I hear a lot of folks say they’re not in a hurry to sell their home and they want to list it higher than the market says it’s worth. To those folks, I would say this:

If you’re not needing or truly wanting to sell your house, don’t sell right now because otherwise you won’t be motivated to do what needs to be done in order to sell your home.

If you list your home too high—higher than the market says it’s worth—you are doing yourself a disservice. Buyers will look at your house online and see the price is too high and choose not to schedule a showing. This means your house will be sitting on the market longer, and when a house has been sitting on the market longer…buyers will think something is wrong with it.

In fact, your overpriced home will likely have helped buyers make their decision on other homes they already looked at that were priced at market value. An overpriced home turns away buyers…even in this seller’s market!

You have to think like a buyer and put yourself in their shoes!

A house is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Pricing your home competitively tells buyers you’re ready to sell and you’re open to receiving offers.

The sales price of your home is not dependent on construction costs, your need for a down payment on your next house, the cost of your mortgage, or what you think it’s worth just because it sounds like a good number.

Pricing your home correctly requires a comparative market analysis (CMA). As a real estate agent in East Texas, I have access to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service)! Running “comps” on your home means looking at homes in the MLS that are similar to yours in:

• location (this is most important)

• square footage

• lot size

• the year it was built

• number of bedrooms

• number of bathrooms

• features

• list of updates (i.e. roof, flooring, interior/exterior paint, etc.)

I’m also looking at both sold AND active comps. What’s recently sold in the last 3 months (we’re not going back as far right now to find comps because of the shifting market…we’re in a different market than we were 6 months ago)? What’s currently available? Are those houses under contract or have they been sitting on the market for a while? What did they go under contract for?

My job as a real estate agent is to get as many buyers in to see my seller’s home as possible, and to make them the most amount of money in the least amount of time. The only way to do this is to price it correctly from the get-go. Otherwise, your home sits on the market longer and you end up having to lower the sales price. When this happens, it’s likely you’ll end up getting less than market value because buyers will see how many days it’s been on the market and think something is wrong with the house!

I’ve turned down listings before because I was unwilling to list the house at the price the sellers wanted to list it at. Why? It wasn’t in their best interest for me to list it at the price they wanted to list it at. What happened to those houses? They didn’t sell. The listing expired. Obviously, it would be great to sell a home for a higher price as my commission is directly tied to the sales price. That’s not what I’m about, though. I care more about helping you reach your goal of actually selling your home than making more money for myself.

Here’s the thing…

Having a listing doesn’t make you a real estate professional. Selling that listing does.

If you’re thinking about selling your home or if you know someone else who is, let’s chat. I’d be happy to run a free CMA for you so we can get your home priced where it needs to be priced! Take a few minutes and fill out my seller’s intake form and know that when it comes to pricing your home competitively, I don’t mind being the bad guy if that means keeping your best interest in mind.

Kristin Koonce Burroughs, REALTOR®
(903)241-2608
kristinkoonce@gmail.com
BOLD Real Estate Group