by Mike Colpitts 
It’s only natural to think your home is the best in the neighborhood and it’s worth more than the one down the street that has the same floor plan for sale, with the pool like yours. These are the insider secrets to sell your home.
Those hours you spent painting the exterior to sell your home, putting up new crown molding in every room, adding a new sink in the kitchen, replacing the old kitchen counter tops and replacing the old vinyl floor with new hard wood floors added value, or so you thought.
The long days that you spent meticulously cleaning the backyard pool and adding just the right amount of chemicals to make it sparkle should be worth something extra when you sell. The landscaping you added to the front yard should certainly be worth a lot more than when you bought the place 10 years ago when it had a simple yard with a lawn that was half weeds.
All the personal touches that you added to your home to make it your own little corner of paradise should make it worth more, right? Not so quick now.
As homeowners all of us take a certain pride in our own home. Home ownership, after all we’re taught is part of the American Dream. It’s only natural. So when you decide to sell your home we all reason that we should get more than the next guy or gal, right?
Surely you’ll find a buyer who’ll walk into your home and “feel the love” and instantly hand over your asking price. Not so quick now. Most people want to at least see the comparables and it takes an acceptable appraisal to get the place sold.
Selling a home quickly or even not so quickly takes a lot of work these days in the local housing market. Fort Myers was a booming real estate market during Covid and even before the pandemic it was pretty amazing but the real estate market has changed as it has in lots of other places.
Marketing a home for top dollar takes a comprehensive plan with lots of time and energy. The old days of getting multiple offers after putting a sign in the yard and a listing into MLS are over.
Provided you purchased your home a decade ago, chances are you will get more money for it, but it might not be the windfall you were hoping for.
So, you find a real estate agent who is willing to list your home for the price you feel reflects its “true value.” Big mistake because some agents will take listings for anything and then work you down on the price instead of working to sell your home. When a home isn’t competitively priced to reflect current market conditions, the longer it sits on the market increases the probability of it not being sold. The sky isn’t falling in our local market these days but prices are coming down. You have to be realistic about selling.
Don’t worry about that house down the street listed for $50,000 less than your price. Sure, it’s the same size and also has a pool, but it can’t hold a candle to yours.
Weeks go by and the house down the street sells. Those buyer’s saw your house too but chose the other. “They must have no taste at all.” You need to be realistic pricing your home for sale with an agent who has a full marketing plan to sell your home, according to your timeline.
Your friends down the street are also in a position where they must sell. They list their home for $75,000 less than yours. You know that Bill and Mary have a pool and a hot tub and their house has a 4th bedroom. A week later Bill and Mary are under contract.
Things change in business every day so doesn’t it make sense that real estate prices change? It’s a fact that the majority of homes listed on the market these days are over-priced and won’t sell. Want yours to be one of those?
If not, contact or call Mike Colpitts to help you sell your home. You’ll be glad you did.