Home sellers are falling into the money pit trap left and right and it’s costing them more than money. I’m not talking about remodeling, renovation or upgrades. I’m talking about pricing it right from the “get go” when deciding to sell.

Once again, I find myself in a situation where good advice and experience have been sacrificed to hope and fantasy. The casualty in this affair will be my reputation as it is often difficult for the seller to own their part in the whole affair.

Which affair, you may ask? Let me give you the quick outline.

• Seller wants to sell and move up
• We tell them what is happening in the local real estate market and suggest a price in line with current market conditions.
• Seller believes their house is worth more based on the past market and the fact that they want more regardless of what is happening in the local real estate market.
• 6 weeks go by as traffic and interest dwindle, the local housing market continues to move downward and the whole loan industry goes into meltdown.
• The seller, having resisted numerous suggestions to reprice the house, agrees to lower the price.
• Instead of pricing the house at the price we suggest that is in line with current conditions, the seller prices it at the price we originally suggested 2 months ago.

You see where this is going?

The seller is following the market down despite our best attempts to get them in front of the market. The seller is losing money and unfortunately and worse for us is they think it is a lack of marketing, advertising or effort on our part.

They think this in spite of the fact that there were several “very interested” parties who thought the property was appealing, but was over priced and needed more upgrading.

More could be said to outline the whole affair, but the bottom line is – the biggest challenge in real estate is getting a property priced right.

AND the biggest hurdle to this is getting the seller to look at their house not through their eyes, but through the eyes of the buyer.

We had a similar situation about nine months ago, it didn’t work out for us (except in the reputation hit mentioned in the second paragraph above). The house eventually sold after we fought the pricing battle and lost the listing war. The agent that followed in our footsteps was able to lower the price significantly (to where we were trying to get it from the “get go”). He also lowered his already discounted commission to get the listing.

Now I’m not trying to be “Woe is me” and tell you a sad real estate agent tale. On the contrary, this is part of the business and despite our best efforts, we seem to get into this situation once or twice a year as we do our best to work with people. What I’m trying to accomplish here is to create some space for the seller to entertain the thought that “market trends and conditions” have a significant impact on what a house will sell for today – not yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.

If you are selling or planning to sell your house, grill your agent on real estate trends in your area. If they can’t pull out the data to show you what’s happening in your market – move on. If they can – listen up, they are probably trying to help you get the best deal possible in a changing world. This will save you money, time and lots of aggravation.