Filed Under Selling · Tagged: · Print This Article
Psychologist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross defined five psychological stages of grief. (Typically, we hear of these five stages used when a loved one is lost, or a person is experiencing a tough personal problem, like a divorce or an illness.) In the case of real estate, there are similar stages for sellers in this current market.
Let’s go over these stages for sellers. Knowing this in advance, before you list your home, can help you deal with the realities of selling in this market. Knowing the stages now will help you identify where you are on the scale and help you move toward getting your home SOLD!
- DENIAL
- The first stage. You will likely be in denial that the market is rough for sellers. You’ll think “it won’t affect my house,” or “my house is better than the others!” These things are likely not true. Overcoming denial is the first phase in what we will have to go through when I list your home.
I’ll have lots of sellers struggle with their denial. Just remember, I’m here to sell your home. And It may mean that you may not want to believe some of the things I tell you. Realize that I will be bringing you objective facts on which to base the price of your home, and be studying trends to help us identify the sale price and length. Many sellers don’t realize the process for pricing, but it is quite scientific. - ANGER
- Okay, now you find you’re upset. You’re upset that the market is tough, and that you didn’t decide to sell at a different time. You may be upset you chose the type of loan you did. You may be upset with your Realtor for not seeing what you believe your home is worth. It’s best to move through your anger because we can’t change the market — only work within it.
- BARGAINING
- This stage can take many forms for sellers. (It’s a little different than the bargaining you’ll make during the sale.) In psychological terms, this is typically when a griever will make a “bargain with God.” (“I’ll never do XYZ again if you help me with ABC.”) Selling grievers may try to bargain with their Realtor about fees, or bargaining about whether or not to cut corners when trying to sell.
Here’s a tip: so many of my sellers will tell me after the sale that they are glad they took my advice on pricing and pre-inspection because it made their sale less stressful. This market is not the time to cut corners on things like your Realtor, staging, pre-inspection, etc. I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think it would help!
And then at a later stage their will be bargaining — with the buyer. There will be things to which the sellers won’t want to agree. But if it means the difference between a sale or no sale, there might be bargains they will have to take.
- DEPRESSION
- Now you’re feeling down. Your bargaining and anger has taken you as far as it can, and you are feeling hopeless about selling your home. You may start to feel like it will “never sell,” or that you’ll never be able to buy your new home. And you’ll be feeling down that you didn’t make the money you always hoped you’d make on this particular home. Just remember that a lot of people are experiencing this, and probably many of them are hit harder than you may be.
Also realize that depending on your age, this may be the last time you sell a house and lose money. Or you may be old enough to have experienced the glory days in the 90’s when you made tons of money on a sale. This is a market correction, and we just need to be realistic with it. If you lose today, you will make it up on the purchasing end, or down the road in the many homes you have yet to buy and sell. - ACCEPTANCE
- This is the stage you are working toward — accepting the market. Accept that you are NOT “giving the house away.” Accept that you might not “break even” especially if you got a 100% loan. Accept that we may need to make pricing adjustments, or paint some walls. This is the cost of the benefit of moving and selling, and hopefully buying, in this market.
You will have to accept that you may not get the price you want. You’ll have to accept that your Realtor (speaking for myself) is doing everything that she can to sell your home, even if it’s taking longer than you’d hoped. And you’ll accept that once your home does sell and you move forward to a new home, that you will be on the other side of the market as a buyer. You have to think as much about what you can get from the market as a buyer than what you’ll lose as a seller. It’s never both a buyer’s and seller’s market at the same time!
These are five reasons why it’s good to have a Realtor you trust. I’ll be there to help you go through these stages so we can move on with your sale.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!