I am working on a listing presentation . . . having a time setting a REALISTIC price (or price range) that will convince my "customer" to be my client . . .

Not much walk away money no matter what . .
??

Have you done a CMA ?

I used to do Formal CMAs for all of my retail Sellers.

Now, I seldom do . . . . they seem to get short shrift; even though we have the technology to pump out impressuve CMAs with less than 5 minutes of effort. Far less than it takes to put together these BPOs.

Would you rather lie to get the listing, and have the seller mad at you because of no/few showings?

Or tell the truth and work with a realistic seller?
OR tell the truth and they list with the agent who just told the seller what they wanted to hear to get the listing?

Always be honest-better to lose a CUSTOMER than [censored] off a CLIENT
Tell them you wish it were more, and you know some agents may say much more to get you to list with them, but I am not going to lie just to get to work for you.

[quote=Mark Brian]Would you rather lie to get the listing, and have the seller mad at you because of no/few showings?

Or tell the truth and work with a realistic seller?
OR tell the truth and they list with the agent who just told the seller what they wanted to hear to get the listing?

Always be honest-better to lose a CUSTOMER than [censored] off a CLIENT
Tell them you wish it were more, and you know some agents may say much more to get you to list with them, but I am not going to lie just to get to work for you. [/quote]

I agree you will have a much harder time down the road if you just tell them what they want to hear. What I usually do is explain to them how I came up with this price and tell them they are welcome to price it at what they think is a better listing price but I would ask them to sign a change of status form dated 30 days from listing agreement with the price I suggested so if they didnt have any showings in that time we would be able to adjust the price.

i show comps. tell them my recomendation, but let them know the definition of market value. i tell them that i am not going to buy their home. we must go by the facts...sold home is a fact....active home is an opinion. if they are overpriced and i think i will loose the listing, i have them get an appraisel to bring them down to reality. i make them pick the appraiser. teh last 2 times i have done that it worked great. they paid someone who has nothing to do with me to tell them what they did not want to hear from me. i also let them know that appraised value is not market value. in a market where prices are declining, why would a buyer want to pay top dollar for a home only to have it be worth less in 3 months? most sellers like hearing the truth. i have found that if i explain how ti works it is easier.

for example...if we get showings and no offers, the house condition and stigmas(powerline, busyroads) are stating that the price is right to bring people in, but the detracting features are overwhelming. reduce the price to overcome those things and expose the home to a new set of buyers. teh new set of buyers might not object to teh same things.

i explain that there is a pyrimid full of buyers.... as the price goes up there are less buyers willing to or able to pay the price for the property. when they are priced right they expose their home to the most ammoount of buyers at the base of the pyrimid. by doing that they have the highest chance of getting a buyer to pay closest to tehir list price.

i could go on and on, but i gotta go.....hope that helped a little

You simply need to deal with the seller's on an honest basis. Of course you will present to the sellers your abilities to market the property properly. However, if the sellers want an insane price, you either are able to talk them down to reality, or walk away from the listing. It makes NO sense to list a property grossly overpriced unless you have a written agreement to reduce the price in a few weeks.

Don't bother with sellers who expect a 'pie in the sky' price. You will only frustrate yourself and cost yourself a lot of useless advertising.

You have to be very strong in explaining your price suggestion, other ways they will go with another agent. So however, CMA is the best way to get the best price. I usually pull the most recent data for 3 months, then 6 months and then how the market has been going in the area for 3 years. What I would say, just find the way that works best for you.