The single most common mistake a seller makes is pricing above the market and waiting to see what happens. It rarely works out the way it sounds like it should. A home priced too high sits, buyers start to assume something is wrong with it, and every price cut after that reads as a concession rather than a correction - so the home often sells for less than a correct opening price would have gotten.
I set every listing price from closed comparable sales within the last few months - same neighborhood, similar size and condition - not from an online estimate and not from what a seller needs the number to be. If the comparables say a number lower than you hoped, I will tell you that directly, and I will show you the sales behind it.
A correctly priced home draws its strongest offers in the first two weeks, while it is still new and buyers are competing for attention rather than negotiating from a position of "it has been sitting a while."
The numbers behind that claim: Homes sold, last 3 years - 61. Median days on market - 19 days (county average: 41). Average list-to-sale price ratio - 98.4%.
Commission, and what it covers: Commission is negotiable and I will state my rate plainly at our first conversation rather than leave it for the contract. It covers professional photography, a staging consultation, marketing the listing across the places buyers actually search, hosting showings, negotiating the offer, and managing the transaction through to closing.
Preparing a home to sell. Worth doing: a deep clean, fresh paint in neutral tones, fixing anything visibly broken, and clearing clutter so rooms photograph larger than they are. Rarely worth it: a full kitchen or bathroom remodel, new flooring throughout, or major landscaping - these almost never return their cost at closing, and the money is usually better spent as a price adjustment.
