A good real estate agent is like Sherlock Holmes. They are going to take into account a great many subtle details in order to reach the prime conclusion upon which selling your home depends: that is, an accurate selling price that reflects market activity. A selling price for your house is: the price at which an offer to purchase your home is actually going to resolve to a completed purchase. It is the amount a qualified buyer will agree to pay.
So, how do you know your agent has come up with a reasonable price for your house? Well, they show you evidence. This evidence is comprised of what other homes near you, other homes similar to yours, have been purchased for, during the last six to nine months. Evidence includes pictures, details, numbers, and statistics.
A good agent knows that other sold homes in worse condition than yours will have brought lower prices than what yours can reach. And she knows that other sold homes in better upkeep, with more amenities than yours, will have brought higher prices than what yours can sell for. Like Sherlock, an agent looks at and assesses all the myriad realities, weighing and considering them with lightning speed, to draw an intelligent conclusion.
Evidence and proof don't come from these things: what a person tells you at a party they think your house is worth, what the neighbors tell you they got for their place, what your realtor cousin across the country says you should walk away with, or what a real estate agent tells you, off the cuff, that they think your place must surely be able to bring. So, it's not about flattery or conversation, or rumor, or trying to forge a friendly bond. Proof-in-pricing involves actual, tangible evidence of other, nearby homes' sold prices.
Don't look to rumor, flattery, or your own conviction when deciding upon a sale price for your house. Let a professional present you with solid evidence of what's happening in your market.
Evidence and proof don't come from your desire to get a certain price. From the feeling that you should get, or are entitled to a certain amount. It doesn't come from a feeling, a belief, from faith, or from a strong conviction that, by goodness, the price you have in mind is fair because it's what you want. It doesn't relate to the fact that you spent a great deal of money on the house, and you need to get a buyer to pay you back for those improvements. Evidence of reality involves actual, tangible evidence of the prices at which other, similar, nearby homes have sold.
Setting a realistic and market-wise price for a home is the greatest factor in selling it. It is the most delicate and important decision an agent must take, because getting offers-to-buy completely and utterly depend on the accurate attractiveness of the asking price. If it's too high, the house will sit there. Nobody will even come to see it. Nobody will even consider making a low offer for an overpriced house. It just gets passed by.
"A house for sale that gets fewer than ten showings in a month, is overpriced. A house that gets no offers to buy after seven showings is overpriced."
So how do you know that a real estate agent is lying to you? Here's how. They offer no evidence as to the market-wise value of your home. They tell you they will list your house for sale at the price you want, rather than the market price. They offer to sell your home at your favorite price without offering any tangible evidence that buyers can be induced to paying that amount. A weak realtor will provide evidence, but then allow a client to persuade them to list the home overpriced, anyway, just to have the business.
Realtors do this because they want the listing, and they believe that as time goes by, you will become frustrated and begin to lower your price to catch a buyer. Rather than being honest and upfront with you in the beginning, and using their professional expertise to make the case for an accurate, market-wise price, they let your exhaustion with the process do the work for them.
Unfortunately, when you overprice a property to start, it usually ends up selling for even less than what it could have sold for, if originally priced fairly to begin with. That's right: when you choose a fair market value in the beginning, you get more in the bank and have a quicker closing than if you price it high and keep dropping the price until someone finally pays it. For example, a fairly priced home at $235,000 will sell within two months. Boom: money in the bank, and you've moved on to your new life.
The same home priced at $265,000 will sit on the market for eight months, dropping the price by increments, finally selling for between $220 and $228. Meanwhile you've had to keep the place clean every weekend, and gotten angry and disappointed while you waited for something to happen.
You wouldn't let a surgeon do surgery on you without evidence they needed to, no more than you'd let someone fix your car without evidence of what's wrong with it. So, likewise, when selling your most valuable asset, your home, always ask for evidence as to what your home's value-to-qualified-buyers is. You'll save yourself priceless time and aggravation by choosing a strong realtor who understands the market to represent you: a strong realtor has no problem offering proof of their ability to price your home accurately, and they'll stick to it, too.
