Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast here in

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan Mccune realtor right here in

the Greenville, Market you can find all

of my contact information in the show

notes if you need out to reach out to me

for any of your real estate needs here

in Greenville or elsewhere, I can

connect you with Realtors all over the

country and just a reminder as

always please like, rate, review, subscribe

all of those good things with regard

to the show make sure we get the show

out to as many people as possible make

sure you don't miss future episodes I

would hate that and yeah that's

all I ask of you guys is to please do

those things if you can leave a kind

review and a five star rating that

would mean a lot to me so thank you to

those that have done that the more we

can get to the

marrier today I want to talk about

not just numbers and data and all these

different things that we tend to talk

about and I also don't want to just

talk about Vibes either that's why I

I I talk about data a lot is so that

we Center conversations about real

estate on what's actually happening not

what feels like is happening but

sometimes this can just all be a little

bit abstract I want to make it very

practical sometimes these

conversations I will kind of allude

to different practical elements of of

buying and selling real estate in this

market but today specifically I want

to discuss strategies for how to

approach this shifting market right

because it's much different if you're

buying or selling real estate right now

it's much different than it was a

year ago two years ago even six months

ago and so it's one thing to talk

about the data it's another thing to

talk about well how does the data and

how does what's happening influence our

strategy and so that's what I want to

discuss today we're going to go through

Five Points five strategic points for

buyers and five strategic points for

Sellers and we're going to kick things

off with Buyers here's first and

foremost and some of this if you

guys are are longtime listeners of the

show or longtime Watchers of the of

the show on YouTube some of this is

going to be repeat of some other

things that I've said but it still Bears

repeating number one for buyers my

advice to you for

strategically considering what to do

in this in the shifting Market is first

off ignore

dorismar rative they'll focus on a

market like San Francisco which is very

different than almost any other Market

in the US or a market like like Boise

very different than almost any other

Market in the US but then they'll make

it sound like well this is happening

everywhere well not necessarily

and dumer ISM in case you're not

familiar with that term it's it's

not exactly a term that I coin but I use

it quite a bit doomeris is people

that we call doomers in in real

estate they just want the market to

crash that's that is they're obsessed

with it they've been Prett icting since

2012 that the housing market is going to

crash they've been wrong every single

year since

2012 and these people have massive

massive social media followings because

there's all these people that are just

angry and that they feel like they've

been left behind and they don't care if

the entire economy crashes in fact they

want the entire economy to crash because

they want everyone else to feel the

despair that they feel and so doomers

let me tell you I see this all over

all over social media right now there's

like an account on Twitter called

like Darth Powell there's another one

unusual whales and and these accounts

aren't just straight Doomer accounts

they do provide Sometimes some useful

information on on what's happening in

you know in the economy and

whatnot but often times once they start

weighing into the housing market they

start pulling out their charts and

making all sorts of false comparisons

okay so for instance they will compare

month-on-month

percentages for things that are

rising from record lows so for instance

they will look at delinquencies

people that are are are starting to run

into issues with racking up too much

credit and they will compare month-

on-month what's happening and it'll be

like whoa delinquency is R raised 200%

from from May into June and that and

you hear that you're like oh my gosh

the entire economy is about to crash if

delinquencies are up 200% in one month

well okay guess what if you go from

from one delinquency to three

delinquencies delinquencies have gone up

200% but three delinquencies is not very

many delinquencies but these are the

sorts of games that they'll play and

they'll show charts that are misleading

that make it seem like things are

spiraling out of control when in fact

these charts are extremely deceptive

they're trying to

use a narrative here's another one

they'll frequently do they will do year

on-year comparisons but they will end

they will only show the year- on-year

comparisons going through a certain

year and it's very strategic the the

years and months that they will use and

oftentimes what they'll do is they'll do

it through 2021 well what was 2021 2021

was the craziest of crazy housing

markets that we've ever had and then

