It’s been a long time since I wrote the material in the seller’s library. In fact, to give you an idea about how long, we have a statistic in there about 75% of the homes in MLS actually selling during their listing period. To be fair to both sides of the argument, first of all, even in the sellers’ market when we were writing, if a home sold later (i.e., during a second or third listing) that probably demonstrates a higher success rate. On the other hand, lately we’ve been back firmly in buyers’ market territory, with the number at something more like 50% or often less.

Even though we’ve changed our market, however, the principles are still the same. As I put them in the seller’s library, the principles are PACE — the right Price, a good Agent, showable Condition, and excellent Exposure to buyers.

To be brutally honest, you could strip out Agent, Condition, and Exposure. I’ve talked to many successful brokers with many more years in the business than me, and every time I talk to one, they all say the same thing that I said right here: price is king. What we mean when we say this is that the other factors need to be ruled out, of course, but they’re not defnitive. By this I mean, if your price is right, you can fix any of the other factors. And if your price is wrong, you can’t possibly do any good no matter what you do to the three other factors.

Since sometimes it’s hard to see things with an example based on reasonable data, let’s see if we can make it clear by posing two ridiculous extremes. Let’s say you have a 1700 square foot home in Sacramento County somewhere, and it’s a normal home with no oil fields underneath or anything. I can guarantee you I’ll get you a signed purchase agreement in less than one hour on this house. No problem at all. You just have to be willing to price it at $5.00, and I’ll buy it right now without asking any further questions. Let me just fill out the paperwork — now sign here.

Is that example ridiculous? Of course it is. No one’s going to sell a home to me for $5.00.

Let’s take the other side of ridiculous. Let’s take the same normal 1700 square foot home. Now we’re going to hire the top five listing agents in Sacramento County to work together on it (by some sort of magic that we’re allowed to use in ridiculous examples), we’re going to have it staged, professionally landscaped, remodeled, preinspected, all the work done, painted, new flooring — the whole nine yards. So the condition will be immaculate. As for exposure, we’re going to take out a one minute Superbowl ad about what a wonderful home it is, so millions of people will see it. And the price? A mere three billion dollars.

That home won’t sell. Firing those five agents and hiring ten more won’t fix it. Hiring Steven Spielberg as the producer for your Superbowl Sunday ad won’t fix it. A solid gold kitchen countertop won’t fix it. (At least, I don’t think it will — how much does a sold gold countertop weigh?).

What’s true when you reduce the argument to an absurdity is also true with more concrete examples. The numbers we need to discuss if you’re willing to sell are what homes have been selling for in your neighborhood that are similar to yours (and we need real comps selected and evaluated by a human being, not that Zillow nonsense) how much inventory there is, and similar factors.

The good news and bad news if your home isn’t selling is this: It’s the price. That’s good news, because it means you can control with absolute certainty whether your home will sell. That’s bad news, because the market price may not be the price you want, think you need, or are willing to sell for.

If your home isn’t selling, it’s the price. There’s a price at which your home will sell. It’s somewhere between where you are now and five dollars. Since starting at the five dollar range and working up is plain dumb, I recommend taking five percent off wherever you are now and seeing how the showings go.

Repeat the treatment until cured.

Can I get your home sold for you where your agent has failed? You bet I can. In fact, I just did.

You’re welcome.

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