Mistakes When Selling Your Home: How $15,000 Became a $215,000 Loss

The short answer: stubbornness over a small gap can be the costliest error

The biggest seller mistakes that can cost $200,000 or more usually share one root: pricing and negotiating based on what you want instead of what the market is showing you. In a story shared on YouTube, Chicago-area agent Katie Spanakis of Sell Your Home With Kati - Truth in Real Estate® described a seller who refused a $15,000 reduction from a buyer willing to pay more than $1 million. Roughly six months later, she says, the home sold for about $200,000 less. She calls it a $215,000 swing.

The lesson is not that every seller should accept every offer. It is that a strong offer after a long stretch with no offers at all is information. This article breaks down what happened, why the numbers matter, where the story has limits, and how sellers can avoid a similar outcome.

What happened in the story

Spanakis was the buyer's agent. Her clients made an offer on a property priced above $1 million that had already sat on the market for about six months. Because nobody else had offered anything near the asking price during that time, her buyers started low and moved up in steps. In her telling, the offer they reached was well above what any other buyer was likely to pay, which she put at around $200,000 more than the next offer the seller might see.

The terms were also unusually clean, according to the video:

• A cash purchase, so no mortgage underwriting risk.
• No appraisal needed, since there was no lender requiring one.
• The buyers said they would not send inspection repair requests.
• The home was bought as-is, and it needed substantial work.

Negotiations dragged on for about a week. The listing agent, whom Spanakis describes as experienced and solid, kept returning with almost no movement from the seller, who repeatedly said they needed to think about it. The two sides ended up about $15,000 apart. The buyers, tired and uncomfortable, began asking to see other houses and eventually bought elsewhere. The original home then stayed listed another six months before selling for roughly $200,000 below the price the buyers had offered.

The key figures at a glance

These are the creator's figures from a single transaction. They are useful as an illustration, not as a market average.

Why buyers often see pricing more clearly than sellers expect

Spanakis argues that today's buyers are what she calls "amateur professionals." Online tools let them view days on market, aerial images of neighboring homes, when the owner bought, an estimate of the original purchase price, and in some places permit history. In her view, that means most buyers who write an offer are not far off the mark, even if some are wrong.

There is a general principle behind this that the broader market supports: a home is worth what a ready, willing and able buyer will pay, not what the owner needs or hopes. When a listing draws few showings, the price is typically the first variable to question. Spanakis goes further, saying a price cut can make other objections disappear, because a dated kitchen or a less convenient location matters less once the number reflects those drawbacks.

She also pushes back on a common seller reaction, which is to blame the agent for not highlighting special features. Her point is that the final pricing decision belongs to the seller, and that an agent can market a home but has a hard time marketing one that is priced above comparable sales.

The television analogy

To make the case, she compares a home to a television priced $10,000 above the best models. A shopper would ask what justifies the premium. If the answer is a screen or size that competitors also offer, the shopper walks. In housing, that translates to a simple test: if a similar home nearby with the same layout, age and location recently sold for less, what specifically makes yours worth more?

For context on how this plays out across the country, see our report on whether sellers are really giving up, which looks at buyer demand and seller behavior.

The hidden costs of holding out

The $15,000 gap looks small next to a seven-figure price, but it ignores what it costs to keep a house on the market. Spanakis points to several cost categories that sellers often leave out of their math:

• Property taxes and insurance continue every month the house is yours.
• Mortgage payments, if there is a loan, keep accruing. The seller in her story may not have had one, and she says it is a guess.
• Utilities and maintenance, especially for a property that is empty.
• Stress and lost time, which are harder to price but real.

Even without exact numbers, the logic is straightforward. Six extra months of carrying costs can eat into, or entirely cancel, the value of a slightly higher price, before counting any later price drop.

Vacancy and insurance risk

One practical warning in the video deserves emphasis. Spanakis says an empty house in a cold climate faces a real risk of burst pipes in winter. She describes a past listing where a pipe burst in a vacant home, ran for more than 24 hours, and the owners paid out of pocket because they had moved and had not told their insurer.

