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My Home Is Different! Home Fatale!

Serious home sellers need to check their egos at the door before selling a home in this Atlanta real estate market. Al they need do is look around and see how many Atlanta homes are for sale. This is not the market we had just a short while ago where anything would sell with multiple offers, and price + sales! This is a very different market and it is one that requires a lot of skill and strategy to get the home sold before neighborhood prices change further. So posturing isn't going to help a home seller. Acceptance of the current situation and market conditions will be your greatest tool.

Contrary to what many sellers believe, selling a home is never about giving a home away. It is all about getting the absolute highest price, and the best possible terms for the seller. Time is major factor in our current market because everything is changing so quickly that a slow sale could mean no sale, or a major loss in price. When a real estate professional breaks down the neighborhood statistics, home sales, expired listings, withdrawn listings, days on market, seller concessions, list price sales price ratios, and area trends. A seller should listen. It is not the time to tell the agent... "The Smith house...they gave it away - it's a nasty divorce!" Or that you have the biggest lot in the subdivision, or that the home down the street wasn't built well. It doesn't matter that the home down the street that recently sold was dirty as you say. The fact is, they successfully sold heir homes. So none of the home sellers price aversion matters. What does matter is that the seller listen to the facts, and they are not taking a deep breath and letting it all sink in. The home seller that does not listen is in denial, and in serious trouble. If they have equity, they may lose it by being stubborn and foolish. They will surely lose their greatest asset - time.

It Pays to Listen!

No upgrades, no improvements, builder grade appointments - Below market price.
Larger lot - what can you do with it? Can we put another home here? - Average price.
New roof and mechanics - what would your home be worth if you did not replace? - Average price
What justifies your price in the eyes of the consumer, appraiser, and your competition?
Bonuses, and higher commissions just mean you are priced too high.
The neighbors are not giving their homes away, that is the reality of this market. They sold!
Staging does not equal a sale, but at least the home will be nice to look atwhile it sits.

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Posted by Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO on 09/12/2008 10:21 AM

Comments (19)

Atlanta Experienced Real Estate Agents Offer Home Seller's Advice to Price Home to Sell. in the Home Selling Channel

home selling, tips to sell a home, atlanta home selling tips, staging a home, pricing a home, atlanta georgia, alpharetta, roswell, north fulton, atl

Originally posted at: Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate: My Home Is Different! Home Fatale!

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19 Comments on My Home Is Different! Home Fatale!

SEP

2008

Boy you took the words out of my mouth and rewrote them with different verbage.

This is a very accurate assessment. Might also add that no matter how beautiful your home is on the inside, if you sit on your deck and look straight into the neighbor's kitchen, the home will sell below market - at least here it will. We have so many homes built in a former soybean fields that this becomes a real issue for resale homes. I try to tell buyers to plant trees as soon as they move in so the trees can be growing and increasing the home's value. Evergreens cost far less than most price reductions when there are no trees. Do they listen? No, they spend that money on a big screen TV instead! ;-)

Jim,

Not only is all that true and important, but homebuyers looking for great deals will consider foreclosures and REO properties first! Thanks, Fran

With 90% of our current home sales coming from foreclosures, all I hear from prospective sellers is ' well, that home was a foreclosure, not like mine. I think people will pay more if it's not bank owned.' What? Are you insane? Do you know how much carpet and paint and grass seed somebody can buy for the 60,000 more you think your place is worth (or that you owe on it)? And here's an other news flash - by this time next week BOTH the REO and your place will be worth $5,000 less. And guess which one of you will drop their price first - you or the bank? Problem is too many agents with not enough balls to explain the reality of the market. Thank you for this post which should be required reading for all agents these days.

This is business, and the swing of ying and yang from Seller's to Buyer's market. I think if a seller doesn't know by now that this is a buyer's market, then they must be in a time warp. It is important for agents to watch the listing they take. If their listing sell other sellers will list with them.

It is simple business 101. Build creditability!

Richard

Jim, this is great stuff. I hope others will use it as we may be "preaching to the choir". Still, reminders in this market are valuable to all of us. In house shopping recently for myself,

I was most suprised by the impact of great staging. I can see past "the stuff" and the paint color (paint is cheap). But apparently I am an expection. The well staged homes (notice I did not say all staged homes) sold faster and at higher prices, even when over priced. It seems many people will pay more because of "things that are about to leave the house" than I expected.

Goes to show how people can be lead a direction instead of thinking for themselves... and just how much of all this is emotional and not logical.

Good read... thanks!! G

John Walters (Specialized Real Estate) Sellers are not in a position to look at their home objectivley, and their agents enable them to act out their wrong choices.

Elaine Reese, REALTOR® in central Ohio (Real Living HER, Worthington Ohio) You are so right!

Fran 'The Title Man' Gaspari Title Insurance-PA & NJ (Patriot Land Transfer, Inc.) Sellers need to understand that.

Gene Wunderlich - Selling Southwest California Homes / Temecula & Murrieta (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) Back in the early 90's in Atlanta there were neighborhoods that were losing 1% a month in price. Today that is not out of the question for most neighborhoods. Sellers need to wise up before they find themselves in a place they do not want to be.

Richard Stabile Bergen County New Homes Builder Realtor (REMAX real estate associates) I totally agree. This is not a strong sales year for us, but we have one pending sale for next week, and one other active listing. We sold everything else we listed because we know what we are doing. We only list sellers that are serious sellers.

Well said. Atlanta is one of those areas where being realistic might help sales. Like many sellers right now, they might not have a choice unfortunately. My next door neighbor doesn't.

Glenn Phillips (Management, Coach, Speaker) (RealSource) Well in a really bad market a lot of the homes are staged very well. The point is they are not selling. In the Atlanta area we are still carrying over 88000 Active listings. You really have to know what you are doing to move the product. It is obvious, most agents do not know.

Rick Fitzgerald -The Multi Family Expert (AAM Capital) Well if the property was purchased with 100% financing there is nothing they can do.

Jim, well put as always!

Jim, great straightforward advice (as always) viewing homes as products and in competition with others and other circumstances in the market. People have just got to get realistic these days to move their homes.

Brenda Carus (Re/Max Towne Square Realty) Thanks! More sellers need to be filled in by their agents.

Gary Woltal - REALTOR® Dallas Ft. Worth (Keller Williams Realty) Gary, we have been blessed this year with sellers that realize the market is no a normal one. They have all gone the extra mile to get the deal done. The result? We're selling homes!

DEC

Gary - You are correct sir in other ways than you mentioned. I will add that not enough Realtors really take control of their clients and their properties. That is to say a Realtor really has to find a way to get thru to that homeowner who won't let go. I help Real Estate Agents market their properties with my Virtual Tours and my photography skills, I see and I hear Agents complain all the time about how their client just will not listen to them, they won't keep the grass cut, the dust on top of the TV is an inch thick, they won't concede that the Agent who they have contracted with is a professional and is in a better position to know how to price your home, how to advise you on what to do to help your home show better than you are. I learned early on as a newspaper photographer that I am the supposed Professional - its my job to take the best photograph that I can, that it's me who will look bad if I don't get that "Great" image - I learned i have to take over, I have to be in control to get the picture my client is paying for - I have to get thru to who I'm photographing that they will have to do everything MY way! I know agents who are having their best year ever this year. I know agents who are looking for another job. I'm not saying its easy. Have you ever photographed a bunch of little kids? This is why Real Estate Agents are called Professionals, its their reputation at stake. I have a lot of respect for Agents, I see the good and the bad they go thru sometimes. I know, that to get what my clients expect, I have to put my self out there and just plain Take Over. Thanks.

Mike O'Neill

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