This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). Incidentally, as tough as it might be to take, this same principle applies to consumers shopping for Realtors or lenders: They’re not looking for reasons to accept and embrace you, they’re looking for reasons to reject you and move on to the next candidate. If you want the business, you have to take away their objections before they think to raise them.
Price matters — but so does everything else: When buyers come to see your home, they’re looking for reasons to reject it, not to buy it
If price matters more than anything else in the sale of a home, why bother to clean, repair, stage and market the property for sale?
In a buyer’s market, if a home is priced above its market value, it probably will not show. If it doesn’t show, it can’t sell, and this by itself is all the argument anyone should need to price a home to the current market.
The corollary proposition is that, if your home is properly priced, it should get frequent showings.
So the battle is won, right? All you had to do was price your home to the current market, and you attracted the attention of buyers. Victory is at hand.
Not quite.
Your home is showing, and that’s good. But if it is dirty, if there are obvious repair issues, if the space is cluttered and confusing, if no one has worked to point out why it’s such a good buy — other houses will sell and yours will languish on the market.
As long as you’re priced right — and price can be a moving target in this market — you’ll get showings. But if your home is not a better value than the other houses your buyers are seeing, they’ll buy those homes instead.
That’s exactly what you would do in their place, isn’t it? When you’re picking through the melons at the grocery, you aren’t looking for the ones that are bruised and shopped over, unsightly and unappetizing. Why would you expect buyers to buy a property that you would pass on in a heartbeat, if you were in their shoes?
When buyers come to see your home, they aren’t looking for reasons to buy it. They’re looking for reasons to reject it, so they can move on to the next home. The one they buy will be the one that raises the fewest objections, for the money. If you want that money, you have to do everything you can to take away your buyers’ objections — before they think to raise them.
Not willing to do that? It’s not a problem. Just cut your price.
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Ken Smith in Chicago says:
“Not willing to do that? It’s not a problem. Just cut your price.”
Say almost exactly that to every seller that baulks at the repairs, cleaning, and decluttering I suggest.
June 14, 2008 — 9:06 am
Rick Belben says:
If it is getting showings and not an offer than maybe it is not priced quite right for the condition it is in. I agree buyers are looking for a reason to reject a home.
Even when they find one they like the calculator in their head is subtracting from the price anything that is wrong with the home. Little things sellers could easily improve like cleaning. painting etc are much bigger dollars in the buyers mind than it would have been for the seller to take care of it themselves.
June 14, 2008 — 9:27 am
Thomas Johnson says:
Greg: You best AZ Rep. post to date. If a seller can’t get it through their thick heads that:
A. The rehab calculator is running in the buyers’ brain.
B. The house is not the Taj Mahal-there are other homes.
C. Buyers are not interested in looking past clutter.
D. If they have to move on a deadline, the market will force a panic sale situation.
As Russell says, we can go play golf, dance on bridges, or deal with unrealistic sellers-they all pay the same.
June 14, 2008 — 11:16 am
Brad Coy says:
In my opinion there is nothing more powerful than proper staging when selling a home. I have seen this work TOO many times. Getting rid of any unnecessary questions and letting potential buyers take a look at a home in a near perfect essence should be the aim every time.
Examle: a vacant townhouse with a challenging dining room sat for 3 months at the height of the market in 2005. After the staging was brought in to get rid of the repeating question of “where do you put a dining room table” the home sold after 2 weeks of opens — AT ASKING
In my market it could mean the difference between 50K more on the purchase price.
June 14, 2008 — 2:10 pm
Andrew Waldron says:
Amen. In our market, as with so many, it is always the seller who is the last to get their heads out of the sand and look up to see what is happening around them. The smart ones get their homes sold the others have their property lanquish and usually blame the agent or anyone else in their narrow field of view as to why it has not sold. Personally, I have changed gears recently, I know my market very well, it is my job, it is what I do every day, if the seller does not want to listen or take my advice I either do not take the listing or fire them
June 16, 2008 — 5:31 am
James Bridges says:
Great point. I hope plenty of sellers read the post. I represent buyers on my team, and truth be told you are right on. They just look for a reason not to buy it.
I am always amazed what a buyer perceives as the price of repairs. “Oh, the carpet looks bad, that would be like $1,800 to fix”. Even when you point out it would be dramatically less, they get it stuck in their head that the inconvenience and money is too much.
June 18, 2008 — 8:56 am
Janie Miller says:
I don’t think they are looking for a reason not to buy it, I think we sometimes forget that just because a home fits the criteria does not mean that it is the perfect home for that buyer, maybe the next buyer, just not this one.
June 18, 2008 — 4:03 pm