Use Your Web Site to Help Sellers Set Prices for a Successful Sale

 September 4, 2015

forsale

Sellers often have an erroneous idea of the value of their home. Most overvalue it which isn’t surprising. After all they want, maybe even need to get top dollar The have been at least reasonably comfortable in their home for a long time which means they don’t see it from a buyers point of view. Finally sellers truly have no clue about how the real estate market works.

A list of comps usually isn’t very helpful unless they happen to know the properties involved. They probably don’t nor should you expect them to.

Your website can educate sellers about pricing

You can use your website to help sellers begin to gain a better understanding of the real estate market in several ways.

  • Help them understand the real estate market is hyper-local

With a little prep you can demonstrate that the price of homes is truly local – very local. You could, for example show how the prices vary from one neighborhood to the next using homes shown through your multiple listing service to compare and contrast prices in various locations.

  • Show them the difference between staged and un-staged properties

Using the pictures of various properties that display through your website, you can demonstrate how much better a staged home looks than a non-staged or vacant home.

Some homes may actually need a cosmetic remodeling to get the best price possible. You may be able to demonstrate this with pictures of lightly remodeled homes contrasted with those that aren’t to give sellers a feel for why spending money to sell the home can make sense.

  • Let them see their own clutter on your website

A house with dirty dishes in the sink, stacks of magazines in the living room and clutter in the bathrooms and bedrooms makes it almost impossible to sell at a decent price. Strange as it may seem, people who are used to living in clutter don’t really see it, which means their version of tidy is likely to be quite different than yours and the buyer.

Taking pictures of the clutter can actually help the sellers see it. If you’re feeling really creative, you can temporarily upload those pix to a page on your site. Usually when sellers actually understand how poorly their home presents they will make the effort to clean up.

Articles and checklists

A few articles and a couple of checklists on your site can go a long way toward helping education potential sellers about how the real estate market actually works.

You could for instance, write an article or two that includes information like this:

  • The concept of fair market value as a function only of willing buyer, willing seller
  • Why the seller’s needs have nothing to do with a price that actually sells.
  • Why the seller’s original purchase price has nothing to do with a price that will actually sell now.
  • Why home prices can vary so widely on the same street in the same neighborhood.

Helpful check lists could include:

  • A checklist for de-cluttering.
  • A checklist for curb appeal.
  • A checklist for back yards
  • A pricing checklist

Checklists and articles will provide solid, original information for sellers, which not only will help them, but will improve the quality of your website.

Do you have questions about using your site to help sellers reach realistic prices? Ask them here and we’ll get answers for you.

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Anne Wayman

By Anne Wayman

Before Anne Wayman became a writer she sold real estate in Southern California. She worked with her father who learned the business from his father. Not surprisingly she learned a few things along the way. Since then, she has been freelance writing for over 30 years – she is a grandmother, loves cats and writes about a wide variety of topics including real estate.