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Sorry sellers, but it’s time for some tough Love

By: Malcolm Scott

 It seems that the real estate market is experiencing a bit of life again. Thank God. Buyers are snatching up some great deals too. But, unfortunately, sellers in a lot of instances  are the highest bidders on their own properties.  Whether it’s Santa Monica, Brentwood, Los Angeles, or Pacific Palisades, I see it happen time and time again.  Just in case sellers haven’t noticed, it is a buyers market! But it isn’t all bad, with the right price- tag anything will sell. I promise you that.

Bottom line- even in this market, if a home is priced right, it sells.

Often sellers have a figure in their head they “need to make” to have it all work out for them. “I need to net $500,000, after paying off my note or I won’t sell.” ” I need to, after all expenses, put $100,000 in my pocket.” Whatever the figure is, often it is based on something other then market reality. It is based on emotion, what you would prefer, but, often times it isn’t realistic based on the current market conditions. Expectations need to be tempered with the market reality.

“Well, darn It, I just remodeled that bathroom last year!”

Often they have lived there for years. Maybe that’s where their children grew up. Maybe they remodeled and spent a ton of money, blood sweat and tears in the process. A labor of love. There  is an emotional attachment to the home. And, often we feel justified based on that attachment to overvalue our home. We don’t think we’re being unrealistic. We see it differently, we just see “more” value there. Often Realtors, in an effort to accommodate the seller, will take that listing. “Let’s give it a shot at that price-you never know.” Almost every realtor has done it over the years. And, we have all enjoyed sales, even multiple offers when we felt homes might have been priced too high. So, the market place can often be fickle and surprising.

Often the realtor has spent a great deal of time and money on the marketing and advertising, not to mention the photography, MLS, mailers…the list goes on. Even fancy brochures and a big advertising budget won’t sell an overpriced home. Actually, some of these real estate magazines should be titled, “The  Fancy Over-Priced Homes that will NEVER sell!”  They are fun to look at though. After all, you are hiring a professional, take their advice. Would you tell your dentist or doctor how to do his work?

It happens over and over again… A realtor will place a home on the market and it will be over- priced. After painfully examining the data ad-nauseum, the seller just “has a feeling” they should start at that high figure.  So what happens? The real estate community will then see it during the open house and they’ll probably leave saying; “You know, I loved that home on San Vicente, but it was just so overpriced.” Now what?

You just lost a great deal of the potential momentum you could have harnessed into a sale.  

It is all such a delicate balance…

And, often that property will be later reduced and not sold at the lower price as it has now become stigmatized by the original price!  Just the opposite happens when a home is priced right. The realtor community talks it up and spreads the word.

You just might see the front lawn covered with Realtors phoning their buyers trying to get them in the home! Let’s face it, no one wants to overpay! And, everyone loves a great value.

So when you price your home…please let your realtor price it right.

You never know, it could create a buzz and you might even end up in multiple offers; driving the sales price up! Comps from three months ago in this market might not be accurate any more. Let the realtor community embrace the listing and get behind it. Because if it isn’t priced right, you the seller will remain the only one that thinks it is a great deal. You’ll have a lot of reasons why too;” look at the view, the fixtures are top notch, the floors are wood!” The only problem is, you’ll get to keep that home you have such a high opinion of!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 8:29 pm and is filed under sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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