Seller myths: How to fail, Part 3

Many different seller myths persist when actively on the market. Explore some of the most damaging ones that can hurt your efforts to find and keep the right buyer.

Please read the prior post about seller myths here.

“Getting an offer quickly is a bad thing”

If your home is priced well for the current market, there is a fairly strong like­li­hood that it may see an offer pretty quickly. With that, many may think: “If we got an offer this quickly, if we wait I bet we’ll get a better one”, or “Maybe we’re priced too low”… Famous last words.

You may get another offer, then again you may not. Negotiate with the first buyer in good faith and see where it goes — if they end up agreeing to a deal you’re happy with then you get what you wanted, espe­cial­ly ben­e­fi­cial if another buyer doesn’t happen to make an offer. If nego­ti­at­ing with them goes nowhere, then just move on.

Perhaps you think that your home was priced too low if an offer comes in quickly. “We don’t want to give our home away,” I’ve heard many times. Because most buyers have been looking for a while when they see your home, they likely know what they want, recognize it’s priced well and just pull the trigger before someone else does.

“Buyers don’t do their own research”

Buyers cannot be fooled these days. With infor­ma­tion comes power, and for­tu­nate­ly for both buyers and sellers, the infor­ma­tion is out there. If you’re a seller thinking that a buyer won’t know much, think again. Homebuyers are more informed than ever before.

Interpreting that infor­ma­tion is where realtors prove their worth, and there’s never been a time where it’s more important to work with a knowl­edge­able and expe­ri­enced agent. If a buyer has an agent worth their salt, you will not be able to hoodwink them into paying more than the market will bear.

Thinking the market owes you something

It would be great if every seller had a guarantee that the money they’ve sunk into their home would auto­mat­i­cal­ly be reim­bursed in full by their next buyer. Analyzing it logically, you know it’s not true. But when you’re a seller who has already spent that money, emotions take over.

You know and have thought about your plans for your next home. “If I can only get $x out of this home, I can afford the home I want.” If the home you’re selling can’t do that, you’ll either need to plan to stay put, or adjust your expec­ta­tions. Unfortunate but true, the market doesn’t care what you owe or what you need to get, for you or anyone else.

Saying “We’re not in a hurry” works

Perhaps you’re not in a hurry, or you just want to take the process slowly. Maybe you really don’t care if you sell unless you get your exact price. Knowing where your line in the sand is is a good thing.

Just don’t think that having your agent tell an inter­est­ed buyer “we’re not in any hurry” will dra­mat­i­cal­ly increase their urgency. It won’t. What it will likely do is leave them thinking that the seller is hard-headed and not worth even nego­ti­at­ing with.

When a seller is on the market, they are there for one reason only — to sell their home. And like it or not, it’s like being at the fifth-grade dance, leaning against the wall waiting for someone to ask you to dance. The buyer knows that you want to sell, otherwise you wouldn’t be on the market.

Thinking sellers control the market

There are several aspects that share control of the market as a whole. Sellers are one part of course, but none have absolute control over it:

• Sellers control the supply
• Buyers control the demand
• Banks control the cost and access to money
• Only the market itself controls the market

As a seller, you are in control of some things: your list price, how your home is presented, when it can be seen by prospec­tive buyers, and how you respond to any offers that come forth. Sellers do not, however, control the market.