Selling your home - Business vs. Emotional

4/13/20079:19:37 AM Link |  | Add comment

Real Estate

Business Hat vs. Emotional Hat

In selling your home one of the biggest hurdles to jump is the emotional one.  Don’t feel bad, every seller goes thru it, whether your doing a For Sale by Owner or selling it thru  a real estate agent.

You’ve lived in your home for years, put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it.  Now it’s time to sell and by golly you’re gonna get top dollar for it because it took you hours to install that new kitchen faucet and let’s not even talk about the days and weeks of working out in the yard getting the landscape to look nice.

A buyer comes along, loves the curb appeal, impressed beyond belief how well the kitchen faucet looks and makes an offer 10% below your list price.  The reason for the “low ball” offer?  All the comps in the neighborhood support his offer price but don’t support your list price.  You are now insulted and counter with a high price.  You go back and forth and never make a deal because you’re too far apart in the price.

Here’s the deal.  The best thing you can do when you first list the property, or when you put it on the market as a For Sale by Owner, is mentally move out of the house.  You have just become a real estate investor!   You now own “rental” property and want to sell because you don’t like the tenants.  They’ve done all this nice work on the house but they’re becoming irritable and it’s time to sell.  You call your real estate agent, look at the market data, listen to the agents advice and then FOLLOW the agents advice … even if it’s not what you want to hear.  Remember, your agent is the professional and looks at property from an unbiased point of view.  Why would they lowball you when they are representing you?  There is no incentive for them to do that because it can also affect their commission and there is a strong code of ethics that Realtors must follow.