they will compare the market today to

the market Market in 2021 and then say

we we are in a 2008 scenario the

market is crashing like it did in 2008

what they failed to do is to take the

chart all the way back to 2008 if they

did that or took it back to 2006 or 2007

you would see that what they are saying

is completely misleading so they they

will manipulate the charts and the data

with only certain dates and only

certain time frames that fit a narrative

and that don't actually tell you what's

really happening if you're watching

on YouTube I'm going to Simply share

with you guys a few charts from a Blog

called calculated risk and I really like

calculated risk because they don't

have a dog in the fight right this is a

a guy Bill McBride who who runs

this website he accurately predicted

the 2008 crash years in advance and

he's been very good for a very long

time in terms of of his analysis and

and he's he's not a realtor mortgage

lender or anything like that he simply

analyzes the housing market and his data

tends to be very accurate so these are

the sorts of people that I try to get my

data from rather than narrative pushers

so here is what the calculator Risk

blog they you know have pulled

serious delinquency rates from

multiple data sources and and if

you're watching on YouTube you can see

the chart basically we're at record lows

right less than 1% total number of

single family homes are in serious

delinquency which is 90 plus days

or in foreclosure at that point so 90

plus days in delinquency or in total

foreclosure how does that compare

that's as low as you can see basically

anywhere on this chart I mean there were

some stretches where the Fanny May

index had it a little bit lower in the

early 2000s

but otherwise in more recent time period

basically since 2008 we are at basically

the lowest levels that we've ever been

at let me let me share another

one close this one

out how about multif family serious

delinquencies so that was single family

what about multif family well multif

Family actually is kind of high right

and and this is something to to keep in

mind is that multif family and it's

still a very small small percent of

total number of multif family loans it's

it's point it's not even quite 0

4% but in in terms of recent history

going back all the way to 2012 it's

actually quite High and so that's

something to keep in mind if you if you

want to be concerned about something in

housing the multif Family Market is the

one to be to be looking at closely

not the single family market so there is

something to be said for that but guess

what these doomers are never talking

about the multif Family Market they're

only ever talking about the single

family when they have these discussions

so let's go back to here's another

chart from calculative risk let's just

go back to prices as a whole because

this is what you keep hearing prices are

are are really low in comparison to what

they could be and in comparison to

what they were a few years ago we're

going through a crash again and and

again it just it you can look at

different charts but there's a lot of

data that just says that's not true

looking at the cas Cas Schiller

National and composite indices you

see that from composite 10 composite 20

and the national index they're all at

all-time highs and the trend which is

the most important thing is going up

right they did have a dip there was a

dip that happened in 200 in 2023

it happened well really going back to

20 22 this is when the market started to

shift as a result of mortgage rates

going up but then in January 2023 it

hit the bottom and then it started to go

back up and reminder that bottom

that it hit in January 2023 was still

insanely high and so these are the sorts

of things that I'm looking at when I can

say that hey home prices are at

record highs and the trend is that they

are continuing to go in that direction

and so ignore consers don't don't

listen to these headlines that tell

you that the sky is falling and

everything's crashing listen to the

celling Greenville podcast because I

will tell you guys you guys will be the

first ones to find out if the if the

market is crashing because I simply want

to provide the best data and I yeah I

I would love for the for the market to

continue to to be good but I've said

multiple times I don't think that this

is a good

market and what I

am I opposed to a crash crash would be

fine for me right I represent a lot of

Real Estate Investors if I had if

if the the Greenville Market had a big

crash my Real Estate Investors would be

doing great I also invest in real

estate myself that would be great for me

so I don't have a dog in this

fight I simply try to track what's going

on in the market to try to be educated

for myself and for my clients all

right I spent a lot of time on that

we're not going to spend this much time

on all on all 10 points here so let's

go on to point number two with regard

to buyer strategies so once you've

ignored all the dumers the next thing

you need to to do is don't count on any

major mortgage rate decreases until

maybe 2025 and I'm G to add this into

the equation as well don't count on a

certain person winning the presidential

election to swing mortgage rates okay

