Do You Want the Truth or Do You Want to Hear What You Like?

Can you handle the truth? Make sure you don’t fall for the oldest trick in the book when selling your home.

The dangers of overpricing your home
Speaker 1:
I’ll answer the question. You want answers.
Speaker 2:
I think I’m entitled.
Speaker 1:
You want answers.
Speaker 2:
I want the truth.
Speaker 1:
You can’t handle the truth.
Betsy:
Hey there, Betsy Heller here from Achievers Realty. That is one of my all time favorite movies, A Few Good Men, and I love that line, “You can’t handle the truth,” and I think of that often when I’m going to a listing presentation and I know that the couple or the person sitting in front of me is probably going to talk to two or three agents, and as always, I face a dilemma in speaking the truth and yet knowing that maybe that’s not what they want to hear. And you say, “Well, what do you mean by that?” Well, let me tell you. Here’s how this goes. If I know for sure that what it’s going to take to sell that house is having it priced at say, 1,150,000 to 1.2 million, but the client has heard from other agents that it could sell for 1.3 million or that they would list it for 1.3 or 1.325 million, then who are they going to believe? I mean, it’s so much easier to go with the agent that’s telling you what is emotionally something you want to hear.
Betsy:
But is that really what’s best for you? Because here’s the deal. After 21 days, your home’s going to be stale on the market, and if what the market really bears is more than 10% lower, the odds are good that it’s just going to sit there until it has dropped in price and when it drops in price, by then, people are going to know that it’s either stale or that there’s something wrong with it. And in either case, you’re going to be on the defensive and having to prove it and it’s going to take so much more time and effort to get it marketed. Studies have shown that you’re actually going to lose money, up to 10% more. But on average, I’m still going to tell you it’s around 5% that you’re going to lose compared to what you could have gotten had you priced it right.
Betsy:
Now, is that easy to do? No. Because if you’re sitting across from me and maybe we haven’t gotten a chance to talk very much and you don’t know much about me, then maybe you’re feeling like it’d just be so much easier to go with this agent that you know who’s telling you what you want to hear. And so what I want to encourage you to do is to ask for the facts. Look at the data. I’m not going to say that to you if the data doesn’t support it, and I’ll explain why. Sometimes that’s hard to hear because again, we don’t always want the truth. Sometimes we just want what feels good.
Betsy:
So here’s what I want you to remember is that when the home is sitting on the market for a month, two months, even three months, and you’re paying another mortgage payment each month, perhaps when the home is vacant, when it could already have been sold, that can add up a lot more than what you had already anticipated you would have to spend in marketing costs to sell that home. And I want you to pocket all that money. I want you to end with more money in your pocket than you thought you were going to get, but certainly what we both expected.
Betsy:
I hope that helps today in getting you to that understanding of hearing the truth versus hearing what you want to hear. Sometimes the truth is actually better for you because it’s going to give you not only the right price to begin with, but a higher net price overall. As always, I look forward to working with you and helping you. Call me or text me with any questions you have.