It is virtually impossible to get through life without seeking the advice of experts in one way or another.  Although we live in the information age, and have access to an incredible amount of information, the reality is that there are not enough hours in the day to become an expert at everything.  Even if time were not an issue, most people don't have the desire to become an expert on a variety of topics, so we seek out the advice of experts.  While an expert can give their advice, they cannot compel anyone to take it, and thus the value is determined by the person receiving the advice.

Sometimes, people will keep seeking out more advice until they find someone that will agree with their personal opinion.  This post was inspired by a big news story in the world of sports this week, more specifically, one of the top NFL defensive players, Shawne Merriman, deciding to forgo reconstructive knee surgery despite the fact that the recommendation for surgery was made by four different surgeons.  Merriman kept searching out more opinions, trying to find a surgeon that would agree with his decision to postpone the surgery so that he could play this season.  He never found one, but still decided to have the surgery after the season.  Of course, in an ideal world, Merriman would have the choice to wait until the season is over.  In reality, he is going to play with 2 torn ligaments in a knee brace, knowing full well that he is risking a career-ending injury on any given play by doing so, rendering the expert advice that he received useless.

As REALTORS®, we often deal with people that ask for our advice, but then give little credence to it if it doesn't match up to their pre-conceived notions.  This is particularly true of many home sellers.  The most common advice that is ignored is the pricing of a home.  It is rare, even in the age of media doom and gloom, to find a homeowner that doesn't place a higher value on their home than the supporting data shows.  Surprisingly, one of the biggest reasons for homeowners refusing to accept our expert advice on pricing is that they have gotten advice from family, friends and neighbors, none of whom usually have any kind of expertise. 

Other times, the homeowner may be tracking the market in a very rudimentary way.  For example, a homeowner may see that signs have gone up and come down rather quickly in their area.  They assume that the removal of the sign means that the house was sold.  In many cases, quite the opposite is true.  Some homes have a short listing and expire, while others simply remove the home from the market due to a lack of activity.  The irony is that these homes likely expired or were withdrawn from the market because they were also overpriced.  So, the homeowner sees that a home in the neighborhood was put on the market for "X" amount of money, and the sign came down in "X" amount of days, so they feel justified in overpricing the home as well.

Aside from the influence of non-experts, and the perception of the market based on very little fact, the most common problem in overpricing is the opinion of the average homeowner that their home is nicer than the homes that sold, or better in some way than the homes that are currently on the market.  Much like Shawne Merriman searched for a surgeon to tell him that it was all right to play on a severely damaged knee, many homeowners will continue to interview agents until they find one that says that their home is worth what the homeowner thinks that it is worth.  Quite likely, Shawne Merriman and these homeowners will learn their lesson the hard way. 

There is a reason why four out of four surgeons have told Shawne Merriman to have the surgery now, and not to play on his injured knee.  It is because they are experts in their field, and they know the potential damage that playing on an injured knee can cause.  Some may argue that surgeons have a vested interest in telling someone to have surgery, but no ethical surgeon would use personal gain as a reason to drastically alter someone's life.  This is also true in real estate.

A common misconception is that REALTORS® want to price homes to sell quickly so that they can move on to the next transaction.  In reality, REALTORS® are using factual data and market expertise to show homeowners the value that buyers will most likely put on the home.  While it is true that we would prefer to sell a home quickly, it is because we know that the longer that a home stays on the market, the lower the sales price will inevitably be.  We know this, because this is what we do on a daily basis, and we've seen it all before.

There will always be the Shawne Merrimans of the world who think that they can somehow defy the odds, and show that the expert advice that they sought out was wrong.  Every once in a while, they will get lucky and beat the odds.  Most of the time, they will not.  The same goes for homeowners that want to sell their homes for more than the market will bear, based on the expert advice of a real estate professional.

Not much can be done to stop Shawne Merriman from taking this risk, and possibly causing himself irreparable harm, and there probably isn't much that can be done to truly convince homeowners that their desired listing prices are not based in reality.  As I mentioned earlier on, the value of expert advice is ultimately determined by the person that is receiving the advice.  As the saying goes...you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!