I I keep hearing these two things from

people they I think mortgage rates are

going to see some big decreases very

soon and I keep hearing people saying

that specifically Donald Trump that he's

going to come in he's going to clean

things up and mortgage rates are going

to go down everything's going to be

hunky dory again I don't believe

either of those things all right so

let's start with the mortgage rate

decreases predictions right now are

that the FED is going to make one

rate adjustment one decrease off the

federal funds rate this year that's what

most are projecting it could be more it

could be less we we don't know yet it

could be in September it could be

November again there's a lot it

could be today we we don't know what

we don't know just yet I'm recording

this on on July

30th and and so we'll we'll have

to wait and see but the every

indication that the FED has made is that

they are going to be very very cautious

they're going to make calculated

decisions and what they're going to do

is they're going to probably reduce the

rate a little bit and then wait and see

what happens and then reduce the rate a

little bit more and wait for a few

months to see what happens and so forth

and so on I don't see them you know

taking the federal funds rate down 100

basis points ju overnight like I

don't see that happening, I think it's

going to be 0.25 at a time so rates

right now you know on mortgage news

daily are in like the 6.8 range you

know maybe if buyers are are lucky we

get two rate decreases in over the

next over the rest of the year and we

can get that number down to like

6.3 but again it probably won't even go

down to 6.3 because I think some of

these rate decreases have already been

priced into that 6.8 mortgage rate so

maybe we get to

6.5 that's not a major major rate

reduction that's not going to to move

the needle for most people now next year

all bets are off we don't know what's

going to happen next year could we

see mortgage rates go down into the

fives I think it's possible I'm not

banking on it but it it'll all depend

on what the FED sees right if

unemployment job openings and other

inflation data is favorable for

the FED to make rate reductions then

they will at that point but I don't at

this point I don't think you can

count on anything

for a year or so that's that's if I

were a buyer I would assume that

probably not until the latter half of

next year will we see substantial rate

decreases when it comes to the federal

funds rate and when it comes to mortgage

rates with regard to the presidential

election again the Federal Reserve is

nonpartisan right now Trump he can

appoint

people to the FED

but and and I've said before that it

there is a very good chance within

the next 10 years that there's a

president that tries to make the FED

partisan so that's very possible but

I don't think this is going to happen

within the next you know six to 12

months I think that that would be

something that would take years and

years for a president to pull off and

and regardless the fed's not going to

listen to what Trump says they they're

just aren't they they aren't listening

to what members of Congress are

telling them President Biden hasn't

really said a whole lot to to or

about the Fed so they don't have to

listen to him Harris hasn't really

said a whole lot so so I just don't

think that who wins the presidency is

really going to impact rates really

at all now they could impact it in

the wrong way right if Trump starts to

start you know passing out checks to

people like he did during the pandemic

and and starts doing you know

stimulus that's the word I'm looking for

if we start seeing stimulus payments

come in and then inflation takes off we

could actually see rates go in the

opposite direction we could see the

Federal Reserves start to almost fight

with the White House over inflation

that would be the worst case scenario so

it could actually go in the in the

opposite direction if the right or

wrong things happen so don't count on

major rate decreases until maybe the

latter half of of 2025 number three

price reductions okay they're happening

everywhere and if you're a buyer you are

super excited about that

but there's a warning do not do not get

greedy and lowball a good opportunity

when a seller has just lowered their

price I I have a listing right now it's

it's been a very challenging listing for

me to sell for a variety of reasons

and we we finally had to we had three

contracts fall through we finally had

to reduce the the list price

pretty dramatically and so so that's

what we did we reduced it we did a big

price reduction in order to just get

this home sold sellers were were

ready to move

on and and so that's what we did and

we immediately started getting offers

and one of the offers was an offer from

a you know not an investor just a

normal person looking for a house for

themselves $20,000 below our reduced

list price well that's too aggressive

I'm sorry one when already a major price

reduction has happened and it's just

happened you don't come in with an offer

that's $20,000 below that aggressive

price reduction it is not a good

strategy because odds are there are

going to be better offers on the table

