In a strong real estate market, especially a Sellers Market, real estate agents can get the majority of homes sold relatively easily without a huge investment of their time and money. Because there are more buyers than there are homes currently available (what is called a “Sellers Market”), most homes sell in a relatively quick time frame and at an acceptable amount. Multiple offers are also common in a “Sellers Market.”
Due to these “Seller Market Conditions,” some sellers are not receiving from their real estate agent the professional services they are should expect and are due. Primarily I’m speaking about the insightful and experienced pre-listing evaluation of their home in the area of the property’s condition and the retail market value of the home.
I think this leads to several common “problems” for home sellers…
· The house is put on the market prematurely without cosmetic improvements and/or staging, and the house doesn’t sell and leaves all parties disappointed.
· The property is priced below the actual current market value because the agent is looking at comparables that sold six months ago and not what buyers are currently paying for similar homes. Therefore, the homeowners’ equity in the home that has been appreciating over time is left for the next owners. (A few years ago we bought a personal home for about $325k. Upon purchase, the home appraised for over $360k. The previous owner and their agent left me $35,000 of equity in our home. I was happy! However, if the previous owners had realized what had happened, they may not have been as happy as me.)
· In many cases, a few thousand dollars of cosmetic improvement could have caused a quick sale at an elevated sale price (more than paying for the improvement/staging).
Most sellers are happy and satisfied because their house sold, even though it may have sold thousands of dollars under its true value. I’m getting off the topic at hand “Why didn’t my house sell” so I’ll have to save proper Home Pricing for another time.
Back to the 2019 Springboro seller (that I mentioned in part one of this blog) … a beautiful brick executive home that had been listed by two successful agents and failed to sell both times.
Our professional evaluation of the home revealed to us that the problem was not pricing or market conditions. We determined this house hadn’t sold in 9 months of being on the market with two popular Realtors, due to cosmetic conditions in the kitchen and poor visual presentation of the home in the online photos.
Here is a sampling of a few photos from the previous agents (2) shots of the kitchen:
The homeowner listened to our evaluation and cooperated with our recommendations. Within a couple of weeks, our recommendations were reality and the house went back on the market and under contract within 2-3 weeks.
Here are the same areas after our recommendations were completed, which included our staging help and working with our great professional photographer! Here are our photos of the house that we placed in the MLS.
I'm sure you see the clear difference between how we presented the home to the buying public! The difference made the difference and brought a successful sale!
Our professional assessment of the home and recommendations are a normal part of our professional services we provide to all our homeowners. If you are thinking of selling your home, please call us now at 937-241-2124. I'll take your call after other agents fail, but I'd prefer to be your first and only real estate agent. Let's get it sold the first time!