For one reason or another, these myths have gained traction and many sellers believe them to be true. Maybe you heard it from a family member or read it online. I am willing to bet that you did not hear it from a reliable source such as a Realtor. If you are looking to sell your home for top dollar, keep reading for the top myths that you should stop believing now.
1. Overpricing a home results in a higher sale price- Buyers do not usually buy the first home that they see. They have usually gone through numerous other homes in the same price range and have a really good idea what comparable homes are selling for. If your home is over priced versus everything else that is for sale, your property will not even make it onto the buyer’s short list and will be ignored for potential viewing consideration. Unfortunately, the longer your home sits on the market, the more people will wonder what is wrong with it…..even when they have not seen it in person. Believing this home selling myth that overpricing a property will result in a higher sale price will only result in seeing an even lower sale price than comparable homes.
2. The longer the marketing time, the better the offers- The truth is as I mentioned above, the longer a property sits on the market, the more likely lower offers will come in. In other words, time on the market is NOT your best friend.
3. A quick offer means the property’s priced too low- While at first a seller may question if they priced too low, it quickly becomes obvious that there is a very good reason why offers come in so quickly. The most motivated buyers are the ones that will be coming through your home in the first 2 weeks. These are the buyers who have already seen everything on the market and have not found “the one” yet. They have been watching closely for any new homes that come on the market. With an effective marketing plan in place by your real estate agent, a home that is priced properly will immediately draw the attention of potential home buyers and depending on inventory, offers can come in pretty quickly.
4. You can do it solo- Some sellers do not want to part with 5% of their money and think that acting as their own selling agent will surely be worth the savings. I am all about saving money and completely understand why you may think this is a good idea, but unfortunately this is often not the case. You may think that you saved $20,000 on real estate commission, but you just lost $60,000 on the sale price…..yes, even in a hot seller’s market. I am pretty passionate about this topic because I have witnessed many sellers lose far too much money thinking that they saved on commission when their home ended up selling for far lower than it should have. Therefore, I will do a whole blog post on this topic another day to explain the many reasons why this happens.
5. The real estate agent with the lowest commission will net the seller more- This is along the same lines as selling your home yourself, choosing the right Realtor makes a very big difference in the sale price of your home. Experience makes a very big difference and an experienced agent is most likely not cutting their commission. A couple of other points to consider: If the agent is quick in willing to work at a discounted commission rate in order to get business, imagine how quick they will settle on a sale price during negotiation on your home. Also, contrary to popular belief, real estate agents do not take home nearly as much of that commission as you may think after all of their fees, marketing expenses, taxes etc are paid out from it. Therefore, less commission to the agent translates into a lower marketing budget to get your property advertised. Meanwhile, a full commission agent will be able to engage more marketing tools in getting the property exposed to a wider audience which in turn translates into a higher sale price.
6. The house sells itself- It may look like a house can literally sell itself, however; that is another myth. Just like in every profession, with certain tools and knowledge, it will make for a quicker, easier sale and a higher sale price. I know that there are some sellers who believe that real estate agents do not do a whole lot of work, that is because they do not get to see all of the time, effort and money spent that goes into selling a home behind the scenes. The time we spend in front of our clients is a very small portion of the time spent on getting your home sold. Most of the hard work is done behind the scenes. A home may be able to “sell itself”, but for nowhere near the price that it should with the proper tools and knowledge.
Post a comment