so guess what my clients accepted a

different offer and after they had

already accepted it and by that point

I had already rejected and sent an

official rejection form to the other

offer then the other the the offer that

was $20,000 low they came back and they

said okay we're going to make a full

price offer now well it was too late my

clients had already accepted a full

price offer and and by the way even

if they had come up to that price there

were other terms in there they had made

the entire offer buyer friendly

and again it was just it was too much of

like oh they made this big price

reduction well I guess we can just

lowball them and make all these terms

buyer friendly it does not work that way

once the seller has made their price

reduction they want to see how it plays

out and they're hoping to get 100% of

that price reduction particularly for a

home that's bet under contract multiple

times at a higher price you can assume

that those contracts were for a higher

price than now the reduced list

amount and so do not get greedy if

you see a big price reduction on a home

that you're interested in

operate under the assumption that

there's going to be multiple offers

after that price reduction happened and

you need to be more aggressive not less

aggressive more aggressive to try to

move forward and get that house and

by aggressive I mean aggressively try

to make your offer appealing to the

seller rather than being aggressive as a

buyer trying to just get the price lower

and lower and

lower Point number four for buyers

figure out what makes the seller tick

okay in this market there is a lot of

stuff going on right now with you

know people selling real estate like I

said there's a lot of price reductions a

lot of contracts falling through

oh what just

happened I just had a

weird AI meeting notes thing pop up on

on Zoom so if you see that on the

YouTube video I don't know if that's

going to appear or not I apologize

for that but figure out what makes

the seller tick like I said sellers have

a lot going on right now and some of

them are you know they're still

adjusting to the shifting Market as well

we're about to get to the sellers

here in a second but for some of them

what makes them tick is is they just

want the highest they just want the

highest price some of them they just

want to sell as is they don't want to

mess around with repairs some of them

they're just looking for the right buyer

someone that they feel like is

well approved and all of that and

they're willing to kind of Fudge on some

other things and as a buyer and me as a

buyer agent one of the things I try to

do is to try to figure out what is it

what is that thing that sellers are

looking for right now and it's it's Case

by case right so if you're a buyer

you're wanting to buy a house and you

want me to write an offer I'm going to

try to figure that out there's there's

ways actually you can figure that out

from the listing itself right the way a

listing is is presented by a listing

agent usually there are little clues in

there and then usually I have a

conversation with the listing agent as

well to kind of you know discuss hey

what do we need to do in order to get

this thing under contract that is a

great strategy when the market is

Shifting like this number five and

lastly for buyers focus on monthly costs

more than total purchase price I cannot

tell you how important this

is people don't understand that your

monthly payment is so much more

important I mean I can't tell you how

many people I have this conversation

with your monthly payment is so much

more important than that top line

purchase price number and this is where

a lot of buyers are getting hosed right

now is because you know they're

like I want to move in this neighborhood

and the prices are you know at this

price and I just want to you know I I

I just want to move there and they don't

think about oh wow this is going to be

$3,000 a month that I'm gonna have to

pay moving in here or conversely

they might get really fixated on that

house is overpriced by $10,000 in my

head we need to get we need to get

them down

$110,000 okay how does that impact your

monthly payment think about it through

that lens because you're going to have

an appraisal you're going to have all

these things done you need to focus more

on what the monthly figure is than the

total purchase price because this is

where I keep seeing buyers getting hosed

because they are they are so fixated

on the Topline number what the actual

contract or sales price is that they're

not thinking about the practical goal

which is what am I actually going to be

paying each month and oftentimes the

conversation really shifts once buyers

start to think about it through that

lens and when you've got a market like

this where mortgage rates are

fluctuating prices are at an all-time

high affordability is at an all-time

low really you need to be thinking

about this from a monthly payment

standpoint and not so fixated on what

that Topline number is those are my five

tips for buyers I'm about to get into

strategies for sellers but first we need

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today all right let's talk about

