Real Estate Investors: Listen To Your Realtor

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Real estate is one of those things where everyone seems to have an opinion and a better way to do things. If you are considering selling your property, you would be wise to listen to your realtor. You may have an idea of what you want to do, but your realtor does it day in and day out. They study and know the local market and everything that it entails. Just because you have a better understanding of the property you are selling doesn’t mean your idea of what it should sell for or how you should go about selling it is right. If you are going to enlist the services of a realtor, you should really listen to what they have to say.

The biggest area of disagreement usually comes back to the listing price. As the seller, you will always try to get the highest sales price possible. In the past, and when the market was hot, you could list the property higher than you thought it was really worth and hope to get an offer somewhere in the middle. This works when demand is high, but in markets like we are currently in this will work against you. Instead of generating interest and getting a higher price, you are doing much more harm than you may realize. By listing too high, you are turning off buyers who may have been interested if the price was right. These buyers have moved on to more affordable properties or properties that offer more for their dollar.

When you overprice, your home will lose appeal. To regenerate interest, you will have to make a price reduction. If you would have just started out at this price, you would have had interest and maybe even had a bidding war – now ,many weeks later, you are back to where you should have started.

Aside from price, your realtor may make some suggestions as to the décor and the odor of the house. There is nothing that will turn buyers away faster than walking in a property with bad odor. Regardless if this odor is caused by pets, smoking, mildew or anything else, you need to listen to your realtor and do something to fix it. This could mean getting the carpets cleaned or painting the walls, but by doing nothing you are hoping against hope that your buyer sees though this. Most of the time it is impossible to ignore and will be reflected in the price of any offers received.

It is important to remember that realtor only gets paid when the deal closes and the higher it sells for the more they receive. Any suggestions are for your benefit to try to get you to sell for the highest possible price. In some cases, you may have to spend some money to see a much bigger return when you sell. Your realtor is the expert and knows what they are doing. By not listening to their expertise you risk maximizing your biggest investment.