Today I wanted to ask all of you selling your home a simple question: How well does your home stand up to your competition?
It may not be a question you’ve ever been asked or thought about but when putting your house on the market, how well do you really stack up with your competition?
So, you’ve selected your realtor and you’ve signed the listing agreement and your realtor gave you a suggested list price, and showed you some comps. In your mind, you’re thinking, “Hmm, I’m not sure if I really agree with that suggested list price.”
So, what is an option for you to decide whether or not that’s a good list price?
When Agent and Seller Disagree On List Price
Well, sometimes I have had to take some sellers who really didn’t agree with me to see the competition. It’s always in cases where we were both pretty far off on where we thought the house should be listed.
When I would suggest the comps, they always had something to say about that comp. So I’d ask them, “Have you even been in that home?”
Most times my sellers say, “Well, no, but we’ve driven by and we saw that it only had this and it only had that.”
So, often times I’ll put them in the car, and we’ll go take a look at the competition. Sometimes this can be an eye-opening experience for them because now they’re going in as if they’re the buyer, and they’re looking at this home, which is going be the same thing someone’s gonna do to their home.
Apply The Same Mindset To Your Home When Viewing Competition
So I tell them, “You need to be careful. When you come in here, don’t go in there kind of defensive and being really critical beause you need to apply the same mindset to your own home when you go back home and take a look.”
Simple things that we just kind of overlook because our lives are so busy. We don’t notice the little hand print on the door casing or the light switch or that the baseboards are a little dusty or dirty. Or maybe there is a couple of scuff marks on the walls.
We tend to just kind of gloss over that.
I even looked up this morning and looked at the chandelier and said, “Whoo, I see a little cobweb there. It looks a little dusty.”
These are things that just happen because we’re busy. And it’s okay. It doesn’t mean we’re nasty or dirty. But these are the things that a buyer is going to be looking at and being very critical of as they walk through.
It’s one thing to stage a home that’s vacant where everything looks pristine. But when you are living in your home everyday, sometimes that’s really hard. So I suggest, why not go and view your competition and visit those open houses.
Pick Up Some Great Ideas From The Competition
You can get some great ideas to see how well people are kind of maybe packing up a few things and storing them neatly in the garage so that things don’t look so cluttered.
So take the time to go and look at your competition and make sure that you’re being really honest with yourself. Because sometimes it’s just simple little things that just need a little fluff or a little fresh coat of paint or a little elbow grease.
