As you’re getting ready to list your house, you’ll probably talk with a few agents and get opinions and analysis on where you set the “listing price.” There’s a fine line between “realistic” and “too low”, but it’s also a mistake to latch onto the agent who gives you the highest number. Wherever you set your listing price, you’re the fresh meat at the butcher shop when your listing hits the MLS. Every potential buyer who’s actively looking in your area and price range at that moment will get an email alert that your house just came on the market. Let’s say that’s 20 people which is why you’ll likely get a flurry of showing activity right away.

Then the showings will slow down to a trickle or perhaps stop altogether. That’s because your house is “new” and interesting only to buyers who just decided to start looking that week in your price range or area. Your house is now “old news” to the rest of the home shoppers who saw your home when it first came on the market and decided NOT to make an offer. The only way to get back on their radar screen is to change prices (usually lower) because then the big group (the hypothetical 20) will get an email alert.

After several weeks or a few months, most home sellers eventually start to think “It’s my real estate agent’s fault! He/she just isn’t doing enough to get my home sold.” Well, the reality is that you, the homeowner, control the two most important things that determine how quickly your home sells – the price and condition of the property. The third and fourth factors, property location and overall market conditions in your market segment are beyond either of your control. More open houses are not the answer. It’s probably your price or the property condition or both that are keeping your home from selling, not the agent. Sorry.

It’s not fair. And your house was in fact worth more in 2006 and 2007 and maybe even on the tax bill from last year. But that was then, and this is now, and the market’s the market – often unfair and sometimes cruel. Selling your home is a beauty contest where there’s no runner up. You’ll get an offer when you reduce your price and/or improve the property condition to that magic point where it represents the best value compared to other competing listings. Don’t make the mistake of keeping your price unrealistically high because “someone should make us an offer.” That’s not the way it works anymore.

Click here and let Accunet Realty Advisors find you a skilled, experienced agent to be your guide. You’ll be glad.