Charlotte Home Seller Tips: If You Want the Best Marketing Team to Work with You, Don’t Do Déjà vu
At a recent listing appointment, I was asked to present my typical listing presentation to a couple who previously had their home on the market with no success. I always jokingly say that it’s always wonderful to be the first love, the second wife and the third Realtor®! Why, you ask?
Generally by the time the sellers have discovered that it wasn’t the first Realtor®‘s fault who couldn’t sell their home, nor the second, perhaps it was something that they, as sellers, needed to do all along–reduce their price. We hear, “Sure, it’s easy for you to say, it’s not your money that you’re losing here,” or “They just didn’t get us enough traffic to find the right buyer.”
Sellers, I’m here to tell you that it only takes ONE showing to sell your home…the right one! If the location is where they’re looking (obviously buyers are not going to waste their time looking in areas that they don’t like) and the condition of the home is good, then if you don’t get an Offer, it is the PRICE that is the factor that turned them away.
Pricing your home at $500,000 through TWO Realtors® and telling me that you think I can sell your home at that same price just does not make sense to me. I know your second Realtor® and frankly, I’m surprised that they took your listing without you reducing your price. What difference did they think they were going to make? You saw your listing all over the internet and in our MLS. The location is fantastic, the condition is great but, that price…
These sellers felt that since they’re hearing that the market has rebounded, they would be able to continue listing their home at the same exact price and would get a buyer to pay that price. The problem with this is that so many buyers are savvy and are finding out these homes have been previously listed–for months; they believe that these sellers obviously can’t afford to lower the price. What is worse, and probably the most likely scenario, is that buyers think that there is something wrong with a home that has been marketed by multiple companies at the same price.
Buyers view the home as stale or worry that someone knows something about the home that they don’t and they stay away. Most don’t even ask to be shown the property.
The bottom line is, if you don’t have an Offer in the first 30 days and all other conditions are good (location and condition of the home itself), then you need to reduce the price. If you don’t believe me, then have an appraisal done. That $400 could be the best $400 you’ll spend to ready your home for yet another marketing period.
And no, I will not be the third Realtor® unless you do get an appraisal or allow me to list your home at the price that it WILL sell.
Don’t do Déjà vu…again!