St. Louis Real Estate Tip of the Week: REMOVING EMOTION IN LIEU OF REALITY

Have you ever said something, and then later wished you could take it back?  Most of us make emotion-driven mistakes in different areas of our lives.  But, when it comes to selling YOUR home, selling your most valuable asset, the stakes are simply too high to allow yourself and your transaction to fall prey to predictable emotional pitfalls.

When it comes to emotion, what’s predictable is avoidable if you’re willing to acknowledge and correct your own feelings and how they can interfere in your decision making. This blog will discuss one of the five emotions that plague sellers.

Price-Reduction Hesitation versus Price Adjustments:

Many real estate professionals offer their clients a suggested list price based on comparable sales in their neighborhood.  Many sellers want to ignore these comparables and rather take the strategy of selecting a list price on what they need to get out of the house in order to accomplish their other life goals. Sometimes, they want to pay off bills or need specific amounts of funds to move on to a new property.

Pricing a property based on a seller’s need is an example of an emotional decision that should be eliminated if at all possible.  When buyers are looking at homes, they study comparables and what properties sold for in the past. Additionally they look at the county appraised value for which the property taxes are based and when buyers do this type of research, they rarely if ever pay a higher price than their research indicates.

In many cases of over-pricing, the seller starts out as overconfident in their home’s prospects in the current market. Since, none of us know when the market is changing, up and down; many sellers try to predict the swing and want to list their properties as if there is a big upward swing ahead. 

The over-confident seller often demonstrates strong emotions if their home receives few showings and doesn’t procure a buyer after the initial marketing launch and first open house to brokers and the buyers looking in that area.  Then, if a seller gets a low-ball offer, their anxiety levels multiply.  The seller begins to panic as their future is now an unknown, their career plans may be instantly stalled or ruined, and real estate professionals suddenly find themselves with very frustrated sellers.

Often this panic is accompanied with fear that actually reducing the list price will actually kick off the snowball effect.  However, when a property is severally over-priced from the start, adjusting the price is the only way to repair the scenario.  In my real estate career, I have learned to ask my clients for price adjustments, rather than asking them to reduce the price, for which I have often gotten great resistance.

The good news is that I have seen price adjustments work wonders for sellers.  Just a slight adjustment in price has often been enough to procure more showings and even multiple offers. It’s all about perception and what buyers feel a home is worth.  I have also learned that typically a home is not only worth what the comparables tell me it’s worth, a home is actually worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.

If you are a seller, it’s imperative that you learn to manage your emotions while selling your home.  If your home is listed and there are no offers and few showings within the first month, it’s important to consider that it may not be priced correctly. As much as you love your home, take the emotion out and put on a solid business approach and adjust the price.

As a seller, the best way to deactivate any panic and fear is to have an action plan coordinated with your real estate professional which has agreed upon implementation prior to listing the home. Realtors are invaluable resources in a home selling process.  Utilize their expertise as professionals and study all data from the MLS, so that days on market are clearly understood and agree to price adjustments if and when the need arises, so that a successful home sales process can be experienced and it becomes a win win for all!