{"id":9619,"date":"2012-06-01T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9619"},"modified":"2012-05-31T16:05:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:05:59","slug":"can-using-a-real-estate-agent-maximize-the-sale-price-of-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9619","title":{"rendered":"Can using a real estate agent maximize the sale price of your home?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jill Goldman<\/strong>, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Have you seen that \u201cnews\u201d story on Facebook recently? You know, the one that says that real estate agents sell their own homes for more money than they sell their clients\u2019 homes?<\/p>\n

The original theory (not supported in any way by data from the National Association of Realtors) comes from the 2005 book “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.\u00a0 The book itself is actually very interesting but contains a lot of \u201ctheories\u201d that may or may not be supported by actual statistics.\u00a0 And statistics, as we all know, can be interpreted to reach a conclusion rather than instructing a conclusion.<\/p>\n

The book theorizes that realtors use different strategies to maximize the price on their home than do when selling their clients\u2019 homes.\u00a0 When you think about it, this theory really makes no sense.\u00a0 Realtors only sell their own home a few times in their life, while selling other people\u2019s homes is how they make their living.\u00a0 Why, then, would they abandon all home selling wisdom when counseling their clients, and save it all up for that one time they sell their own home?\u00a0 Conspiracy theories aside, there is a much simpler explanation. Experienced and successful real estate agents learn a lot along the way.<\/p>\n

They are required to participate in continuing education to maintain their licenses and usually participate in many more educational opportunities than just those that the state requires.\u00a0 They also receive reams of feedback from buyers and agents on the listings they are marketing, so after a few dozen transactions, they get pretty savvy about what sells a home.<\/p>\n

And what sells a home is always good condition, cleanliness, location and realistic pricing.<\/p>\n

Always!<\/p>\n

So why do sellers sometimes ignore their agent\u2019s advice?\u00a0 I am sure there are many reasons, but I think the most likely reason is that sellers are tempted to believe that just because they know the most about the home, they know the most about selling it.\u00a0 Believe me \u2013 nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 I am not \u201cdissing\u201d sellers. I was a seller long before I was a realtor, and I understand the seller\u2019s temptation to think they know what\u2019s best. A qualified and experienced real estate agent brings expertise and experience to home sale staging, marketing and pricing.\u00a0 That\u2019s why you hired a professional and that\u2019s what you\u2019re paying for!<\/p>\n

So what happens if you convince your realtor to try it your way?\u00a0 To just \u201ctest the waters\u201d on over pricing before pricing realistically, or just \u201cwaiting for feedback\u201d before correcting negative home features, \u201cjust in case\u201d buyers are willing to overlook the negative features and pay them they want anyway? It is likely you will waste valuable time in the busiest weeks of the listing by overpricing and showing the home in less than ideal condition.\u00a0 It is not likely that you will get what you want in a reasonable timeframe by doing that, and once you do reduce the price and correct conditions, the buyers who saw it first will not be back – they already bought something else.<\/p>\n

Finally, the reason sellers with agents sometimes overprice a home in less than ideal condition is because they pick an agent who tells them what they want to hear, instead of what they need to know. So, sellers, choose an agent who will tell you the truth, show you the comparables and other data they used to formulate their advice, and then take their advice.\u00a0 They want to sell your home for the most it can sell for \u2013 they work on commission so they share your motivation \u2013 and ignoring their advice will surely slow down the sale of your home!<\/p>\n

As to the question of why real estate agents might be better at maximizing the price of their own home, that\u2019s easy \u2013 they take their own advice!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jill Goldman, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com Have you seen that \u201cnews\u201d story on Facebook recently? You know, the one that says that real estate agents sell their own homes for more money than they sell their clients\u2019 homes? The original theory (not supported in any way by data from the National Association of Realtors) comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[342],"tags":[1165,1163,1403],"class_list":["post-9619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-real-estate","tag-home-sales","tag-real-estate","tag-real-estate-agent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}