So You Want Me To Make Your House A Test Monkey?

So true...that is why it is so important to manage the Seller's expectations with facts in the beginning. Our business is built upon our reputation....don't want my sign on a property for an extended period of time. Have a fabulous day...

Awesome Blog, how true!

Tara ... loved what you had to say and the way you got your point across.  Very humorous and clever.   Thank you!

Every Agent I know that farms luxury markets will take overpriced listings for the additional signage exposure.  Branding means a lot in those areas.

Oh Mr. & Mrs. Seller - I certainly do understand that those extra heavy duty nails your home was built with and the phone jacks in each and every room are important to you but the purchasers really don't give a darn - especially the phone jacks, landlines are SO popular these days.

I recently listed and sold in less than two weeks a house that I had to walk away from the first time. The owners had put a lot of time and $$ into an excellent update and expansion, but wanted ALL of that back. I left, wrote a nice, long email explaining in more detail and giving examples, they called me back a couple of days later to list at MY price.

Hi Tara, great post!  Unfortunately it seems the majority of agents are taking over priced listings just to buy business.

Excellent post, however, there will always be an order taker who has a license and list the property regardless of the circumstances.

Excellent post, Tara!  Very few agents either understand or are willing to educate sellers that the list high, come down later strategy actually costs them money, because the longer it sits on the market the lower the offers it generates for a bunch of reasons.  Thank you for sharing it.

by testing the market before you are motivated to sell you lose all of your best exposure and by the time your seller does decide to bring the price in line, most buyers have moved on

You have a great way of putting it that I think will get people to listen.  I tell them and they do not listen.

Great way to put it but...in this crazy market, I have seen too many supposedly over priced listings sell quickly. 

It's up to us to convince the seller to price his property correctly. The if he still doesnt, it's up to the agent to decide if having the listing is worth it.

A little off track - but you reminded me of a man who used to test the market here... he didn't want to sell, so as soon as an offer came in, he'd take his properties off the market. WHY his agent went along with that every couple of years was beyond my understanding. 

Tar I love both your humor and your analogy.  Now if we could only get all the sellers to read this and go along with it.

Very good point but some sellers have no open ears for the truth and especially with confusing market statistics which do not apply for their market area.

Reading a couple of these comments is interesting in that I can easily relate to them, in how sellers always try to get back what they put into their home. Its simple economics, the homes is worth what the market says its worth. Just like any other product out there. If it is a hot commodity and in demand, and supply is low, then yes you can charge more and vice versa. This is exactly like real estate. Very tough for people to understand this however.