strategies for sellers first and

foremost this is one of my favorite

things to do and and here's what

happens let me give some context for

a second sometimes sellers will list a

house for sale and an offer will

immediately come in and if the buyer's

agent knew what he or she was doing they

made a very good offer to the seller

right because the home just came on the

market if the buyer really wants it for

a home that's just come on the market

you need to make a compelling

offer well flip over to the seller side

they might see that compelling offer and

just be like I mean it has everything I

want it has everything I'm asking for

let's just accept this here's what I

like to do in these situations I like to

always counter an offer like that really

any offer and there are some

exceptions there are times when you're

desperate as a seller maybe you maybe

your home has been on the market for a

really long time and that offer comes in

and you're just in a position of

desperation you're just like you know

what I can't handle anymore back and

forth just accept it I get that but

generally speaking it's good advice to

always counter an offer that you're

thinking about accepting even if it's

just a verbal counter why because you

want to see how the buyer handles it if

the buyer can't handle a little back and

forth before going under contract how

are they going to handle it when the

inspection report comes in and the

inspection report shows a bunch of stuff

that needs to be done how are they going

to handle it when when the appraisal

comes in the appraisal comes in low how

are they going to handle it when they

hit some other kind of rough spot in the

transaction the only way to know and

there I mean and there's not a way to

know but the best way to try to find out

is by actually having a little bit of

countering and a little bit of back and

forth on the front end before you

actually get under contract

it's always you always get good Intel

and it gives me Intel from the

standpoint of me communicating with a

buyer agent what is this what's this

buyer agent like how do they handle it

do they handle confrontation well and

in this market this shifting

Market where buyers are really

flaky, I feel like this is more important

than of ever so use that ability to

counter in your toolkit when you are

trying to sell a property right

don't just accept the first offer

without doing any sort of countering

even if it's just a really minor Point

again all we want to do is to assess the

buyer and the buyer's agent how they

handle these sorts of confrontational

situations number two for sellers do not

overprice under any sorry do not

overprice under any circumstances

whatsoever do not do it this Market is

brutal if you are trying to overprice

the property don't to it stick to what

the property is worth even maybe a hair

below what you think it's worth just to

be safe you will get more money in the

long run, I did the study several

years ago if you've been a listener for

four years you already heard this I I

analyzed solds in Greenville and

looked at homes that had had to have big

price reductions and I Define big price

reductions as 15,000 or more and then I

analyzed how did the those homes that

had the price reduction Fair on a price

per square foot versus the homes that

did not have price reductions or didn't

have as large price reductions and the

difference was $12 a square foot the

homes that had the big price reductions

ended up selling for $12 a square foot

less than homes that did not have to

have that big of a price reduction now

$12 doesn't sound like much but if it's

a 3,000 square foot house that's

$36,000 remember this is $12 a square

foot do you want to lose out on

$36,000 I don't know very many people

that just want to throw that away well

if you're overpricing your home you are

throwing away money because the the

listing will get stale and then the and

then you'll have to reduce the price and

then you'll get these people that make

these that see blood in the water and

that attack like sharks and make lowball

offers and it's just it creates a death

spiral for your listing you that you

don't want to happen got another example

for you I had someone reach out to me a

few months ago they wanted to sell a

house I'm just going to I'm I'm not

going to give the the the the real

numbers here they wanted to sell a

house we we'll just say for

500,000 and well actually back up

for a second they didn't tell me that

they didn't tell me what they wanted to

sell it for they told me hey we've got

this house we're interested in in

listing it with you you were referred

to us by some close to us can you go

to the house and tell us what you think

about it tell us what you think it's

worth so I went I looked at the house

and I said it's worth $450,000 again

I'm just throwing out a number this this

this is a real scenario but I'm I'm

making up specifics so as you know to

not leave anyone hanging out there I

