Can You Handle the Truth?

Can You Handle the Truth?  That is... can you handle the truth in selling your Austin property?  I trust you won't mind a candid discussion about the home selling process.  With the shift in our Austin housing market, I'm finding many more sellers resisting the realities of what it unfortunately means to be a seller in this market.  A few months back I met with some sellers to discuss what it would take to get their home sold.  A large percentage of my listing business comes from Austin-area expired listings, and this one was not an expired listing.  They had no previous agent who failed to sell the property, they weren't jaded by the home selling process... I was the first agent they were speaking with. 

I always consider it an honor to be invited into someone's property to speak with them about what I do to get homes sold, and this time was no different.  After going over the data, it became clear to the sellers that in order to sell the house and achieve their goal of moving up to a bigger property for the growing family they are planning, that they'd have to come to the closing table with funds.  They owed more on their mortgage than the market would bear for a sales price.  Many agents know what happens typically in these situations.  The seller often asks to list for a high sales price and 'see what happens.'

Sadly, the "I want my price and let's see what happens" sellers are usually the ones I end up speaking with 6 months later when the house doesn't sell.  See, it's my understanding that many agents out there would love to take another listing to add to their inventory versus being 100% honest with the seller about what's going on in the market.  What many sellers whose properties expired off the market end up usually discovering after speaking with me is that it serves them no purpose in having an over-priced listing, for they always end up costing themselves large sums of equity while chasing down the market, if it gets sold at all.  Not to mention, the sellers of that listing won't be happy with their agent, they won't get to move on with their dreams, the agent doesn't get paid, and all the neighbors see that REALTOR® as the stale listing agent.

In the case of these sellers, I suggested a short sale, which quickly got turned down by the sellers, and in lieu of being the agent to undoubtedly disappoint down the road had I taken the listing at an inflated price, I determined that I was not the best agent to take that listing at the time.  I stayed in touch and this week made a standard follow-up call.  The conversation ended very promisingly, and then I received the following via e-mail:

"I should have been straight forward with you on the phone, but we have another REALTOR® coming to our house later this week.  We are planing to list the house for a few thousand higher than we talked about, which will give us a little more negotiation room.  I appreciate your honesty in the listing of the house, but I hope that we can get a little more for the house."

I didn't blame the seller at all.  In fact, how else would they act?  If you had one professional come in and share some less-than-good news, and then another one came in as a hero and tell you what you wanted to hear, wouldn't you get excited at the thought that you could get more money for your house as well?  I mean, they're just listening to what the professional is telling them.  Unfortunately, the truth might have been too much to bear for these sellers' first time to hit the market. 

Sometimes in this market, often unfortunately at a high price to the sellers, it takes the property not selling at the price the over-promising agent suggested for sellers to understand the significance of pricing to sell, and pricing within the market.

I truly hope the property will sell, for their family definitely deserves it.  When considering the agent you will hire to not just list your house for sale, but who will get it sold, my advice is to take care to ask yourself if you're hiring the person who tells you what you want to hear, or the person who tells you the truth.  And ultimately, don't you want to work with someone who's always honest with you, even at times when it might be uncomfortable to hear?

The good news is, there are many smart strategies worth implementing in this market to put the control back in the hands of the seller, as in the case of the property I listed last Saturday.  In just two days, we received FIVE offers!  Not only that, two weeks ago, one of my listings sold before it even officially hit the market through marketing to other agents in my office; they were previously listed with another brokerage for 140 days.

See a video below of two of my clients, Michael and Rachel, who discuss how they too had a hard time coping with price when I first met with them about listing their condo.  By the time they re-listed with me many months later, the market value of their condo had dropped $25K.  Ouch!  Fortunately, we got it sold within 24 hours and they are very happy in their new home and are newly engaged and headed for happily ever after!