“Your first offer is your best offer.” Have you heard this real estate principal before?
In my experience of being involved in 1500+ sales over the past nine years in addition to my own personal sales, I would say this is true about 85% of the time. Why is that? Because TIME KILLS A LISTING.
This is the principal that has dictated my approach to listing and selling homes since I began this career in 2010. This is why I was one of the first in NE Indiana to use professional photography and staging expertise; bring in home organizers to help people declutter and minimize owners’ belongings; home inspectors to pre-inspect; maintenance and repair professionals; it’s the reason I built a team right away. Since TIME KILLS A LISTING, a one man band agent cannot do all this for you unless they only have a few listings.
So we must go out of the gate looking our best, putting our best foot forward. Most consumers view homes online first, PHOTOS of homes that is. Many people feel like they have already evaluated the home’s valuebased on price and what they see in the photos and listing details. Your first week is prime time. That is when you can get closest to asking price because it’s fresh, new on the market vs the dated listings.
A property is only going to sell for what someone is ready, willing and able to pay for it. And it is NOT necessarily going to sell at the price you WANT or NEED. No real estate broker or even appraiser can tell you it’s exact projected selling price. We can only give you an opinion. Now please hear this:
The collective market knows way more than you, me, any real estate broker, or appraiser knows and they are speaking to us as soon as you go live on the market.
How so? By scheduling showings and making offers or NOT. Or few and far between showings and low offers. If my clients have done all they can or are willing to do to prepare their property for the listing knowing that we cannot change the location and many other things about the property, then it’s all down to price. If you get lots of showings but no offers you are just helping your neighbors’ homes sell.
I can site many successful cases where my clients prepared their home, priced it right, and sold quickly for very close to asking price like this home on Sunset Lake Cove. I can also show you case upon case of sellers that rejected our pricing recommendations and strategy for many months even up to a year and more at a huge eventual loss. This is seller stubbornness at its worst. They could have sold for much more had they listened to the market, and adjusted at the appropriate intervals as we recommend. My goal is to not leave your money on the table so I will start on the highest end of our estimated sales price range but the key is listening to what the collective market is telling us and making price adjustments until we find the market for your property.
Bottom line is this: Please make sure you, your family and friends don’t entrust one of your greatest financial assets with just anyone or a friend with a real estate license. Make sure you hire someone that gives this career their full-time attention and therefore has a great deal of experience; ask to see their stats like average sales price, number of sales per year, list to sales price ratio; their ranking in the MLS, etc. Would you want a heart surgeon that only did a few surgeries a year on the side with a so-so success rate? Of course not! I believe it’s time for consumers to hire and build a long-term relationship with a real estate ADVISOR, that they can call upon for advice anytime just like they consult their accountant, financial planner, dentist, car mechanic and more.
With all this said, when considering your next real estate decision, please contact me. My team of functional experts in the real estate field and I are more than happy to help as you review your options in buying, selling, building, remodeling, financing, downsizing, upsizing, relocating, lake properties, snowbird winter homes…you name it! We love advising on all of it and we are here for you for the long haul.
All my best,
Lynn Reecer
260.385.9855
[email protected]
