Don’t be fooled when listing your home for sale by a real estate agent who is merely flattering you with an inflated price. Yes, you want top dollar for your home. Respectfully, good real estate agents will present facts about recent sold homes in your neighborhood to justify a fair market listing price. Unfortunately, some “self-serving” real estate agents will list your home for sale, even when they know your home will not sale at the price you want. You must be wondering “why” a real estate agent would list a home at a price that won’t sale.
The Dangers of Overpricing when listing your home for sale
The problems of trying to sell a house priced too high are numerous. Most real estate agents will want to avoid getting into a listing that is doomed to fail. However, I will tell you 2 reasons a “self-serving” real estate agent will still list your home, even when they know it will not sell at your asking price, and none of these reasons will benefit you!
Listing your home for sale to beat out other real estate agents
The main reason a “self-serving” real estate agent will ask you to sign a listing contract with them, even if the price is too high, is to simply beat out other real estate agents for your home listing contract. As a home seller, you want top dollar and whichever agent tell you the highest listing price that your home will sale, will often determine which agent gets your listing. Other real estate agents may present a lower but justified listing price, but often home sellers end of listing their home for sale into a long term contract, for the higher price.
The self-serving real estate strategy is: After a month or two, after no home buyers have made any offers on your home, the home seller will be asked to reduce your asking price to the fair market price you should have started at in the first place. The heartbreak is that your home may have already been sold if you started with the right price when listing your home for sale.
Another reason why a real estate agent accepts a Listing price that won’t sale is:
Putting a sign in front of your house attracts home buyers. Home buyers do not know the asking price until they call the listing agent. The listing agent can collect information from these home buyers and then sell them other homes, like the homes your home is competing with. Yes, overpricing your home will help sell your competition’s homes!
This strategy is profitable to the “self-serving” real estate agent, and not so much for the home seller that is listing your home for sale at an unsellable price.
The most common reason a home does not sale is Over Pricing a Home.
When you price your home too high, you’re not fooling anyone. Informed buyers know the home values in your neighborhood. And if they don’t, you can bet the real estate agent that represents the home buyer does. Most home buyers today will not even bother looking at your home if the asking price is clearly high compared with other similar, homes for sale in your neighborhood.
Another concern when listing your home for sale is the home buyer’s bank appraisal
Lately, we have noticed too many last minute renegotiation of final sales prices in escrow before closing. The reason is the bank’s appraisal value is coming in too low. The appraisal value must be the same or a higher value than the price agreed upon or the home buyer will not get the loan. Bank appraisers are determining values by comparing recent sold prices in the same neighborhood.
This is quite a dilemma because, unless the final price matches the appraiser’s price, the home buyer may not get the home loan. Without the home loan, there will be no sale and the seller starts over. Lately, too many sellers have had to lower their final sale’s price to match the bank appraisal and to complete the sale.
Don’t be fooled when listing your San Antonio home For Sale
If you want a free market evaluation online, without obligation, simply click – here.
Sellers, consider viewing your home as a home buyer or an appraiser does, review recent sales of homes in your neighborhood carefully and choose a listing price that will attract home buyers and won’t cause a problem with bank appraisal values. Don’t be fooled when listing your San Antonio home for sale.