Sellers - Here's My Best Advice...

If you've spent any time at all looking at real estate websites you've probably run into a lot canned-sounding reasons as to why you should let someone like me, a real estate seller represent you when you sell your real estate.  Primarily what you've read is the repackaged PR from the National Association of REALTORS. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but  how about a little different perspective? Here's a couple of succinct kernels of reason drawn from my own observations

1).Take what the media tells you with a grain of salt. As well meaning as most of these folks are, they are not in the business of selling real estate. They are however, in the business of getting your attention. Frequently getting your attention involves overly dramatic headlines and sound bytes. Unfortunately most of us rarely listen to the rest of what they have to say.  Let me give you an example:

Early last year a local TV channel sound byte stated ominously " Interest rates soar! Stay tuned for details!".  I did of course, simply because interest rates have a direct bearing on my business. In the course of the day however I happened to talk to five would-be sellers who nervously reported that interest rates were going up.  They had all heard what I heard but none had stopped to listen to the actual broadcast.

The upshot was that interest rates were allegedly going to "soar" less than a quarter of a percent.  Remember also that magazine articles are at least a month behind when they are printed and TV news stories may just be repeats from days and sometimes weeks before.

2). A commercial is only a commercial until you decide to suspend your judgment. We've all done this one. Instead of analyzing what the validity of the content of an ad we take it at face value and hold it out to be the truth without thinking it through.

3).If you price it right they will come. Do you remember that Kevin Costner movie, "Field of Dreams"? That was the movie where he played the baseball-obsessed farmer who plowed under a big hunk of his corn crop and built a baseball field all because he heard a voice that kept repeating, "If you build it they will come".  Well, if your real estate is priced it right they (meaning the buyer), will come and buy it.  The trick is to get your price to match up with what the property will sell for.  This is true no matter what you're selling, whether it be Buckingham Palace or a box of macaroni and cheese.

Hands down this is the single biggest place where people who try to sell their own real property get into trouble.  You may be the one who determines the price for your property but it is the market itself that will decide what it sells for.

4).Know the difference between upgrades and maintenance. All too often would be sellers misunderstand the difference between maintenance and upgrading and this can lead to a lot of unpleasantness and disappointment. Think of upgrading as "going beyond the call of duty". Maintenance is putting a new roof on your home because the old one leaks. Upgrading is using roofing materials that exceed the minimum acceptable standards.