never talk about my clients on the show

in a way that that you can identify them

so

$450,000 is what I said was worth and

I was very confident on that and and

so they got back with me a little bit

later and they said hey we found another

agent that was willing to list the house

for 550,000 and that's who we're going

to use well I was I was like that's fine

it's your house like I never get upset

when someone use uses another agent

because it's a free market they're

allowed to do that and so they listed

it for that price and eventually the

price I I I was watching and I saw it go

on the market I was I thought the

listing was pretty good outside of the

price there were some other things I

would have tweaked but whatever so

then the price came down

525 500

475 and then finally I got a call from

from the sellers and they were just

like we're firing our agent we want to

relist it with you and I was like well

quite frankly your agent didn't do a

terrible job marketing the property

there's definitely some room for

improvement but you just got come down

on the price I told you what the what

the home was worth and you didn't listen

to me that is the number one thing

you need to fix in order for this home

to be marketable so they did relist it

with me for the price roughly

speaking that I recommended actually

they asked me to go a little bit

above that right so we'll just call

it 460 as opposed to 450 I was like

that's fine I'm willing to do that well

guess what we got under contract for 460

great but then the appraisal came in and

the appraisal came in slightly low very

very slightly

low well the buyer

couldn't the buyer would have had to

back out on the basis of the low

appraisal so they had to come down to

the price of the appraisal well guess

what had they simply listed it at 450

the way it all played out they would

have most likely most likely the

appraisal was so close to that number cu

the appraiser agreed with me right I

didn't communicate that to the appraiser

he basically appraised it for the price

that I had told him to list it for just

slightly below that I'm very very

confident because I know how appraisers

tend to operate it the gap between what

I proposed the list price and what the

appraisal was was so close I bet the

appraiser would have simply matched the

the contract price had we gone under

contract for the amount that I had

proposed for listing it so if they had

listed it for 450 they would have got

under contract for 450 and and most

likely it would have appraised for 450

instead it actually appraised a little

bit lower than that but because the

contract price was even higher the

the appraiser doubled down on on his

price that he had given his value for

the property and they had to go even

lower than the price that I had proposed

I don't know if that was a good

explanation I apologize if that was

confusing but the long story short was

multiple multiple mistakes that were

made in the process of trying to sell

this house and they could have gotten

more money for it in my opinion but

because they were just trying to trick

the market right try to make the market

buy a house for more than it's worth

they ended up selling it for less than

it was worth and this happens over and

over and over again and

unfortunately

sellers T tend to get fixated on these

numbers and and people that haven't

sold a lot of homes don't understand the

process don't understand how these basic

economics and and basic math works

and this is what ends up happening in

the long run number three for sellers

proactively address Repairs by either

fixing them or pricing them into your

list price listen if you know things

that need to be fixed you must you must

fix them okay the this Market is brutal

again to sellers that that have homes

that are that need even the most basic

of repairs just get them fixed or if

you're not going to fix them like for

instance if you've got a fireplace that

you've never used you don't even know if

it works you don't need to go out and

have a Chimney Sweep come in there and

fix all that just put in the listing

that it's selling as is and factor that

into your price right you you but you

can't just ignore the fact that there

are things that need to be fixed you

have to fix them or price it into the

list price because buyers are already

super wary of homes needing repairs and

guess what they're going to see through

it if you just put throw some lipstick

on the pig you know de declutter and

reorganize and whatnot make it good look

good for the photos but then when you

walk through it you see all these issues

buyers are going to see it either during

the walk through either during the

showing or at inspections and and then

you know they'll just back out at that

point or or cause major issues for you

at that point you don't need that

proactively don't be reactive be

proactive back in from 2020 to 2022 we

could be very reactive right I had one

listing that was a complete disaster

