How do I get that realization through sellers' heads?

Those first 2 weeks your home is on the market are critical. If you look at statistics, views of your property online will be highest at the 2-week mark, and then they'll slowly decline over the next few weeks. 

I want to get my seller as much for his house as possible because the more he makes, the more I make. No one wins in this situation if the house sits week after week with limited or no showings. If you never get an offer on your home, then who exactly are you"giving it away" to?

The National Association of Realtors (which tracks statistics for Realtors) says any 2-week period without a showing means the home is overpriced, which is why I advocate reducing every 2 weeks if warranted. If a seller is lucky enough to be getting showings and feedback, a majority of objections actually end up being price-related, although price is rarely mentioned - buyers will be willing to overlook a lot if the price is right. And if feedback actually mentions pricing... well, that should certainly be a red flag to the seller.

To find out what the buying market thinks your property is worth, you need to get an offer. To get an offer, you need to have showings. To have showings, your property has to be priced at a point where buyers see great value and want to investigate further.

At some point, you'll know you've hit the right price: showings will pick up, and an offer will come in.

And there's the rub. If you put your home for sale, then you must WANT to sell it... not hold out for what you think it's worth or for the "right buyer" to come along.

Buyers today are low-balling their offers, and sellers can't be offended by it. A home is worth ONLY what someone is willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter how much you bought your home for, how many dollars in renovations you've put into it, how many dollars of equity you have built up, how much an appraiser says it's worth - or for that matter, what I say it's worth... In the end, none of that matters!

The only thing that matters is getting that offer and finding out what someone is really willing to pay for your home. You can certainly counteroffer and negotiate on specifics, but in the end, the first offer is traditionally the best offer. So consider your options carefully before you refuse it out of hand. To quote one of my mentors and one of Keller Williams' Master Educators, Shaun Rawls: "If you're the highest bidder on your own property, you get to keep it."

I realize this doesn't paint a pretty picture for sellers. The quicker your home goes under contract, statistically the more it will sell for. If you didn't price it right originally, get it to the right price as quickly as possible. Keep reducing the price until you find out what someone is willing to pay for it.

Then choose: Either accept the reality of your home's value and move forward with the sale, or take your property off the market.

IN MORE DETAIL: I advocate to my sellers to reduce the price every 2 weeks, based on showings and feedback. The amount of the reduction will depend on the initial price of your house and - very important - on keeping your home within the pricing search brackets. People are going to search within certain parameters, which get wider as the house prices get higher. Reducing a $300,000 house $5,000 isn't going to change the parameters in which it's found ($275K-$300K) and isn't going to make a big impression on buyers; a price reduction of $25,000 on the same house is going to bring in a whole different set of buyers who are searching $250K-$275K. Lower priced homes are usually searched for in $10,000 brackets, so a $5,000-$10,000 reduction makes a much larger difference.

Yours in Smiles 

Abbey