Hitting the Sweet Spot: Seller/Listing Agent Pricing of a Home
When a home owner makes the mental steps needed in order to reach a point of selling their home, with it comes the memories, experience, and investment that the home owner has put into the space.
When an agent is approached to give a CMA for a potential listing, they research the comps in the area. Comps are a funny thing though—they look at houses in a similar micro-market that holds a similar tangible value. Many times, pulling comps together takes creativity and time.
Traditionally, when these two numbers the client and the agent bring to the table meet, the home owner’s is the high figure and the agent’s is lower. How do you, as an agent with two competing interests of 1) wanting to sell the listingsand 2) wanting to foster positive client relations, strike a balance?
THE NUANCE IN LISTING VERSUS SELLING A HOME: Listing a home comes with some derogatory affiliations. So, you will take pictures of my home and then let people find it on the internet. Cool. Listing a home does not speak to doing action and in turn seeing results. Pitch that you are looking to sell their home, not just list it. Seeing activity beats the alternative and any offer can be declined or negotiated.
YOUR WAY/MY WAY: Start at a price point your client is comfortable with and set a re-assessment date with them to come in a have another meeting if there are signs of market rejection. In order to prep a seller for a price reduction, be sure they are privy to all the reactions the market is having to their listing by showing them a timeline of online statistically interaction, showing feedback from other agents, and movement in the market for the comps in the area. Sometimes it just takes that little bit of foundation work to win a seller over to your price point. Worst case scenario, the listing sells at a high value!
SAY NO: Ultimately, if you, as an agent, are not comfortable listing a home at the price point the seller wants, you can say no. This demonstrates that you have priorities and the utmost of those are to not over promise as a representative for your client’s best interest.
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