Selling a home is an emotional experience for everyone involved, including buyer, seller and Realtor. One of the difficult things for the seller is looking at his or her home with some degree of objectivity. This is particularly true when you have to face up to your home’s shortcomings.
When you put your house up for sale, you want to get the highest possible price. All you want to think about are the wonderful qualities of the house and all the reasons why people should fall in love with it. The last thing you might desire is for someone to point out some of its weaknesses. Most properties have drawbacks that will affect their attractiveness to potential buyers, sometimes minor ones and sometimes major ones.
The real issue here is not what these drawbacks might happen to be, in your case. It involves not your house, but your perception of your house as it compares with others also for sale. Some sellers don’t look at their situation realistically because their judgement is clouded by their personal feelings about their home or they have been in it so long that they don’t notice the “wear and tear” that has occurred over time.
An example of this problem occurs when the Realtor begins educating a prospective seller with photographs and details about other homes that would compete with this seller’s property. Although the competing properties may be quite similar, most sellers will let their egos or emotions get in the way of good judgement.
The most common statement we hear from sellers is, “None of those houses can even compare with my house.” In the seller’s eagerness to sell the house for top dollar, they sometimes lose a sense of reality about the disadvantages of their home versus similar homes. This unwillingness to face facts can result in an asking price that is unrealistically high. Another symptom is a seller who refuses to spend any additional money fixing up the house. Sellers often say; “I am not going to spend another dime on this house. If the buyers want new carpet, let them put it in.”
ADVICE: A seller who is willing to face reality about their house will usually succeed.
Remember, a house for sale is no longer your home, and a good Realtor certainly knows how to maximize the opportunity and help bring you top dollar. In order to increase your chances of success, hire a seasoned Realtor who has sold a number of challenged homes, and listen to their recommendations.
