It's Not Just About Selling the House...

I was thinking this morning about houses and prices and so on. You know, it's not about selling the house. Selling the house is the easy part, any of the 3400 real estate agents in Northwest Arkansas can sell your home in this particular market. Heck, you don't even have to advertise. And many sellers are trying to negotiate a lesser commission on the selling side because "it's easy." But it's really not. There are so any things that make up a home sale and not just anyone can do it. Many who think they are experienced are shorting themselves in the market by either pricing mistakes or poor negotiating technique.

My thought process originated from looking over properties in general, land sales specifically. Let's say you have a nice and desirable piece of development property and you'd like to sell it and retire. Maybe it's worth a million dollars, which in our market is not unrealistic. But you think to yourself, hey, everyone is selling property for astronomical amounts, maybe I need to list my one million dollar property for 5 million and maybe someone will bite. And it happens occasionally. But more often than not, it doesn't, because of several factors involved in selling the property for development that you or an inexperienced agent might not consider, such as zoning and utility access.

I have seen some properties that were listed several million over likely sales price and they sit on the market, stagnant. Maybe someday it will be worth more. That's likely. But what if, instead of sitting on your property for 4 or 5 years, you sold it at the going rate. Instead of the property sitting stagnant on the market, you have the net proceeds to do as you like. You could have made many times the local interest rate by reinvesting the money in rental property or other income producing property. Three or four years of renting just a single-family dwelling in Bentonville might rent at 1500 to 2000 per month and more. Sometimes the pie in the sky might not be realistic. Maybe you need to look at what you have and what the market will bear, even considering future development. Four rental homes purchased at $250,000 might bring in up to $100,000 per year in rental income. Three at $350,000 might bring in nearly the same amount. Five years down the road, instead of sitting on a property that might or might not sell, you have an additional $500,000 in income PLUS you have the original asset, that has likely increased in value.

These are simplistic terms, but you get my meaning. There's more to the process than just selling your property. And unless you get experienced help you may be making an expensive mistake.

I think my 35 years in Northwest Arkansas real estate has given me an edge over the competition. If I can help you with your real estate needs please give me a call.