home selling

A phrase I hear on almost every listing consultation: “What if we price it a little high, just to leave room to negotiate?” On the surface, it sounds reasonable. In practice, it’s one of the costliest pricing decisions a seller can make, and most don’t realize the damage until their home has already been sitting for weeks, going stale, with no clear explanation...

Eighty percent. That’s the share of home sellers right now who expect to get their full asking price, or more, when they sell. When I first came across that number, it stopped me in my tracks, because the data on what’s actually happening in the market tells a very different story. I get where the expectation comes from. For a few years, that really was the market. But a lot has changed since...

Almost every seller I work with faces some version of this question before they list. The home has things about it that aren't perfect — maybe it's dated in places, maybe there's deferred maintenance, maybe the kitchen hasn't been touched since the previous owner. And the question sitting in the back of every seller's mind is: do I put money into this before I list, or do I just sell it the way it...

Let me be upfront about something: the commission question is one that every seller thinks about, and it deserves a straight answer. Not a defensive one, not a rehearsed one — a real one. Because the truth is, if you don't know what you're actually paying for, you can't make a good judgment about whether it's worth it. And that's not fair to you.So here's a transparent, detailed breakdown of what...

One of the first questions almost every seller asks before they list is some version of this: how long is this going to take? It's a completely reasonable question, and I wish I could give everyone a simple, confident answer. The honest answer is that it depends — but not in a vague, unhelpful way. It depends on specific, identifiable factors, most of which you have meaningful control over before your...

I talk to sellers every week who have been watching their Zestimate the way some people watch the stock market. They check it regularly. They've seen it go up and down. They've built a number in their head around it. And by the time we sit down to talk about listing their home, that Zestimate has become the anchor for their entire financial plan. I understand why. Zillow is everywhere. It's the first place...

If there's one question that keeps homeowners up at night more than almost any other in the selling process, it's this one. And I get it — because there's real risk on both sides of the decision, and neither path is without its complications.Sell first and you might find yourself homeless between closings, scrambling to find your next home under pressure with a moving deadline breathing down your neck....

Most sellers don't interview agents. They call someone they know, take a referral from a friend without asking many follow-up questions, or go with whoever sent them a postcard in the mail recently. I understand why — hiring an agent feels awkward to approach as a business decision, especially when there's a personal connection involved.But here's the reality: the agent you hire to sell your home will...

The first time most sellers hear the word "contingency" in a real estate transaction, it lands somewhere between confusing and slightly alarming. It sounds like fine print. It sounds like something that could go wrong. And honestly, that instinct isn't entirely off — contingencies are the conditions built into a purchase contract that give buyers a legal exit ramp if certain things don't go the way they...

One of the most common moments of surprise I see sellers experience happens not when they accept an offer, but when they sit down at the closing table and see the final settlement statement for the first time. The number at the bottom — the amount that's actually going to hit their bank account — is almost always lower than they expected. Sometimes significantly lower. It's not that anyone was hiding...