You may recall that line from the iconic Tom Cruise movie, “Jerry Maguire.” While the statement may be self-explanatory, I feel compelled to elaborate on the importance of this, given the myriad experiences I’ve had in my many years of selling real estate. Despite that, I will state one critical concept that we agents, as well as our clients, need to be clear about. And that is that YOU are the boss! When you hire a real estate agent, you are the employer, and we work for you, so whatever our advice, it is your prerogative whether you heed that or not. After all, it is you who will live with the outcome of these decisions. But… I repeat, “help me help you.” Make this a partnership where we both understand and strive for your clear objectives, be they netting the most money, selling as quickly as possible, or making the process as stress-free as possible. It’s usually a combination of these, but the order of priority is important.
That said, it has always been my objective to do what it takes to effect the best outcome for the client’s objectives, whether buying or selling a home, land, investment property, or commercial property. It all begins with a thorough assessment of the subject property and the seller’s situation. Every seller has life circumstances that dictate their tolerance for varying market demands and allowances. In a perfect world, and I’ll speak primarily to residential sales, the house would be in near-new condition, fully updated, all systems perfectly functioning, and in a prime location. Of course, that can’t always be the case. So how much time and money can you commit to optimizing the home before it goes on the market? Everyone’s resources vary. If the answer is “not so much,” then allowances are made to consider that. Often, there’s a bare minimum that will produce a good ROI. If you do have ample resources, time included, how much is enough before you’ve overdone it? An experienced agent can coach you on that.
There are three significant factors in a successful real estate sale in any market: 1. Location. It is what it is, but it is always a factor in pricing. 2. Condition. This is where you can have the greatest effect in optimizing your net sale proceeds. I’ll speak more to this in a moment. 3. Price. This weighs into the previous two factors, combined with market conditions, aka supply and demand. It’s critical to gauge this accurately.
To overprice is to doom the sale to land below where it would if priced properly to begin with. Evergreen is notorious for overpricing. To be fair, we just believe we live in the best place on Earth, and sometimes we think we have the best house in the best town on Earth. It truly is hard to be objective. But the market is by nature objective, so, on average, Evergreen homes, for example, go through 3 percent price adjustments before finally selling at 1 percent below asking price. Of course, many sellers don’t go through price adjustments because they priced right from the start. They still might concede 1 or 2 percent on sale, but that’s better than the 4 percent average in total. Pricing a home to the market is much more of an art than a science.
Pricing to market assumes we understand the market. This is not a given, even for many real estate professionals. “The Market” is never what you read in the press. That is almost always the broad view, or macrocosm of the market, where every individual property exists in a much more relevant market microcosm. Conifer and Centennial perform differently. The entry-level, median, and luxury price ranges all perform differently. Single family homes and condominiums perform differently, although they are both classified as residential. A true professional real estate agent studies these differences and accounts for them when considering “your” market.
But, back to the subject of the condition of the property being sold, the first thing to remember is that “you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” So always come to market with your best foot forward. Even that nightmare hoarder home you just inherited needs to be cleaned out and cleaned up so that prospective investors can get excited to visualize the place all fixed up. As for your little castle, I have a checklist for you. It’s lofty, but if you want to get the most for your home, everything is worth considering. It may be as simple as just my classic 3 Ds: Declutter/Depersonalize/Deep Clean, or as big as a kitchen and bath remodel. It could be as small as neutralizing some wall colors or as big as taking down some large trees. The question is, when the prince comes, will you be the prettiest girl on the dance floor? And how many princes are there really? This element, the condition of the home, requires consideration of many things, as I mentioned above. When discussing your most prudent steps toward preparation: A) Don’t take anything personally. Your personal choices for your home are yours, and they may not be what’s most desired by today’s buyers. And B) Remember, you’re the boss. Your decision and the consequences thereof are yours and yours alone. But still, help me help you. It’s what I do.
Wishing you a Happy New Year and, as always, happy homes!
