Strategy for selling a house - what is the best way to proceed?

Gentlemen Kathi,

while you were pondering a possible offer price for your old house, it will become an old building …

Or in other words, for the lost time you could have worked more and the 20,000€ for the realtor or the price reduction for the buyer would have been possible.

You compare a 40-year-old house with your new building?

The price is determined solely by supply (which is scarce), demand (which is high), and the willingness to pay of a potential buyer.

Just list it now for 549K€, wait for inquiries and offers. If your offer was too expensive, you will still get offers below 549; if it was too cheap and you have identical offers, conduct an openly communicated bidding round. Sold!

Decisiveness is something else …

Your man, when he made you a proposal, surely took knee pads and a flipchart just in case?

One point is how people search. Back then we had a filter set for a maximum of 500k. With your prices, you would fall through that. But people with a filter for 600k would definitely take a closer look at your listing, whether it's 520 or 549k

Yes, I've also thought about the 500k filter. Presumably, quite a few people in this rural area still have it set, which is why I'm considering listing with 499. Or maybe trying 500k+x at first, and if there are no inquiries at all, then setting it to 499.

Decisive is something else …

Your dude, when he proposed to you, surely brought knee pads and a flipchart just in case?

Haha, yeah, I agree with you.
It's just this big fear of "burning down" the house – which was also somewhat discussed here. But even if you list it too expensively, it’s probably nonsense that nobody would want it because of that.

Funny that you mention my husband. That was the one time in my life I decided without hesitation and didn’t regret it for a second.
Met online, flew to Australia, three weeks of adventure, then an all-or-nothing decision, he spontaneously quit his job there and was with me in Germany five weeks later, never left again. Three months later we were married. ♥

Crazy crap! :D You must have used up 20 years’ worth of decisiveness. That explains a lot. ;)

In the past, when the costs could still be unfairly passed on to the buyer, that made sense to me. But currently, both parties have to finance it. I wonder why there are no listings to be found except broker offers.

1. It doesn’t matter who gets the bill: as a buyer, I am interested in the TOTAL price
--> my willingness to pay the seller is reduced by what I additionally have to give to a broker!

2. About the "why":
maybe because 90% of sellers are cowards who don’t dare to decide on their own about the asking price and the handling of incoming offers?

the 20-30k? I can’t imagine that he can really make that much more so that it’s worth it. (??)

it’s not only about whether he CAN, but also whether he WANTS to?!

Thought experiment:
The broker can sell your place for 450k€ with 1 or 2 viewing appointments = including creating the exposé, phone calls, notary appointment ONE working day
--> brings him 2 x 3% net = 27k€ commission

or he puts in full effort ... does 20 or 30 viewings until he has a “catch” who is so “cool” about the house that he pays 550k€ ... and that takes him 15 working days ...
--> brings him 2 x 3% net = 33k€ commission – so 6k€ more for 14 extra days of work

what is the better deal from the broker’s point of view?

Yes, I have already thought about the 500k filter. Presumably, quite a few people here in the rural area still have it set, which is why I am considering listing at 499 as well.
Or maybe first trying 500k+x, and if there are no inquiries at all, listing again at 499.

There are also other tricks to get prices below the filters without receiving less money. For example, by separately listing certain things like kitchen, parking space, photovoltaic. And don’t you dare think that a parking space is worth less than 10k ;)