I Know I Will Not Get it, But This Is What I Want For My House

I Know I Will Not Get It, But This Is What I Want For My House

I've had several interesting conversations with some folks considering selling their homes recently.

We are in a tough real estate market in a small town in eastern North Carolina called New Bern. We have at least 18 months of inventory on the MLS and sales are tracking below 2010 year to date. Prices are still "stabilizing" or falling which ever you prefer.

The thing that I have tried to uncover in these conversations is their personal motivation when I ask them, "Why do you want to sell?"

The answers have been rooted in logic but underpenned by emotion.  They all had good reasons to want or need to sell but when it came to what they thought they could get for their house, emotion took over.

The question I would like to propose is "How did you come up with that?"

Here are a few of the answers I got.

• The tax value of my house is this and I know it is worth more than that.
• We moving to "X" and we need to get "Y" to make this work for us
• My house is the nicest home in the neighborhood, I know
• I know I will not get what I want, I just need to get it on the MLS and wait for my price
• We're not in in hurry we just want to get it listed and we want all we can get.
• We know it needs some repairs and improvement but we're not doing anything to it.
• I bought a boat with the home equity loan and we have to cover that as well.
• We're in no hurry , we just want to list it now, for this amount. We don't care how long it takes.
• We're not going to give it away
• Just bring us an offer, we deal then maybe....

Does  any of this sound familiar to you? These answers have nothing to do with what a buyer thinks your home is worth to THEM!

My recommendations come back to these key points.........

• If you really want to sell in 90 days let's get an apprasial done so we don't leave any money on the table..we have a professional documented "opinion of value".
• Let's spend some time and money de-cluttering and doing some staging
• Will you do be willing to offer a "home buyer's warranty"?
• Are you willing to get a home inspection done and address repairs needed in advance of putting it on the market?
• Do you know what homes have been selling for in your neighborhood? May I show you?
• What do you think about a car that sits on the lot or someones corner for a long time?

If you can make progress with the "recommendations" you really see where you stand as a real estate agent and your chances of not only selling the house, but getting paid and recovering your marketing costs as well.

In most real estate deals we get paid for the results, "a closed sale or finalized transaction". Until then we are burning daylight and spending our money. If it does not sell, it's our fault, we're not good agents.

In a buyer's market, it is said that the buyer controls the deal and has all the cards. They call the shots and "you should feel lucky to get your home sold", right?

I submit the seller holds all the cards you should be interested in if you work as a listing agent in any market.  If your cards are not right, you'll never get to the poker table.

*BTW... this is my 50,000 point post on Activerain. I have contributed more info and opinions than anyone else in my local market. Thanks Activerain!