Insurance policies often limit or exclude certain coverage when a home is vacant for a period of time, and rules vary by insurer and state. Sellers who have moved out should contact their insurance company before listing an unoccupied property and ask about vacancy provisions, vacant-home policies and winterization requirements. The Insurance Information Institute is a reasonable starting point for general consumer education, though your own policy language is what governs.

"Do you need the money, or do you want the money?"

Spanakis frames the central question for sellers in one line: "Do you need the money, or do you want the money?" Many owners genuinely need a certain price to buy their next home, pay off a loan or fund retirement. Others, she suggests, have no mortgage pressure and are holding out for the sake of winning the negotiation.

She speculates that the seller in this story may not have wanted to sell at all, perhaps after a family death. That is her interpretation, not something the seller confirmed. It is a useful reminder that emotional readiness shapes pricing behavior. Real sellers, she says, leave signals through how they negotiate, and a seller who is unable to respond to a strong offer may not be ready to sell yet.

Her related advice is to avoid listing if you are emotionally attached, unwilling to accept market value, or unsure where you will live next. That caution is sensible. A listing that comes down in stages after months of silence usually fares worse than one that is priced realistically at the start. Our look at why waiting can cost sellers covers the seasonal side of the same trade-off.

Where the creator's view has limits

A balanced reading should note several caveats.

• It is one story. A single transaction, told by the buyer's agent, cannot show how often rejected offers lead to lower sales. Local conditions, the property's condition and the exact timing all matter.
• The seller's side is missing. We do not know the seller's reasons, finances or what other offers existed. The cause of the delay is Spanakis's interpretation.
• Buyers are not always right. She says most offers are within range but acknowledges some are not. Lowball offers do occur, and a seller can reasonably counter.
• Prices do sometimes rise. She notes that a home might fetch more next year, but that waiting is a risk, not a plan. Both directions are possible, and no one can forecast them with certainty.
• Commercial interest. The creator promotes a free agent-matching service that earns a referral fee from the listing agent if a sale closes, plus a book and downloadable resources. She discloses the referral fee in the video, but readers should weigh the recommendation accordingly.

None of this undermines the core point that offers and showings are market feedback. It does mean sellers should test the idea against actual local comparable sales rather than rely on one anecdote.

What this means for you

If you are selling

• Treat silence as data. Few showings after the first few weeks usually point to price, condition or both. Ask your agent for recent comparable sales and pending sales, not just active listings.
• Judge offers by certainty, not just price. A cash, no-appraisal, as-is offer removes several common ways a deal falls apart. Compare it with a higher financed offer that might require repairs or face a low appraisal.
• Add up your monthly carrying cost and multiply by the months you are willing to wait. Compare that number with the gap you are negotiating over.
• Respond fast and clearly. Spanakis says buyers who feel stuck in long back-and-forth exchanges can lose enthusiasm. Delays can cost you goodwill.
• Call your insurer if you will move out before closing.

If you are buying

• A listing that has sat for months gives you leverage, but a long, grinding negotiation can also wear you down. Decide your walk-away number in advance.
• Starting low and creeping upward can signal weakness; know your comparable sales so your first offer is credible.
• Whether a home is worth it is a personal call, particularly for a house that needs major work. Get a contractor estimate if you plan renovations.

If you are a homeowner thinking about listing

• Ask whether you would take today's market price. If the answer is no, waiting may be reasonable, but be honest that you are choosing to wait. Our piece on sellers waiting for lower mortgage rates explores when holding out stops paying.
• Interview more than one agent, and treat a lower suggested list price as a data point to examine rather than dismiss.

What to watch next

Pricing pressure varies by metro. In some markets, price cuts are common and the gap between asking and closing prices has widened; our report on Southwest Florida price cuts is one example. To check conditions where you live, look at local median sale prices, the share of listings with price reductions and median days on market from sources such as Redfin's data center, Realtor.com and NAR, and track mortgage rates through Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

The practical takeaway is simple. If your home has been listed for months and a credible buyer is within a small percentage of your price, run the full cost of waiting before you say no. The right answer may still be to hold firm, but it should be a decision based on numbers, not on pride or hope.

This article is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice. Consult a licensed agent, attorney or tax professional about your own situation.