needed a ton of work and I was like I I

can sell it actually I had I had a bunch

of these but I had just have one in my

mind that was like this I was like I

think I can sell this well I ended up

needing $ 40,000 worth of repairs we

did it the the seller was willing to do

it he knew he wasn't going to sell it

without doing that I organized all

those repairs I handled the entire thing

for him my seller didn't do anything

besides show up at closing and sign away

to get his

check in this market wouldn't work

that that house that I sold however many

years ago I could not sell in this

market without those $40,000 of repairs

being done in advance or without

reducing the price dramatically and

you're typically having to reduce it for

more than what the repairs are worth so

you you would have to reduce if it's

$40,000 of repairs you'd probably have

to reduce the price by 50 or 60,000 in

order for people to be interested

because people in their minds they're

going to always overinflate the cost

of repairs so just be proactive don't be

reactive number four said this before

but do not try to cut out Buyer Agents

right we're going to have to have a

conversation soon these these

commission changes are coming in a in a

couple of weeks and so I'm I will

be on the front lines with you talking

about that in this podcast but don't

try to cut out Buyer Agents in doing

that right in in saying that you don't

want to work with Buyer Agents or you

you don't want to offer concessions for

Buyer Agents or anything like that

you're you're just hurting yourself

right because you're cutting out the

vast majority of buyers who want or need

Buyer Agents and it's self-defeating to

cut them out and maybe you think and

fairly that buyers should pay for

their own AG I completely get that if

you feel that way very understandable a

lot of people feel that way right now

but remember this is the most

unaffordable Market ever if you're a

buyer and if you're still cutting out if

if you're cutting

out buyers that can't afford their

agents you're cutting out a lot of

buyers a lot of buyers can't afford to

pay for their agents and you say well

forget who cares I don't I don't need to

work with them you're limiting your

buyer pool and you don't want to do that

right we're this is a market where you

need as many buyers as possible in order

to get the best offers possible so do

you need to do everything you can to

make your listing attracted to as many

buyers as possible and one of those

things is to be able to help them to

afford having a buyer agent which almost

every buyer wants right now it's like

95% of buyers want to be represented by

an agent

and they don't want to

be be completely on their own in a

transaction while the seller has their

own agent and so cutting out Buyer

Agents bad idea I'm not going to tell

you you need to do this percent or that

percent or or anything like that

National Association Realtors tells us

those discussions are off limits

nowadays so we'll just move on from that

but you need to consider that the

buyer a lot of buyer are going to need

help with their buyers agents and you as

a seller need to factor that in all

right final Point here final strategy

look at the houses you're competing

against and be realistic a lot of people

get focused on a a lot of other things

when they are listing a home like I had

someone recently tell me about

construction costs okay well based what

it would cost to build this house now

is far more than what I want to sell the

house for that doesn't matter buyers

aren't looking at that unless a buyer is

comparing house to new construction

which very few buyers are are doing all

right most buyers that are looking at

resale homes are comparing that to other

resale homes in that area they're not

comparing it to new

construction I I'll hear people

talk about other things talk about this

price per square foot and and this and

you know all these different things

looking at you know homes that sold a

year ago well the Market's appreciated

by 5% send so here's

listen what buyers are doing right now

when they are looking at homes and and

this is what they're always doing yes

they factor in comps and and things in

the past and they they might Loosely

factor in you know construction costs

and things like that but the primary

thing the you you can't just focus on

all of those periphery things without

focusing on the primary thing the

primary thing that buyers are looking at

when they're looking at your home is

they are comparing it to all the other

homes that are for sale on the market

that is your competition your

competition is not the home in your

neighborhood that sold a year ago your

competition is the home that's for sale

in your neighborhood right now and

unfortunately most people when they do

that I I I have some clients every now

and then that that will actually do that

but often times they struggle with being

realistic in terms of of comparing their

home to other homes and you need to

