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Advice for Sellers: The One Question You Must Ask Your REALTOR®

By
Real Estate Agent with Prudential CT Realty

Advice for Sellers:  The One Question You Must Ask Your REALTOR®

How much will my house sell for?

 

If you are thinking about putting your home on the market (or maybe you already have your home on the market), there is one question you must ask your REALTOR® or any agents that you are interviewing for the job:

 

What do you think my home will sell for?

 

Notice I didn't say,"What should I list my house for?" but "How much will it sell for?"  You will get (hopefully) an honest opinion of the most likely price for your house.  It may not be what you want to hear, but you will be saving yourself a lot of grief and aggravation in the process if you approach it from a realistic viewpoint.    A REALTOR® who knows your market will have a good idea of what you will get for your house, and that's where you should list your house. 

 

Why? The greatest disservice an agent can do is to lead you with false hope in order to get the listing.  When you price your home over market value, you will not sell it,  you run the risk of having no one look at it, and the listing will expire unsold unless you price it correctly.

 

"Well," you say, "let's start high and leave room for negotiation."  You won't get to negotiation because you won't have a contract, and you won't have a contract because people won't even look at your house.  It's better to start with a realistic price to get buyers in the door.

 

"But," you say, "someone can always make an offer and we will consider where to go from there." WRONG! By overpricing your house, buyers are already thinking you are inflexible.  Some may take the bait, but most will move on to something they can afford from the get-go.  In addition, when your home is overpriced, it will stay on the MLS a long time; the longer the time, the more stigma it will amass.  The first thing people will say after seeing that it has been languishing on the market for six months is "What's wrong with the house?"

 

"We can't afford to sell it for less than this amount," you say, "so we will have to hope that there is someone out there who will pay what we want for this house."  This is so unlikely, but even if one person HAD to have your house and was willing to overpay for it, the house won't appraise and then you will have the appraisal nail in the coffin.  The buyers (who HAD to have it) are now going to renegotiate the contract.

 

"Well," you say, "if it doesn't sell, we will just take it off the market and try again next year."  If you aren't serious about selling your house this year at the right price, then wait until you are serious about selling your house.  Many of our market areas have high inventories now, and the situation will improve if the non-serious sellers take their homes off the market.

 

Only you can decide if you are ready to sell, but if you are, price your house to sell.  Find a REALTOR® who knows your area, will give you an honest answer about the market value of your home, and will do everything possible to help you get to the next step in your life.  You will be on your way, sooner rather than later or never.

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Peggy Chirico

 

 

Peggy Chirico, REALTOR®
Serving the Greater Hartford Area
Prudential CT Realty
peggychirico@gmail.com

860-748-8900

If you are buying or selling a home in Hartford County or Tolland County, please call me, email me, or visit my website.  I would be happy to help you with your home search or provide a market analysis for your home.

Find your dream home now!

                                                                       

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Comments (77)

Ken Anderson
Apex Results Realty Inc., Brokerage - Burlington, ON
Broker in Burlington, Ontario

This should be a 'no-brainer' for any agent with a smidgen of experience, yet so often is ignored in the desire to gain a listing, especially when in competition for it.  What I find disconcerting is that a qualified appraiser couldn't do an accurate appraisal of the property, no matter where he/she was from.  I performed hundreds of appraisals when working for an AACI appraiser, and if I found I couldn't access good current information, I refused the job.  A qualified appraiser should not need to be intimately involved in an area to do his job accurately and throroughly.  Appraisal techniques, properly applied, coupled with access to information should allow an appraiser, worth his salt, to perform an accurate and provable appraisal most anywhere.  That he wasn't from the area isn't the problem, that he didn't use current accurate information is the salient point.  If he was unable to ascertain accurate value because he couldn't avail himself of accurate information, he should have bowed out.  He should be reported to the Appraisal Institute.

Oct 23, 2011 02:08 AM
Peggy Chirico
Prudential CT Realty - Manchester, CT
REALTOR® 860-748-8900, Hartford & Tolland County Real Estate

Hi Ken - Thanks for responding from an appraiser's point of view.  It's frustrating when the information is there and an appraiser doesn't use it or chooses to use less than optimal information. But many times, the appraisal is fine and accurate, but the seller can't see it that way--he thinks his property is worth more than market value. 

Oct 23, 2011 02:22 AM
Karen Bernetti
Southington, CT

Peggy this is wonderful advice....especially the part about taking  your home off the market if you're not serious.  You nailed it!  

Oct 23, 2011 02:28 AM
Joan Congilose
New Jersey Properties - Manalapan, NJ
Helping Sellers & Buyers

Hi Peggy, Great advice , concise responses given for every seller objection regarding pricing their home right. I wish every home owner would read this. They could all learn from it

Oct 23, 2011 04:36 AM
Michael Singh,Broker
Singh Real Estate - Corral de Tierra, CA

I just had this converstion a couple of days ago and super agent came in higher and got the listing??

