Front view of sold house with Laura Marie in front wearing red boxing gloves. Text reads "When your transaction feels like a boxing match. Incompetence and demographic incompetence are a thing!!!"

How Lack of Demographic Competence Can Kill A Deal

St Petersburg, FL| Investors| buyers| sellers

September 06, 2025•2 min read

Wow, this transaction felt like a boxing match. I’ve had deals that had really tough negotiations, but this felt like a never ending, boxing match of stupid.

🥊ROUND 1: The listing agent was a Palm Harbor, FL agent who isn’t familiar with this property asset class (2 separate homes on one property) and she didn’t know the St Pete market. This means she was not able to competently counsel her seller about the current market and what is reasonable or not.

After a lot of back and forth, we got to an agreed upon price of $370K. Then the seller and agent thought we were trying to get a 2 for 1 deal 🤦‍♀️. They took SO long in getting back to us that after further assessment my buyers were like, nope $360K take it or leave it.

Once the seller realized that our numbers were based in reality, he accepted. Stubbornness and fighting the market cost him $10K. (And he realized nobody else was standing in line to make an offer.

➡️Pro tip: I had included actual comps from the neighborhood when we submitted our offer to show justification of the offer price.

5 start review from investor client Mason that says "I cannot say enough good things about Laura and her team! I looked for over 6 months for a realtor and had the blessing of getting connected to her. We have now done 2 transactions together, and neither of them have been easy deals, but she made them both go as smoothly as possible. I do not think many other realtors could have even got either of these deals closed in all honesty. If you are looking for a hard working realtor that has your back Laura is your go to!!"

🥊ROUND 2: Appraisers are on a round robin system here in Florida. We landed an utterly incompetent appraiser who ALSO lacked demographic competence. He had the audacity to use MY sold properties as comps. I sell a ton of investment property in the area.

💪I tore the appraisal apart, point by point, with supporting local market data. Can I give thanks for knowledgable, competent Lenders who completely agreed with my report! They were able to get an exception in underwriting to throw out the appraisal and use an in-house evaluation system.

My buyers were super heroes throughout. They have full time, demanding jobs, travel extensively and yet stayed on top of all the paperwork, renovation estimates while working with the lender. They did all of this graciously and with good humor. They are #MyBlessing

🌟The MIRACLE ROUND: After all the challenges and snags, we managed to close on time!!!

5 Star Review for Laura Marie from investment client Jon. The review says "Laura is extremely easy to work with and goes above and beyond. We have bought a couple properties through her and will continue to use her. Her and her team are on top of everything that is going on in every phase of the process. Her knowledge of the St Pete area is stellar!"

If you’re ready, I’m here to help you buy, sell & invest with confidence. Whether it’s your first property or multi-million $$ portfolio, I’ve got you covered!

🔸Laura Marie, REALTOR®
Helping you strategically Buy, Sell & Invest
Laura Marie Group @ eXp Realty
YourHomeSoldFL.com
(727) 350-7003

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