remember that right now okay inventory

is higher than it's been in a very long

time we've talked about this so if you

have competition if you had competition

two years ago you've got way more

competition now tons of competition so

again this is another thing I hear

people say well my neighbor sold for

blah blah blah blah blah your neighbors

didn't have this much competition okay

you've got to adjust your strategy based

on competition so when you're looking

at okay here are the homes for sale in

in this area or here are the homes for

sale that have these features or or

whatever these are going to be the homes

that I compete against you cannot

nitpick the other houses on the market

in a way you aren't willing to nitpick

your own this is what I'm talking about

with being realistic I I hear this you

you guys have no idea how often I hear

this people will come to me and they'll

try to sell me on why their home is

nicer than all these other homes that

are for

sale that just doesn't work right first

off I'm a real estate professional you

don't need sell me on anything I do this

for a living but guess what buyers that

are that are looking at homes we don't

have the opportunity to make a

presentation comparing this home to all

the other ones that are on the market so

you're the home needs to stand up on its

own it needs to stand out from the

competition and it needs to compare

favorably to the competition and so if

you're just nitpicking all the

competition just saying H that that

house isn't like mine that house is way

worse it's not in as good a shape lousy

FL plan I don't like that neighborhood

as much some of those things might very

well be true but you're just trying to

make yourself feel better about your own

home and you're trying to make your

agent feel better about your own home

and it doesn't work you cannot fool the

market by fooling yourself or by fooling

your agent again go back to the the

story I just told before about this this

listing where they wanted to list it for

a lot more they they did the same thing

they were comparing to other homes just

saying well you can't buy anything like

this at this price but that is not the

way the market Works they were

nitpicking all the other homes and

making their own homes seem like oh it's

this is perfect you've got to be

realistic most people overvalue their

home and undervalue all the homes

competing with theirs and when you do

that you're just lying to yourself as

I've already said you can't fool the

market by fooling yourself you can't lie

to the market by lying to yourself so

just be honest from the get-go because

guess what the market will keep you

honest people the real estate market

it's

capitalism it is sheer capitalism it's

supply and demand and guess what the

demand for houses like yours butts up

against the supply and if you're just

unrealistic about the demand or the

supply what are you doing listen to The

Experts listen to people that actually

are in this Marketplace and know what's

happening and know what they're doing

and don't take it personally there's no

reason to take it personally me as an

agent I get paid generally speaking on a

commission basis when I help a client

buy or sell a house okay that means I

want the house to sell for a lot of

money if my strategy in marketing a

house seems like I am trying to get you

less money you are misunderstanding my

strategy because as I've already said

sometimes less is more because if you

overprice a home when you list it you're

going to get less money and you have to

factor all of that in so keep all of

these things in mind don't try to create

a strategy that doesn't work don't try

to compare your home to homes that

are not comparable that's another thing

that I see people do all the time they

will overvalue their home and then

they'll start comparing a produ a home

that's in a production built

neighborhood to and and you know is a

cookie cutter with the other homes

around it they'll compare it to a

another neighborhood that sells for

$200,000 more because those homes are

custom you can't compare a custom home

to a production built home that that's

just not how this works I'm sorry I wish

that's how it worked it would simplify

things, and so you need to be

realistic you need to be honest with

yourself first and foremost if you're

not honest with yourself you are only

going to hurt yourself so that's it

strategies for the shifting market for

buyers and sellers I hope that was

helpful for you guys that are in this

market please if you enjoyed this

content please subscribe so you don't

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well to get this out to as many people

as possible, and if you need a realtor

I'm your guy, my contact information is

in the show notes if you need an

insurance company Piper Insurance Group

they are also the company that you need

to contact their information is also in

the show notes, I appreciate you guys and

we will talk again next time