Be realistic when pricing your home

Your house is up for sale. You’ve hired a REALTOR® and you may have to wait a long time for a buyer to materialize if you begin working against yourself and your best interests by preventing your REALTOR® from doing his job.

This can and does happen.

As a seller who has listed a home with expectations of a quick sale, you will be much happier and your home will probably sell much quicker if you work with your chosen professional.

Seems a simple premise!

Here’s what too often happens. The owners will ignore the advice of the professional and overprice the home. The thought behind this move is the hope of getting more money for the place. It is understandable that the owners will want to get the best price they can. However, sometimes sellers ignore the information regarding all of the homes which were similar in their neighborhood that found buyers for many thousands of dollars less.

What happens in this scenario is the overpriced house does not sell and generally will not sell until the market moves and makes the home a fair buy.

There are very good reasons for this. Today’s buyers are not the buyers of yesteryear. It doesn’t take long for a prospective buyer to zone-in on good buys after touring a dozen open houses. This is not rocket science. Buyers learn to assess value.

That’s why some REALTORS® will not mess with a home that is off the charts in pricing. A REALTOR® does not get paid a dime until the listing is sold and therefore it is not good business for a professional to over-price a home – it would be wasting their time and the seller’s.

They know that it will take a lot of time to sell the home if the owner insists on a price that is much too high. They know the average pricing of homes in the area and will provide information to the seller to support the pricing they are recommending.

Spending a few dollars on decorating or fixing simple, obvious repairs could increase the salability and easily shorten the time on the market. This is to everyone’s benefit. It’s just easier and more productive to work together. Both parties want the same result – the quickest sale for the best price possible.