I'm Not Selling Your House. Really.

You can lead the horse to water, but you really and truly cannot make them drink a damn bit of it LOL.

Tammie, really love your style in saying thatyou really got to put your foot down in general and just know where you stand!

Correctamundo! Nicely stated. I like this one a lot.

True; there is no magic wand. If selling a house were easy, we'd all be putting them on ebay.

Excellent point. I tell my clients that with the proper staging, marketing, and pricing I can get those prospective buyers into the house BUT I can't make them buy it.

Perfect script for a pre-listing meeting!

I agree with Mike...this is a prefect script for a meeting with a seller. Most sellers will listen to you and take advice but there have been a few that Really needed something like this to read..

Excellent information.  We can only control what we can control and the intangibles need to be explained to the seller and from there we can help position them for an offer. If they take the advice. 

Excellent post.....but you sure can do all the right things to help the house sell when the right buyer comes along.

You do control the list price if you walk when the one they pick is too high, not going to move it out scout. You and I are the real estate professionals that eat, breath, think real estate. Set the expectations. Don't take overpriced listings, let other agents do that. And show back up, double back around for the six months or year later when it runs out. And you wave at them as they grimace, take down their sign on the bloated priced property. You plant yours.

It's true, there are so many things beyond our control that impact the sale of real estate, such as weather, the economy, etc. But sellers really do have more control than agents - such things as property condition, access, price and terms... If they don't follow our advice (or if our advice is "off"), it may stay on the market.

Upon selling, we are only limited to stick as much to the truth, sellers will always have to do their share too. listing a house with a lot of extra descriptions is an overkill :)

Susan, sometimes it's hard to get that idea across to sellers.

It is so important to communite this to clients, we interpret the market!!

I have regretted taking listings from sellers unable to keep house clean and complete staging.  In the end it comes together... but it sure is a long counseling session.  I think we are constantly selling everybody..... selling the seller on the process to get it done is usualy the most work!  Great post! 

I'll disagree with raking leaves as I just did this a couple of weeks ago. And in the process I discovered a gas leak that I reported.

Read about it in my blog!!!*

*Beware cheesy self-promotion.

Susan, that's the bottom line. You cannot make someone buy a house. The house has to sell itself. 

Susan, very good list. It is the seller's decision on the price. That said it does not matter what they think it's worth, what I think it's worth, or what they need to get. All that matters is what someone will pay for it.

Susan- well said.  An agent can only do so much.. such as provide professional advice, but you can't control the location or the market.  Nor can you control the seller's role in making sure their home is in "show ready" condition!

It's sort of like the horse at the water fountain.  You can bring the horse, but if the horse isn't thirsty, she ain't gonna drink.