What’s your motivation?

Real estate is a funny business. It’s the only business that I can think of where you, the consumer, dictate the prices. If I wanted to buy a new television I know that no matter which store I walked into the price of that TV will be about the same from store to store because the manufacture dictates the price.

When I meet with someone who wants to sell their house, I do a market analysis of the neighborhood which shows all the homes that have recently sold or are under contract as well as the homes that are still active. I’ll review the report with the sellers and I will recommend a price.

In the end it’s the sellers who pick the price, not the real estate agent. It’s my experience that motivation and price go hand and hand. For example, I just recently went on an appointment to meet someone who had their house for sale but the contract went expired and they were interviewing other agents. I was prepared, came with my market analysis, previewed the home, asked some questions to understand their motivation and then recommended a price. After talking to them, they told me they wanted to price it at $50,000 more because they felt that a higher price would attract more people. They were not motivated to sell their home and I was not motivated to list their home.

If you’re selling in this market you better figure out your motivation. As a seller you are competing against short sales, bank owned properties, motivated builders who want to get rid of inventory and private sellers who have to sell their house as quickly as possible.

~Matthew Meehan

  Broker/President