Realtor Rules of Thumb Once upon a time, when homes were cheap, Realtors had a saying: “10 showings, $10,000.” In other words, if a home had 10 showings but hadn’t sold, a $10,000 price cut was in order. Then, home prices went up — seemingly forever — and the phrase fell out of favor. Guess...Read More
Telling Sellers What They Want to Hear — At First While my track record landing listings is very good — it’s not perfect. The most common reason prospective Sellers choose another Realtor? The other Realtor took the listing at a higher, unrealistic price — a practice that Realtors call “buying the listing.” Exhibit A Last June,...Read More
Asking Price: $475,000 (“Yeah, Right!”) I’ve previously documented examples of FSBO (“For Sale by Owner”) mistakes. See, “FSBO Mistake #4“; “FSBO Mistake #37.” So, what’s FSBO mistake #1 (and #2 and #3)? Mispricing (want to guess which direction?). Latest Example Exhibit A would be this 1 1/2 story home a few blocks east of Lake...Read More
Testing an Unrealistic Seller It seems to be happening a lot in today’s housing market: Buyers find something they like, but — based on the Comp’s — the Seller’s price appears to be high. What to do? One option is to simply wait. Overpriced listings have a way of coming down to earth, and Buyers...Read More
Padded List Prices What do you do if you’re a Seller in a Buyer’s market who’s worried about lowball offers? At least a few succumb to the temptation to pad their asking (“list”) price. Their logic? The higher their initial price, “the more room they have to negotiate.” Flawed Logic Well, yes. But that presumes...Read More
Quarter Half-Hearted Marketing Campaign Given that something like 30% of all MLS listings are cancelled or simply expire, unsold, it seems fair to ask, “why didn’t it sell?” My Realtor’s answer is that, it’s usually never just one thing. So, poor (or no) staging; a quarter half-hearted marketing campaign; too few and/or unflattering photos; too...Read More
