Using Comps is the best way to show homeowners why pricing properly will help sell their home faster.
By Darryl Davis, CSP, a guest contributor to ProspectingToday
As real estate professionals in a seller’s market, we occasionally come up against a homeowner that is committed to pricing his home a little TOO high above market value. Even after you show him the comps and try to set the expectations at a more realistic level, they remain firm in their belief they can get that much for their home.
The Approach
My advice? Take the listing, even if the seller is adamant about the higher price, BUT, include a post-dated price reduction. Sit down with the homeowner and use a tool like our Price Pyramid to show the seller why comps will show the recommended listing price for the property is between this number and that number, and that is the reason why you are recommending this price.
The Dialogue
However, if the homeowner is still committed to listing higher, this is what you are going to say: “I am willing to try it if you want to try listing at this price. I’m willing to be wrong, I’m just recommending this price based on the comps, which is the same set of comps that the bank is going to look at. But, if you want to try it at this higher price to see what happens, we can do that. But here’s the thing. If, after a month, if we haven’t gotten at least one offer, would you agree to adjust the price based on my advice in using the comps?”
As a real estate coach, I can tell you that the clear communication is the key here, especially with the market the way it is right now. Be willing to be wrong, show them the comps, and tell them. “We can play full out, but at some point, if we are playing full-out and the market tells us that we’re wrong, then we’re going to go with my number.” Get this plan in writing, outlining the plan according to what parameters everyone agrees to.
About Your Author Darryl Davis, CSP, Speaker, Coach, Author
Darryl has been spoken to, trained, and coached more than 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe. He is a bestselling author for McGraw-Hill Publishing, and his book, How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate tops Amazon’s charts for most sold book to real estate agents. His real estate training system The Power Program®, proven to help agents double their production over their previous year. Darryl is currently hosting weekly free webinars to help agents navigate change and grow their business. Learn more at www.DarrylSpeaks.com/Online-Training.
