The Biggest Seller Mistake a seller will make in today's buyer's market is setting the price on their home based on last years prices. Lets face it. It's a very competitive market out there. Buyers know that even better than you do. So when you interview a real estate broker in anticipation of listing your home and getting it sold, don't let an inexperienced Real Estate Broker "buy your listing" by telling you what you want to hear. This can turn out to be disastrous for you in the long run. Keep reading to find out why.

Setting the price to list your home or property is part science and part art. It involves comparing homes of similar size and amenities that have recently sold in the area. Adjustments are made for differences as no two homes are exactly the same. A Realtor's Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) should be utilized to help determine the correct asking price and you need an experienced Realtor to lead you in the process. The reality is that it does not matter what you you "want" for your house or how much you "need to get". It doesn't even matter what your Real Estate Broker says your house is worth. The person whose opinion matters is the person thinking about buying your house. A home will sell for what a buyer is willing to pay for the house and what a seller is willing to accept.

If your house is priced to low; you often will receive multiple offers driving the selling price up to market value.  Realtors often have customers for which they are searching for particular properties and if one becomes available, they contact their customers immediately. Thus there is little danger of pricing to low. The problems begin when you overprice your home and select a Real Estate Broker based on price alone.

Now listen carefully. The best chances to sell your home in a buyers market is in first 3 weeks after it is put on the market. Especially in a soft market where home prices are still falling. Why is this so? When a new house first goes on the market it is fresh, kind of like the new kid on the block. It gets the attention of Real Estate Brokers and customers alike! When a new home comes up on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), if it is priced right, and real estate brokers will know when it is priced right, they quickly realize it is a property that is likely to sell. So they will check their prospect list and immediately get to work trying to sell this property before someone beats them to it. They are motivated to get to work for you. On the flip side, when a new home comes on the market and the Realtors perceive it to be overpriced, they will avoid it like the plague. It won't get shown when it is new to the market during the time it has the best potential to sell. It grows stale. Other Realtors wonder what is wrong with it. After a while the owner gets frustrated that their house is not getting shown. The owners decide to drop the price in hopes of generating some traffic. However they have lost some of the important momentum that came with a new listing, and it is still overpriced. More time is lost, more frustration on the part of the sellers. You are tired of having to keep your home in immaculate shape so it can be shown on the spur of the moment. And the market has fallen some more. By chasing the market down, Realtors and potential buyers are no longer even viewing your home in person or online because it has become stale. There are murmurs "Oh, that is that same house that has been on the market forever." or "They want way too much for that home!"

Can you see why it is so critical to price your house correctly from the start? Consider this example. By the time the last agent was hired to list this home, the seller had grown weary and exhausted. It was now 12 months later. Together, the seller and her agent priced the home at $695,000. It immediately sold for all cash. The sad part is the comparable sales in the neighborhood fully justified a price of $835,000, but the home had been on the market far too long and at the wrong price, and now the market had softened. The question is how much money have those expired listings cost the sellers? The financial loss often exceeds the extra mortgage payments paid and goes beyond the uncompensated hassle factor of trying to keep a home spotless during showings. It affects the value that a buyer ultimately chooses to pay because it's not a fresh listing anymore. It's now stale, dated, a market-worn home that was overpriced for too long. Don't let it happen to you. Don't be that seller of an expired listing.