One of the most “successful” real estate agents in our area sells a ton of houses by pricing it below market. She advertises herself as being able to sell house quickly.
That’s great if your goal is to sell quickly. But many people would prefer to sell quickly and also maximize their return. Of course people also have to be realistic too.
One other factor is how real estate agents deal with inspection issues. Ive seen a lot of agents try to be “facilitators” and just get a deal done rather than fighting for their client.
There’s an obvious balance that agents have to navigate and not all agents are great at negotiating.
If the house is in need of work, I would also make it clear to the realtor that you are not open to or only open to X $ and that the house was priced with you fully knowing it needed work.
List prices are pretty irrelevant. You need to know what comparable homes in your area SOLD for within the last several months. You will need access to MLS to get an accurate CMA, comparative market analysis.
At the end of the day, however, the realtor is required to follow the instructions of the home owner with regard to price. But as we all know, there are owners who are just not realistic about what their house is actually worth. If you are really far off from an experienced realtor’s suggested price and you find you are in the same situation with a “second opinion” from another real estate professional, then you are probably not being realistic.
Sometimes a property is really unique and finding comps can be difficult. Your realtor can have a broker’s open house where the agents all give their estimates of what the list price should be. If there is a good consensus, that can be helpful.
You may want to get data as to how much their listings actually sold for. Was it at, above or below market. That could help determine how good they are at negotiating and advocating for their client.
That is my friend’s concern about the lakehouse. They don’t need the money for her mom’s care so I think the brother is willing to let it look stale, but my friend just sold her home last year and has a really good idea of the market. That said, like OP, it’s a different kind of property. The water amenities are fabulous, even if the house itself is dated.
Inevitably the market will tell you what the value of the home is…overpriced will lead to little foot traffic and no offers, underpriced…will elicit multiple views and offers.
This is especially true for an atypical property in a community
We are looking for an end user who loves the property and wants to heavily renovate or teardown the existing structure.
The price point will be too high for a developer or flipper – they will be looking to pay less for a property to maximize their profit on a new or flipped home.
We did this ^^ continually monitored the sold listings nearby when selling my parents’ house (and the details of each sold home). Also factored in that my parents’ house was completely cleaned up, floors refinished, fresh paint, kitchen redone (but still small) and staged & photographed professionally.
Talked to a realtor friend about list price and picked something at the higher end (bit of a stretch). It was a year ago, but got our asking price within days.
We’ve done all of the things you mentioned. I always review recently sold houses in our area and compare the sales prices to the list prices, then do my own analysis adjusting for size, features, age, lot size, location, etc.
Zillow estimates were rarely accurate in our previous location. Tax assessments could be absurdly high or low, depending on when they were done and whether the Board of Equalization was involved. Our former primary residence was reassessed at the peak of the market then the valuation was never revised when prices plummeted. I had to fight the tax assessor’s dept. several times, but it was worth the trouble.
It may be tough to find a buyer with sufficient means and time to do a massive reno or rebuild, but not impossible. How close is the land value to the agent’s recommended list price?
We took the realtor’s advice for pricing and had an “as-is” full cash offer in one day, with other favorable conditions saving us additional money. Same realtor also listed a slightly larger house in our neighborhood which went on the market for slightly more than our house, and it is still listed for sale, going on several months now, and now reduced 90k cheaper than original asking. Looking back, I think that we could have asked more for our house since it had some really desirable features in terms of the land, Solar, etc- but then again, if we had asked more, perhaps we would not have received the offer we did. so, I just don’t know!
It is tough to know the realtor’s philosophy when comps are hard to find. There is still a conflict of interest. The lower the price, the faster the sale. A lot less time and effort is needed by the realtor with a quick sale. Commission is less but not THAT much less when divided. The more renovations, the faster the sale – but the owner won’t likely profit, especially from a kitchen or bath remodel.
We’re concerned about finding comps when it comes time to sell our home. We always took the approach “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. As a result, our home is a combination of modest mid-century originals (cabinets, wood flooring, plumbing fixtures, windows) and new (appliances as needed, roofing, HVAC, HWH, paint). Surrounding home sales (not many lately) varied from high 200’s (if barely touched), to 500’s (with new kitchen and baths, windows, appliances, mechanicals) to over 1 mil (brand new small development down the block). That’s a HUGE spread!
Had we “updated” 20 years ago, it would look old now. But our kitchen & baths are actually original, and we’ve been given totally conflicting advice by realtors. Some say update everything for a quick sale. Buyers don’t want to spend the time, or have the money or skills to renovate. Others say the original mid-century vibe is actually a positive, although who knows how long that trend will continue.
We would probably sell sooner if we knew we were in the middle group, and could get something smaller but slightly nicer. But we won’t know until we sell!