Home Sellers Leaving Money On The Table

I see this daily. Home sellers are leaving money on the table. I don’t know if it’s their Realtor that is giving them bad advice or the seller is under pricing their home but either way sellers are losing money.

Sellers leaving money on the table.

This morning I was looking through the MLS for homes for a buyer client and I noticed two homes, one in the Stonegate Village Neighborhood and the other in The Pinery, that were both grossly under priced for the current market conditions. I know for a fact the home in Stonegate is listed for sale at least $30,000 under what it should be listed at. This is a disservice to the current seller and future sellers.

The only possible explanation is that the Realtor is miss priced the home or used improper comps to judge the value of the home.

Find out what your home is worth. This is accurate and is as close to a $400 appraisal as you can get and this is FREE.

Complacency at it’s worst causes sellers to leave money on the table.

I’ve noticed one of the worst offenders is what we Realtors call the “farmer.” The farmer is the broker you know that farms or direct mails into a single neighborhood all the time. These brokers live off that one neighborhood. Their yearly income is almost completely from one specific neighborhood. This breeds laziness and the hurry up and get is sold mentality. Their goal is to get the house on the market and get is sold as fast as possible so they can chalk up another sale. Seeking a maximum price for the seller may not be in their best interest. Don’t be complacent  Do your homework and choose a broker willing to stick their neck out and go above and beyond the highest sold price in the neighborhood. You will never know unless you try.

An inexperienced Realtor has never worked in a booming real estate market before and doesn’t know how to price in a rising market.

If the broker or Realtor you are working with has never worked in a rising market they probably have no idea how the system works and how to value your property properly when neighborhood prices are rising at 1% or 5% in a month. You always need to be in front of the market not chasing it.

Make sure your Realtor is capable of guiding you in the correct pricing strategy when you list your home for sale. If you don’t it could cost you thousands of dollars.

Steven Beam is a full time Realtor in business for over 16 years. Read his client testimonials here.