This is one that really chaps my hide. I understand it from the consumer perspective, but at the same time, it is still a giant misconception.
As a consumer, it is always a good idea to talk with a couple of agents before selecting the one to list with. But the purpose of the talk isn’t to see who promises the highest price… unless they are buying it themselves. The purpose is to find out about their marketing ability and how they are going to best present your home to get it sold.
But the burning question is…
How much is my house worth?
That is the big question. But, let’s think about this for a minute. If I told you that your house was worth $100,000,000, would that make it so? If you know your house is worth $425,000, does it make sense to try to market it for $750,000. What about $500,000? $450,000? Are you starting to get the idea?
Maybe you don’t know what your house is really worth… maybe that is why you even contacted a real estate agent to help you out. It makes sense. How should you know if you are being fed a line to “buy your listing?”
There are some tell-tale signs.
- The agent utilizes pre-scheduled price reductions
- The comps aren’t really comparable
- The price just doesn’t seem right
The agent utilizes pre-scheduled price reductions. The question is… if the price is right, why should you agree to scheduled price reductions? I know the answer, but the fact remains that most agents using this ploy are running a specific plan. Get the listing. Work the price down to something realistic. THEN start marketing the property. The property needs to be marketed right away, and it needs to be marketed right.
The comps aren’t really comparable. If you have a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home with no basement and the agent is trotting out homes with 5 bedrooms and basements, obviously they need to tweak the numbers to get a value. The more adjusting that has to be done, the more room there is for interpretation… and fudging. The comps should be from your neighborhood. They should be recent, and they should be similar. That can be pretty tough to find…
The price just doesn’t seem right. Obviously you have SOME idea of the value of your home. If the agent is giving you a number that just seems high, it probably is high. If it seems low, ask them about it. Find out what the comps are that they are using. Look for their logic. They might be right…
I spend a lot of time and money getting a listing to market. The purpose is to get it sold. I have no desire to buy a listing and spend my time angering a client, wasting both of our time and energies. I would rather concentrate on fewer listings that are likely to actually sell.
In my last market report, I noted that there were 4 times as many listings coming on the market each month as were selling. That means that on average, your home is 3 times as likely to expire of be withdrawn than to actuallt sell. My average is that a home is twice as likely to be sold or leased than it is to expire or be withdrawn.
from LilburnDwellings.com