In my experience, this would be the main question a potential home seller has in their mind when considering (or not) to sell their home.

Let’s first explore who is not going to establish the market value. Not me! Not another agent! Not an appraiser! And definitely not you, the homeowner! Not the money you spent on the remodels, not the money you would like to net, or the money you need to buy your next home. Not the same amount that your neighbor sold two weeks, two months or two years ago!

If we look through this perspective, the answer becomes easier – the market is the one deciding the price. The today’s market value is defined by how much a well qualified buyer is willing to pay immediately for this exact type of property, in this particular location and condition (irrespective it is about a cash buyer or a mortgage buyer).

In the strategic blueprint you have a number of pages where I am diving inside this subject. They will present you with different vantage points, so you can see the whole picture, and understand the criteria to answer to this question.

Pricing a home is one of the most difficult and tedious activities a REALTOR® has to do. Maybe you saw in TV shows agents entering into a home, having a look and decreeing: “This is a 4.5 million mansion”. This is a TV show. It is far from the reality.

First, I have to look at the home in the same way an appraiser will (to eliminate future bad surprises, when you have a contract for $500,000 from a buyer willing to pay this price but the appraisal come in short by $25,000 … that’s the perfect beginning for a storm … who is going to bite the bullet? Will the seller decrease the price by $25k? Will the buyer come with $25k extra cash to cover the gap?) and come up with a value that is coherent with the market.

Then I am going through a time-tested approach, designed to minimize the possibility of occurrence for any bad things that happens until a successful closing.

In my thorough analysis I am using a well polished combination of three tools: a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), an Absorption Rate Analysis and my unique and proprietary Dynamic Neighborhood Analysis^TM (tool that I developed within years of practice). During our face-to-face pre-listing meeting I will be able to provide you with all the information to allow you to base your pricing decision upon.

We need also to consider the upgrades and remodels you did or intend to do until putting the home on the market. You might think that an added pool, that you plan to spend $120,000 for at your $500,000 home will add a lot of value, isn’t it?

Not quite right. An appraisal is allowed to value this improvement at no more than 10% of the home value. So, he will add maximum $50,000 to the home market value, irrespectively of your spending. Also, if this an upgrade that the market did not require, and the buyers in that particular area (subdivision, or even street) will not value, it could be money poured on the drain.

Anyway, as a part of my services, after thoroughly going through your home, and after the needed time to process all the market information, I will pinpoint the price at which the data shows that we’ll sell immediately, then within 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days.

It is a difficult task to check where the market was in the last months for your city, neighborhood and even street … but the true challenge is to decipher how the market will most probably evolve and where the data shows that your home will be situated in one, two and three month versus the other homes (quasi-similar both in condition and price) that will enter and exit the market.

Because the market evolves with different speed in different areas, and in different price bands or brackets. It is not uncommon to have the result of the DNA showing that two homes on the same street, located in otherwise similar bands and very close groups are in fact inside different markets (one in a seller’s and one in a buyer’s market).

Circling back, if you decide to hire me, I will let you know what I am thinking about where your home stands, and I will pinpoint the best price to list, in my professional opinion, based on the data we’ll have in front of our eyes, the condition of the home, the marketing package you chose, and the experience and expertise I developed in the Real Estate field.

This price point will be based on your personal objectives and it will be only my recommendation (which is more of an opinion than a fact), because no one can know “per se” the price at which a home will sell …we can only estimate the best chances to sell at different price points based on the best tools we can use.

Immediately after that the power shifts to you. From my perspective, this is your home, and your hard-earned equity, so it is pretty much yours to choose the price you want to ask for. I will listen, and provide my feedback on your choice, and we’ll take it from there.

But in that particular point you become “in charge”. It is your call and your choice. I will never fight for a certain price. I will only do my best to gather the data, process it and find the sweet spot of pricing that will help you attain your objective. And if we both see that we are in truly opposite corners on this issue, or any other essential things pertaining to your home listing, I will have no hesitation in letting you know that I will refrain myself to take your listing.

When in this situation, I always prefer to not take the listing than to disappoint you three or six months from now, when you home will not sell. In such a case I will be happy to direct you towards an agent that will be a better fit for you to work with, because I feel that taking an overpriced listing with no chance to be sold would be a huge disservice to you, my client!

My personal work ethic is based on getting you the results we agreed upon. It is not about my efforts. Up to a certain extent my efforts does not matter. If I have to put 110% I’ll just do it. I am willing to do whatever it takes to maximize the chances of success for your project, because I hate to start a future discussion with “well, I did my best but we have no chance to sell this home“.

You do not care about how hard I tried … You care only about the discussed results, and this is perfectly acceptable. I prefer to be direct, upfront letting you know exactly what I believe, based on a no-BS approach. If it’s meant to work together, we will do it. If not, there is no problem. I’ll help you find a great guy or gal (if you want) and I will be on my merry way 🙂 … helping sellers that value my experience, expertise, outspoken personality, and high level of services I am striving to provide.

Incidentally, this is the reason for offering my clients the option to fire me whenever they are not happy with my level of service. If you feel I am not representing you at my best at any future moment, there is no penalty for you to cancel the listing agreement (other than reimbursing the marketing expenses already incurred). So, as opposed to a contract with another agent in which you will be locked for 180 or even 360 days with no recourse, when we will be in an agreement I have to prove, and deliver each and every day … ’cause otherwise you have the power to cancel!. So I have to work hard and deliver results … and that’s OK.