Who Decides What Your Property is Worth? | Edmonton Realtor Blog | Dwight Streu

Does your Realtor? How about the city tax department? A real estate appraiser? You? The answer to all these is NO. There’s a saying in real estate that a property is only worth what a serious and qualified buyer is willing to pay for it. Therefore it is the buyers in the market who decide the value of your property because they’re the ones writing the cheque. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks your home is worth because they’re not buying it. 

So how do buyers decide what your home is worth? Simple. Comparison shopping. The same thing you or I do when we’re shopping. They have so much money to spend - let’s say $400,000 and they are going to go out and look at all the properties that match their needs in the location they want and they are going to buy the best darn property they can for that price. If your home is one of the best values they see and it fits their needs there’s a good chance they will buy it. However, if after they look at your home they view other homes that are more appealing for the same price well they’ll buy the other home. Clients often ask, “Dwight, if they feel our price is too high, why don’t they offer us less”? The answer is that for the same price you are asking they found another home that they felt was better value - maybe it was bigger or had more upgrades or was in a better location. In some way, they felt that home was superior to yours for the same price so why would they come back and make you an offer on yours when they found a better property?

Remember buyers are focused 100% on themselves and what they want. They don’t care about why the seller has to sell or what they need to sell for, or how much the seller has invested into it. That's all irrelevant to a buyer. If you want to attract buyers, then you need to speak their language and that language is VALUE. What are they getting for the asking price? 

If you’re considering selling and would like to know what a seriously qualified buyer might be willing to pay for your home give me a call, Dwight Streu at 780-462-5002, and I’ll be happy to show you.