Selling your home is an experience that causes even the most stable, calm human being to feel panic, outrage & anxiety. Sometimes these emotions give rise to a handful of seller sayings that seem silly when seen in a sober light. Here they are, along with some insights to help ensure you don’t let them foul up your home selling decisions.
But I spent X years or $X on that! Customizing your home is one of the biggest non-financial perks of home ownership. You should make changes to your home that will improve your quality of life while you live there. However, the fact that YOU loved the idea of having a sports court or wine cellar, enough to spend tens of thousands of dollars on it does not necessarily mean that your home’s buyer will place the same value on it – or any value, for that matter. Let it go. Understand that other than the kitchen, bathroom, & some amenity & decor upgrades with broad based appeal, your enjoyment is your return on that investment
We just need to find a buyer who understands our tastes! Rethink your position: as the ultimate marketing decision-maker in your home’s sale your job is to maximize your home’s appeal to a broad segment of ready, willing and able buyers (not to find the one needle in a haystack). You’re moving on from the property, so you need to move on emotionally, too. Don’t let your attachment to your home keep your life or your finances stuck.
I want to price it high, so I have room to come down. In our current market, pricing your home above market is actually dangerous. You run the risk of causing no one to view your home as a good enough value to see it in the first place. (don’t forget buyers do their preliminary search online). If other sellers are pricing appropriately and your home is priced higher than the market will bear, many buyers won’t even bother trying to negotiate you down. Rather, they’ll go find a home with a more realistic price. Even in a relatively hot market, the aggressively priced homes get the most buyer traffic and, accordingly, get the most & best offers. In turn, these bidding wars drive the eventual sales price up. If you want to sell your home in a buyer’s market, or sell it at top dollar in a seller’s market, overpricing it might actually sabotage your success.
That offer is an insult – I won’t even dignify it with a response. Your home might be very personal to you, but once it’s on the market get a thick skin and decide not to take anything personally. There could be many reasons for a low offer, including buyers feeling out your level of motivation and/or your degree of flexibility. You should always respond to an offer made by a qualified buyer. You & your agent will formulate an appropriate plan. You might be surprised at how even a very low offer can come together with a respectful, reality-based counteroffer and a little negotiating.
I need $X to get the home I want and take my European vacation – let’s list the place for that. There are lots of respectable strategies for setting a list price, but all of them have their basis in one thing: data – a comparative market analysis including market dynamics, trends in inventory & home values and how similar/dissimilar your home is to recently sold properties. This is where my expertise comes in, by reviewing the information & helping you make an informed pricing decision. My philosophy is that I would be doing you a disservice if I were to price your home by calculating how much cash you want or need from the sale