Pricing a Home For Sale
Overpricing a home is one of the biggest blunders in Real Estate. In fact when you overprice your home it is one of the hardest things to recover from even if you end up reducing later on down the road. After being in the Real Estate industry for the last twenty eight years it has become common place to see overpriced homes languish on the market. Pricing a home for sale properly is critical part of any successful real estate equation!
You see it so many times over and over by sellers who think their home is worth more than the next guy down the street. I suppose it is human nature for all of to think anything we own is better. Sometimes a seller’s misguided belief is fueled by some foolish Real Estate agent who has mislead them intentionally just so they can get a listing.
This is one of those little things that happen in this industry that makes me sad to see. While at times a seller will see right through some Realtors story, there are times where a persons judgement can become clouded. Everyone wants to believe they have the best of the best.
One of the better ways in choosing a Realtor to work with is to go with someone who does not “need” your business. You will get a much more honest evaluation of your property when working with an agent who is not worried about where their next sale is coming from!
A Real Estate agent who doesn’t do a high volume of business will have a much greater fear of losing out on a listing and therefore could inflate the suggested value. Real Estate overpricing is very common with an agent who is worried about where their next transaction will come from.
How To Know Your Home Is Overpriced
- You interviewed three Real Estate agents to give you the market value of your home. None of them told you what you wanted to hear so you continued to conduct Real Estate interviews until you found that Realtor who was just so agreeable they were an amazing agent in your eyes.
- You figured out your asking price by calculating what you paid for the home and added the property transfer tax.
- After calculating what you paid for the home, you went on to figure out all the awesome improvements you have made to the home and then added that value to the previous value.
- Your home has been on the market 168 days.
- Your home has a couple of showings a month but a similar home down the street has had a parade of people walking through almost every other day. The feedback you have been getting is that your home is overpriced.
- Five other homes just likes yours have sold in the neighborhood over the same time.
- You start asking your Realtor to put a full page spread in the local paper about your home, saying that it must be the Realtors marketing that is not getting the job done.
- You come to the conclusion that your home needs an open house every Sunday for the next three months. Despite seeing the statistics that say less than 2% of all homes are sold through an open house, you want to shoot for that 2%.
- Suddenly you start to have very vivid dreams at night about getting a cash buyer. The dreams become so strong that you are having a tough time getting a good nights sleep. You visit your trusty psychologist asking for help. What do these dreams mean Doc? He asks to see a picture of your home and quickly concludes that you don’t stand a chance in the world getting your home to appraise by a lender. Dream issue solved!
While there was some obvious parody and humor here often times as Realtors we do hear some of these things! If you have been getting very few showings, have not received an offer and constantly are being told that your home is overpriced you really need to figure out if you really want to move or not. If you can’t sell the home for what the market tells you it is worth then you shouldn’t have it for sale.
Are there times when the problem with a home selling is not just over pricing? Of course! There are any number of reasons that could contribute to a home not selling including lousy photography and real estate descriptions, poor internet exposure, lack of preparation and staging, as well as difficulty in showings. These are all things that can be changed.
The common denominator in all of these things is the agent you choose. This is why if you are truly interested in selling your home you want to work with someone who has a track record of actually being successful at their craft. An agent who intentionally overprices your home is NOT a good Realtor. Remember comparable sales data never lies – people do!
One last thought on properly pricing your home. The greatest Real Estate agent on the planet will rarely ever sell an overpriced home. The worst Real Estate agent can sell an under priced home all day long.
You can make up all the excuses in the world why your home isn’t selling but at the end of the day 99% of the time it is the PRICE!
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