Oct 23, 2011 10:18 AM
Bob Miller
Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL
The Ocala Dream Team

Hi Peggy , Great post!  wish I could get every seller to read it!  I always tell them if the other Realtor says you can get X, ask them if they are buying it for that.

Oct 23, 2011 11:23 AM
Eric Michael
Remerica Integrity, Realtors®, Northville, MI - Livonia, MI
Metro Detroit Real Estate Professional 734.564.1519

Peggy, you did a great job explaining the pricing for sellers and potential Buyers alike. Hope they understand the pitfalls of listing a house for over market value.

Oct 23, 2011 12:05 PM
Not a real person
San Diego, CA

Monday is my Happiness Day.
I visit as many blog posts as I can during the day
and spread happiness, which means I probably didn’t read this post.
I just stopped by to spread some happiness.
Feel free to delete this comment if it doesn’t make you happy.

Happy Monday!

Oct 24, 2011 01:48 AM
Peggy Chirico
Prudential CT Realty - Manchester, CT
REALTOR® 860-748-8900, Hartford & Tolland County Real Estate

I would never delete it, Russel - thanks for stopping by!

Oct 24, 2011 02:03 AM
Jean-Paul Peron
The Outer Banks Real Estate Copmpany - Corolla, NC
Carova Beach - Living & Working in 4-Wheel Drive

GREAT POST!

 

The next question I would recomend asking is "How long should it take to sell at that orice?" I see a lot of agents give their clients a fair price to list at, but do NOTHING to educate the on Absorption Rate or Days On Market.

Oct 24, 2011 04:33 AM
Kathy Clulow
Uxbridge, ON
Trusted For Experience - Respected For Results

Peggy - putting your home on the market version of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

knowing what questions to ask is great, listening to the answers is good, not following the advice given is bad.

Oct 24, 2011 06:09 AM
Peggy Chirico
Prudential CT Realty - Manchester, CT
REALTOR® 860-748-8900, Hartford & Tolland County Real Estate

Hi John-Paul - You are right about absorption rate. Even when a house is priced to sell, some areas just take longer because they have slower moving markets.

 

Oct 24, 2011 09:21 AM
Charles Stallions Real Estate Services
Charles Stallions Real Estate Services Inc - Gulf Breeze, FL
Buyers Agent 800-309-3414 Pace and Gulf Breeze,Fl.

Great post Peggy and conversations we should always have with our sellers. But if they won't listen we have to be willing to let em go.

Oct 25, 2011 03:32 PM
Nadine Larder
www.PrinterBees.com - Dublin, CA
Real Estate Marketing Expert/PrinterBees Founder

Great Post! 

Oct 26, 2011 02:59 PM
The Scott Loper Team Bux-Mont Premier Properties
Keller Williams Real Estate - Montgomeryville - Lansdale, PA

Hi Peggy,

I love this.  It is so accurate in every way.  We hear these objections from sellers all the time.

Lisa

Oct 27, 2011 02:22 AM
Bob Zorechak - ABR, GRI, e-PRO
Keller Williams Realty Metropolitan - Morristown, NJ
Sells Homes in Morris/Somerset/Hunterdon Cos., NJ

This is great advice for sellers.  Unfortunately, there is still an inordinate amount of Realtors out there willing to take an overpriced listing just for the sake of "getting the listing".  These so called agents either hope that someone will overpay and/or they will begin the beat down of their clients within a week of the listing date for a price reduction. 

Oct 27, 2011 03:47 AM
Ben Blonder
Broker/Owner, Keller Williams - Fort Collins, CO
Buyers, Sellers, Investors!

Such great points! Sellers have needs, and they don't matter to buyers. You really have to be ready at that point or you will just go through a frustratingly useless process with the sellers.

Oct 28, 2011 05:51 AM
Daniel H. Fisher
www.FisherHermanRealty.com (704) 617-3544 - Charlotte, NC
MCRP - Charlotte Real Estate, NC or SC

Without a doubt, setting the price of a home correctly can mean the difference between an expired listing and a market rate sale in a reasonable amount of time.

Oct 29, 2011 04:49 PM
Patricia Beck
RE/MAX Properties, Inc., ABR, GRI, SRES - Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs Realty

This is a must read for all sellers, great post!

 

Oct 30, 2011 06:05 PM
Sylvie Stuart
Realty One Group Mountain Desert 928-600-2765 - Flagstaff, AZ
Home Buying, Home Selling and Investment - Flagsta

Over-pricing can prevent a beautiful home from even being shown. Most home buyers start their search online and are more aware of what prices should be than ever before. If there are other homes in the area that are as nice, or sometimes even not as nice, and priced better, they usually will go to see those homes instead. If you can't get them in the door, you definitely won't get an offer.

Mar 11, 2012 11:31 PM