4 Things That Are Hard for Real Estate Agents to Prove to Sellers… Until It’s Too Late

Agents see (and help clients avoid) a lot of mistakes over the course of their career — and because of this, they’re a great source of insight and wisdom. The problem is, it’s often difficult to prove many of the things they know are true or not.

Unfortunately, most people don’t sell a house all that often, so it’s really a live and learn situation. It’s generally only after the dust has settled that can they truly assess whether the advice they received from their agent was solid or not.

While there are exceptions to every rule, there are certain pieces of advice that sellers often ignore, which end up costing them money. Here are 4 things that are hard for agents to prove, but you should listen to if you don’t want to lose money on the sale of your house:

1) The First Offer Is Probably Going to Be Your Best Offer

More often than not, if a seller passes on an offer hoping for a better one to come in later on, they regret that decision because they end up receiving lower offers.

2) Overpricing Your House Can Cost You

Whether it’s just wishful thinking, or building in some “wiggle room” to be able to negotiate, many sellers opt to list their house for higher than their agent recommends. Rather than fetching a higher sales price, overpricing often leads to a house lingering on the market far too long. This, in turn, makes buyers think something is wrong with it, which leads to less demand and lower offers.

3) You’ll Lose Money if You Sell Your Own House

Selling your own house in order to save thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in commission, sounds pretty appealing… until you learn that not using a real estate agent can cost you tens of thousands in profit. In fact, a recent survey revealed that people who sold their own house were three times more likely to say they lost money on the sale of their house than those who worked with an agent.

4) Timing the Market Is Almost Impossible

Selling your house at the peak of the market is fantastic, but trying to time it (i.e. waiting to list your house when the market has peaked) is virtually impossible. While it may sting a little to sell your house only to see values rise even more in the near future, it certainly hurts a lot less than waiting and having to sell your house for less than you could have months before!