, and it dwarfs most commissions.

At the closing table, one of them looked at me and asked, “Chris, why didn’t we just list with you when we first met?” I gave them the honest answer: because back then, I wasn’t telling you what you wanted to hear. Sometimes that’s exactly the person you want in your corner.

If you’re thinking about selling, and especially if you’ve been tempted to chase a number the market isn’t supporting, let’s have an honest conversation before you lose time and money finding that out the hard way. I’ll tell you what your home will actually sell for and how to get every dollar it’s worth. Reach out anytime at 208-242-4313, email me at chris@realestate-idahofalls.com, or visit realestate-idahofalls.com. I’m Chris Schmalz with the Chris Schmalz Real Estate Group, where moves are made simple, and life is made better.