Be wary of “home value flattery”
Consider a situation where you are screening three different agents to list your home. Two of the three come back with market evaluations that are similar. The third one quotes a listing price that is considerably higher. The natural reaction is that the third agent must be correct!
Be careful. This agent may be trying to “buy the sale” by winning you over with a higher listing price. On the reverse side, they may be completely correct. However if two other agents independently come up with similar pricing, their estimates are probably more reliable.
If you go with agent # 3, you might be lucky and your home sells for that higher price. However, the more likely scenario is that your home could potentially sit on the market for months while comparable homes are selling. You then start cutting the asking price until you are back down to what the other two agents were quoting. By this time, your home has been on the market for a long time and has become “stale”.
A lot will depend on market conditions. Some years you might have a bidding war, even on overpriced properties. Today, we have gone 180 degrees. Homes are selling more slowly and as a seller, you may have to reduce your expectations and accept reality. Everything goes in cycles though and sellers will be the ones doing the grinning.
