I don’t collaborate well with professionals

[Carrie12345]

So, we listed our house a few weeks back. We’ve talked to multiple agents over the past 2 years, give or take, and I wasn’t thrilled with any. I finally just went with the last one we met, because I didn’t feel any difference.

We did argue over listing price. I am no realtor, but I’ve been watching local real estate like a hawk for almost 20 years now. I’ve probably put more effort into that than the actual studies I pay to do! Eventually, she and Dh convinced me to go just $5k under her proposed price, because she’s the expert and has all the fancy computer algorithm things.

Now here we are with no official offers, and she mentioned lowering the price. To what? To the exact price I wanted to go with originally. Go figure!!!

To be fair, who knows if someone will bite at the new price? But still. 
 

Anyone have any resources for learning how to express one’s point of view specifically when they don’t have any “official” authority on a topic? I feel like I allow experts to steamroll me when I actually do have real and right perspectives.  
As another example, we just had our builders back to work on our wonky floors, when 2.5 years ago I expressed concern for having snow melting on our exposed subfloors.

I stink at coming across as smart and serious!

[Katy]

No opinion about communicating with them. I would consider dropping it 10k with the hopes of multiple offers. 

[Scarlett]

I have zero confidence in real estate people.  I have watched my friend try to sell her house for years with multiple realtors who all promise her they will have it sold in x amount of time.  (Zero way for her to know when or if it will sell) They way over priced it, and get their hopes all up and then almost no showings much less an offer.  I have felt all along the house is worth $250,000 maybe $275,000 and they have had realtors price it as high as $425. Now it is about to be listed at 330 and friend says they have done the math and can go as low as 315 and still come out ok.   I will be thrilled if it sells for 315 but I have my doubts.

At least this latest realtor told my friend there are no good comps and it is hard to price with their programs.  She has the benefit of knowing there were few showings and no offers at 425.

[Murphy101]

You be blunt. The strategy of starting higher isn’t a bad one. If someone wants that house in that area in a certain amount of time - you can end up with a sweet price. And it allows to negotiation space to start a little bit higher.

But if the goal is to sell asap and you don’t want to play any games of constantly lowering the price every month?

Say so. I’d have asked what houses in your area of similar condition are selling for that makes her think x is a reasonable price that will garner interest and a sale within 30-60 days.  You actually shouldn’t have to ask for this. This is part of explaining the value of your home. If she can’t present several house sale prices in that range - not just one random lucky sale - then I’d insist on moving the price closer to the reality of what homes like yours have actually sold for.  If the realtor can’t give market examples to  justify a much higher price - then they aren’t very professional.

[Carol in Cal.]

You just tell her what to do.

”I understand your recommendation but I will be listing the house at $XX.  Thanks for your input.  Do you want this listing?”

In a pleasant tone, this does not have to be hostile, it can be just the announcement of your decision.  It is ultimately your decision anyway.

My husband does not question experts as much as I think he should and it drives me crazy.  Once we had a guy propose grinding out a stump next to our house and suggested that he stand nearby holding a big piece of plywood over the wood siding on the outside of the house in case the grinder jumped off the stump and hit the house.  (The siding was an older design and not replaceable if damaged.). I happened to go outside as they were setting this up, and the idea that my husband would risk his body to protect the siding from a jump that the contractor should have been able to prevent was one of the most ridiculous things I had ever heard.  So I know what you are talking about.  I asked how the insurance would play into this situation, and guess what?  He was a handyman rather than a contractor or arborist, did not have insurance, and did not have a license.  We found someone else to do that job.

[Pawz4me]

Your authority on this topic is that it's your house and your finances. The realtor may know the market better than you, but you know what you need to get from the house, whether you're in a hurry or not, whether you'd prefer to take a little more time if it means you could get a little more, etc.  That's all the authority you need. If you felt certain that X price was the right one then you should have said "my house, my decision."

Now on the real estate front, FWIW -- We're getting ready to put our house on the market. Our realtors (we have both a selling agent and a buying agent) tell us the market here is really weird and unlike anything they've seen before and they're struggling to make good predictions because there's no true trend. But their advice has been to price near what we'd like to get out of it. They say a lot of people got so burned out over bidding wars a couple/three years ago that they refuse to get into those again. They don't even want to make an initial counteroffer a little below the listing price. So their advice for here, in this market, is to price it close to what we'd like to get rather than go higher hoping to get lucky.

[Corraleno]

4 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Anyone have any resources for learning how to express one’s point of view specifically when they don’t have any “official” authority on a topic? I feel like I allow experts to steamroll me when I actually do have real and right perspectives.  
As another example, we just had our builders back to work on our wonky floors, when 2.5 years ago I expressed concern for having snow melting on our exposed subfloors.

I stink at coming across as smart and serious!

I think this is one of those issues where the problem itself (so-called professionals not doing their job correctly) is a them problem not a you problem, but you kind of have to treat it as a you problem anyway, since you can't change them. So you just have to psych yourself up and have the confidence to stand your ground on things that matter to you and refuse to back down. Keep reminding yourself that the people who are doing the work are ultimately working for you, and the end results matters far more to you than it does to them, so you get to make the final decisions.

I had a house built 20 years ago that was a total custom build — I literally drew the plans myself, picked out every. single. thing. that went into that house, and was on site pretty much every day. The GC and half the subs thought I was a crazy bitch by the end of it, but I got exactly the house I designed and paid for, with no half-assed shortcuts or substitutions, and the subs that were always there on time and obviously cared about the quality of their work got very generous tips.

In my before-kids career I was head of a large publications department and part of my job was to be "on press" when books and other materials were being printed. Most of the stuff we printed was pretty high end (like art books), and we used expensive printers, so it was my job to make sure the final product was the quality we expected. I had a lot of "discussions" with the guys running the presses about what was and wasn't acceptable/good/possible, sometimes very late at night when everyone including me just wanted to go home. I once had to call my rep at home at midnight and get him to come look at the mess the press guy was telling me was fine and "the best he could do," and thankfully the rep backed me up and made the guy stop everything, throw away what had been printed so far, clean off the presses, and start from scratch at 1 AM, and we were all there until the run finished at 7 AM. Did the guys running the press hate my guts? Absolutely, lol. Did the finished book look exactly the way a $100+ art book should look? Also yes.

You just have to be OK with letting people who are not doing their jobs properly think you're being an unreasonable bitch by insisting they do it right. If they were as professional as they claim to be, and doing the job they were paid to do, then there wouldn't be an issue.