"You want to list my Wellesley MA Home for what?!!"

 Have you ever heard that exclamation before?  I'm sure you have at some point, and unfortunately it does happen.  But why does it happen?  The answer is simple, but more difficult to accept.  This is why it is so important that you hire an experienced Wellesley real estate agent to advise & guide you in the selling of your Wellesley home.  When you list your  home For Sale, your agent will know the market conditions and how to correctly identify the "listing price" for your home.  He or she will not have the emotional attachment to your home that you do, and  and therefore will be able to be an unbiased judge of the homes value and worth in today's housing market.  While you may not like the price you are hearing, have faith in the person you chose to represent you & your home.  When you overprice your home it will be dangerous for several reasons, but the biggest (and simplest) is...IT WON'T SELL!

In addition to not selling when you've overpriced it, you've really stacked the deck against you from day one. Selling your home can be an emotional roller coaster.  What your home means to you and how you imagine it, needs to come to terms with the real world and the current real estate market.....and that is no more apparent than in pricing.   Everything you are doing at this point is looking at the home to "list" and sell.  That may seem apparent, but it's much harder than it looks. You must take the emotional strings out of the way. You may cherish the color, flooring, or some other "prized possession", but none of that matters, it's simply black and white.  You are looking at it objectively just to list and sell.                                                                                                                                                           

Just "because you paid a certain amount for your home", or because "it means so much to you", is a sure fire way to stall the successful sale of your property.  Buyers also aren't going to care if you "need to get a certain amount for your home in order to buy your new home".  All the new buyer cares about is paying a fair market value for your home and that there aren't any hidden surprises that are going to come up later in the home inspections. Nothing will blow up in your face quicker than an OVERPRICED PROPERTY!  

You are free to list your home for any price you choose. However, any exceptional real estate agent will tell you that overpricing a home can lead to serious problems. Some of these include:

  1. *Scare off Buyers- You don't want to miss out on an ideal buyer by pricing yourself out of their category. Rely on the expertise of your Real Estate agent and their knowledge of the local market so that you can maximize your exposure on the market and with buyers while still getting the best price for your home.
  2. * Too much Time on The Market- When a home is priced too high it ends up spending far too much time on the market.  If a buyer decides to put an offer in on the property that offer takes into consideration the amount of time the property has been sitting idle on the market.  Therefore it has a negative effect on the property.
  3. * Home Price Appraisal Issues- If you have overpriced your home, and a buyer has agreed to pay the "overpriced" price, you still have to pass the Home Appraisal. If the Home Appraiser comes back with a Market Value that is noticeably lower than the price the buyer is offering, the bank is likely to deny the buyer a mortgage.  Leaving you looking for new buyers.

Best advice....Stay realistic on the home pricing.  Seek out a great real estate agent and listen to his or her advice for pricing your home.  Many good agents will advise you to list a little lower and encourage a bidding war, than to risk all of the problems that would come with listing too high.  Stay realistic with your pricing and you will achieve your ultimate goal of selling your home;  in the shortest amount of time AND with the best possible price.