“But we think our home is worth more than that!” are words that no Realtor® wants to hear from a client. North Carolina Realtor Heather DeDona discusses why sometimes your real estate agent really does know best.
“Let me tell you a story – a case study, if you will. I was presenting my market analysis on a home and giving my advice on pricing strategy.The comparables suggested the home would sell for around $195,000. As I was showing the homeowners this information they stopped me and said, ‘We can’t do that. We owe $209,000 on the mortgage and we really don’t want to have to pay anything when we close. We want to sell it for $220,000.’ Note: this was not a distress sale; they just wanted to move, they didn’t have to.
As the agent in this situation I had two options: 1. Refuse to list their home or 2. List it and hope they would become more reasonable. I chose the latter which I regret and won’t do again. Here’s why: We were about a month into the listing of their home when the homeowners made the choice to change companies. I had put in a ton of work for a home that I knew was overpriced and they were unhappy with me? I am sure the fact that there were not many showings and the little feedback we got was not great contributed to this, but don’t you think the price did as well?
The fact is, there would have been more showings if it had been priced closer to where I had suggested. So, they moved on to company B, have changed agents several times and the house is all the way down to around $185,000. $185,000? But that is lower than what I suggested! How did that happen and it still hasn’t sold? This house has been on the market now for around nine months which makes it ’stale’ to potential buyers. ‘Is something wrong with it? It must be overpriced. I bet we can get it for a steal because it has been on the market forever!’ That is what buyers think and feel when the see a home has been on the market for a long time.
The moral of the story is you can’t sell your home for what YOU want to sell it for if the market won’t support that price. In the end you are losing money, not just on the selling prices but on the months you have paid the mortgage, taxes, and insurance on your now ’stale’ home. Still think your house is worth more? Tell your agent what you feel makes your house worth more. ’We replaced all the windows last summer, and we tiled in the kitchen. We have the most private lot in the whole subdivision.’ Your agent can tell you if that will make a difference in the price or not.
Lastly, don’t take it personally.This IS business and a great agent will be truthful with you about price, not just tell you what you want to hear so they can get the listing.”
