Help with Pricing is a Seller’s #1 Concern When Choosing a Realtor
– 2010 Texas Survey of Home Sellers by Texas Association of Realtors
We approach pricing a bit differently than most Realtors. It’s a system we’ve worked to perfect over the years and its been pretty successful in getting sellers the most money for their home in the least amount of time.
The Old Way of Pricing a Home
Most Realtors get a call to list a home, head over to their computer, pull up past sales, compare square footage and come up with a price before they even walk into your home. We never quite understood how someone can price a home without even seeing the inside.
Pricing Your Home to Sell in Today’s Market
When we come out to see your home for the first time, we’ll ask you to take us on a tour of your home. We want you to show us the improvements you’ve made since you purchased the home and if there are any improvements you plan on doing before you put your home on the market. We also like to hear what you liked about the home when you bought it. This helps us understand all the important details and positive aspects through your eyes.
We’ll bring pages of sales data with graphs, charts and spreadsheets and will review it in as much detail as you’d like. We’ll even tell you about the homes we’ve seen in your neighborhood and what they were like. What we’ve learned over the years is sales data is a very important aspect in pricing a home, but its not the only aspect.
Compare Your Home to Other Homes Currently for Sale
The second – and arguably most – important aspect to pricing your home is comparing your home to other’s currently on the market. Not just by going through pictures on your computer, but by actually going inside homes in your neighborhood and comparing it to your home the same way a buyer would. Why? Because buyers comparison shop. They put one home up against the other and decide which is a better value to them. Why not see what you’re up against?
Makes More Sense…Right?
Once we’ve reviewed past sales data and shown you similar homes in your neighborhood currently for sale, you’ll have a much better idea of what price it will take to get your home sold in today’s market. By setting a market appropriate price from the beginning, you’ll be able to capitalize on the buzz created during the first few weeks your home is listed for sale instead of constantly chasing the market.
Insider Tip: Watch for Agents Trying to “Buy Listings”
There are agents out there whose business model is to win listings by naming a very high list price. They use this inflated number to play to a seller’s desire to get the highest price and lock the seller into a listing agreement. Once the home is on the market, they wear the seller down for price reductions until the home is priced for the market. In the meantime, they’ll use your home to troll for buyers.
This tactic hurts the seller the most because during the period of highest activity and buzz (the first 12 days of the listing), potential buyers discard your home as overpriced and find others. When your home is eventually priced right, these same buyers still see your home as overpriced and will offer less.
Remember, a Realtor does not set the value of your home. A buyer does. A Realtor’s job is to help you set a market appropriate price that will get your home sold in this market at this time. Watch out for a Realtor who tells you they can get you a certain number for your home – especially if that number is unusually high.
Considering Selling? Make Sure Your Home is Priced Competitively
Call us at (512) 827-8323 or fill out our Seller Survey to schedule a no obligation consultation. We’ll help you arrive at a market appropriate price that will get your home sold in today’s market.