Did you like to trade baseball cards when you were a kid? Did you flip over the back of the card to read your favorite players stats from last year?  If so then before you list your home with a Northern Virginia Realtor ask to see their listing statistics for 2008.

This has been one of the toughest real estate markets our area has ever seen.  Hundreds of homes come on the market everyday and hundreds go unsold.  One of the major reasons a home in our area doesn't sell is due to improper pricing.   If you overprice your home with the idea that you can just lower the price later you have lost critical marketing time and the sharks start to circle to see if you get desperate.

Some Realtors® will still tell you whatever you want to hear to get your listing.  A few years ago you could throw a price up against the wall and it didn't matter.  Someone would buy your home faster than you could put the sign in the yard.  Today buyers are smarter, loans are harder to get and appraisers are looking at every detail.

Besides all of the terrific internet marketing, multiple MLS photos and color brochures you also need to ask the Realtors® you are considering hiring to show you their list to sales price statistics for 2008.  How have they done with pricing their listings this year?  Not last year or 10 years ago but this year in a market where every day counts.  If they don't come prepared to show you the numbers for 2008 then you need to question why and ask for the report before you sign a listing agreement

The saying "you only get one chance to make a first impression" can in Northern Virginia be extended to say "you only get one chance to price your home right" to sell.

If you are looking for a Realtor who isn't afraid to you show you their listing stats for 2008, give me a call.   I'd like to show you how to put the SOLD sign in your yard.