September 17, 2019
With few exceptions, home sellers are like Maverick & Goose in Top Gun: "I have a need, a need for speed!" Because the longer it takes to sell a home, the more money it costs the owner: mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.
But naturally, people also want to get the most money they can. The trick is finding the balance between pricing a home aggressively enough to sell it quickly & getting the most bang for your buck on the sale. And while this might sound difficult, it's actually fairly simple.
Every property has a market value. That value is determined by many factors: location, condition, upgrades, and more. If you have a $225k home and you price it at $275k, guess what: it's going to sit on the market. And here the other secret: if your agent told you they can "get you" $275k for a $225k home, they're lying to you, in order to get you to agree to list with them.
When you interview agents to list your home, each will give you an opinion of value. Say you talk to 4 agents and 3 of them give you a value in the ballpark of $225k. The 4th tells you a much higher number. Your best move is to immediately eliminate that 4th agent from contention.
Because here's the reality: if an agent tells you they can get you appreciably MORE than market value for your home, they know full well the home will sit on the market and you'll just agree to drop the price to closer to market value in 60 or 90 days. Meanwhile, you'll forget this agent sold you a bill of goods 3 months ago, the house will sell, and everyone is happy.
We see this all the time and it's an incredible phenomenon. If that home seller had just chosen one of the agents who told them the truth, their home would have sold 30-60 days sooner! And if you don't believe us, here are the stats for Gainesville:
Gainesville homes that take more than 3 months to sell, on average, go for over $20k below the original list price (meaning, the price your unscrupulous agent told you they could get you). $20k might not sound like much, but the average Gainesville home sold for $270k over the past year. So that's a 7% difference, all while the home sits on the market and you pay carrying costs.
