Selling Your Home: What You Can Control in Today's Market

REAL TALK REAL ESTATE PODCAST

Market conditions. Interest rates. Buyer demand. If you're a seller, it's easy to get anxious about all the stuff you can't control.

This week, Jay flips the script and breaks down the Three Crucial P's — the things sellers actually DO have control over when it comes to getting their home sold for top dollar.

If you're thinking about selling but aren't sure when the timing is right, this episode is for you.

Listen to the episode below.

HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Craving space, privacy, and a little peace and quiet? This one's for you

24105 Raven Rock Rd, Smithsburg, MD 21783
$450,000 | 3 Bed | 2 Bath | 1,840 SqFt | 10.77 Acres

Raised ranch tucked on nearly 11 wooded acres
Wrap-around deck — perfect for morning coffee or sunset views
Cozy great room with cathedral ceiling and wood-burning stove
Partially finished basement — game room, workshop, you decide
Detached garage + shed for all the hobbies
Backs to trees with a gentle stream running through

This is the kind of property that feels a world away but is still an easy drive to everything you need. Land, privacy, and character all in one — they don't come around often at this price point.

OPEN HOUSE THIS SUNDAY, 8/23 | 1:00PM – 3:00PM
Come walk it yourself — bring your questions, we'll have the answers.

866-702-9038

#RealTalkRealEstatePodcast #HouseOfTheWeek #JayDayAndTheDayHomeTeam #DayHomeTeam #LPTRealty #SmithsburgMD #WashingtonCountyMD

Episode Transcript

Andy: I'm Andy Webb.

Jay: And I'm Jay Day.

Andy: And this is Real Talk Real Estate, where we want to bring you up to speed on the things that are going on in the world. But Jay, you and I also, we focus a lot on what's going on in the news and a lot of these things that people just don't have control over. It's what's happening to them. But the home buying process really involves things that you have to do, you need to do or have done, things that you should be controlling, right?

Jay: Yeah. And I mean, so anxiety comes from people, you know, again, there's lots of reasons, but most of the time when you talk to people, things that they're anxious about are things that are outside of their control. So in this market, you know, you have sellers saying, is it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? What's going on? Why is my house not selling? We talk about the average days on market, you know, all of these things, average sales price, none of that is within our control. So when nothing has changed as far as when we talk with our seller clients of, you know, when they're thinking about selling their house, we're going to first talk about, you know, all of that stuff does matter. Don't take it wrong. All that does matter what's going on on the outside, because that determines, you know, supply and demand, all that stuff is what it is. However, when we know what we're dealing with on that world, let's talk about what we can do to control and give us the best result in whatever is happening in the out of control world. So we focus primarily on, we call it the three P's.

Andy: All right.

Jay: And when we sit with our sellers, this is something we go through. This is in our seller guide. The first thing we talk about is presentation. So ultimately, if I'm meeting with you, Andy, and we're going to sell your house, who is responsible for how the house looks?

Andy: I would assume me.

Jay: Yes. So we tell the seller, you are in control of how the home presents. Now, what we will do is we will provide you with a professional home stager to make sure it looks as good as possible. If you have repairs that need to be done, we can connect you with contractors. But ultimately, the presentation is 100% within your control.

Andy: Right.

Jay: All right. So that's one thing we can control.

Andy: That's P number one.

Jay: And you think about it, how the home looks, that does matter, right?

Andy: Oh, it sure does. It's the first thing you notice when you're looking for a home.

Jay: Number two, pricing. What is the home going to be listed for? Who do you think picks what the house is listed for?

Andy: Well, it's got to be the person that's selling it.

Jay: Exactly. So again, now we're in situation number two, the seller has complete control over what the home is priced for. Now, as an agent, if you say, well, Jay, that's sort of crazy. I could tell you I want my house to sell for $1 million, and nothing is sold for over $500,000. So do I really control that? Well, ultimately, you are the one that picks what your list price is. However, as an agent, our job is to present to you the information, the data, and to say, here's what things are selling for. Here's a range I think the house will sell in. Here are different marketing plans that we could do. Here's different pricing strategies that we suggest. And then ultimately, though, you pick the pricing.

Andy: And the different pricing you choose could have different results, as far as selling it quickly versus selling not as quickly.

Jay: Right. So we talked about three Ps. We have two we went over. Two of them are 100% within the control of the seller client. The third one's a little different. Unfortunately, the seller's not in charge of that technically, except it is in who they hire. So the third P is promotion.

Andy: Oh, yeah.

Jay: And I mean, you're in radio. You understand promotion.

Andy: Yeah. You do a great product, but if people don't know about it.

Jay: Yes. So the agent's responsibility is the promotion of the property. So two thirds, it's up to the seller. One third is up to the agent. Now, in the first two thirds, the agent does have to give some tools to the seller to help them. But ultimately, everything falls on the agent for the promotion. And that's what we tell people. We're like, the key is your home needs to, you know, once you have it looking the way it needs to, you got the presentation right. Once we figured out the pricing, my job is to promote this thing everywhere under the sun, get as many eyes on it, get as many people through the door as possible. And these are all things that are within our control. Now, notice if, you know, if you're a seller, the one thing we didn't talk about is, well, who's going to do with the cheapest? Who's going to list it for the most?

Andy: Yeah.

Jay: I mean, the reality is, and again, Andy, this is a great one for you because of being, you know, your whole work history has pretty much been in radio.

Andy: Yeah, it is 30 years.

Jay: Promotion is the key. And, you know, it does cost money to the agent to truly promote your property. We are not in the days of putting your home just in the MLS. And also, you know, we tell people it's a multi-phase approach. We do digital. We do, you know, radio. We even do streaming radio. We do, you know, paper. So we do, you know, actual products that are handed out. We do postcards. We do door knocking. There's a whole gamut of things that we do in our promotion side. And I tell people, I mean, our promotions, we without a doubt do more than the average agent. There's no question about it. I tell people all day long, you can compare us to anybody else. And I'm sure we will outshine and do what we need to do to get it looking the way it needs to look and to get it out in front of as many eyes as humanly possible. So we just need you, the seller, to work with us on to making it look as nice as it can and pricing it properly. And if you can't do a whole lot of things to make it present as well, then, you know, you can adjust your pricing based on that.

Andy: Right.

Jay: You know, they do connect. So.

Andy: Or vice versa. The more you do to...

Jay: Yes. It could actually probably get some more money out.

Andy: That's right.

Jay: And again, so I just really thought it was important this morning. I was thinking, what are we going to talk about on the podcast? Normally I plan it the day in advance. And I'm like, you know what? In this market. And it really hit me because we have homes that we are selling super fast. We have others that are taking longer. We have some homes that are taking longer because the market is just slower there. We have some that are taking longer because the seller picked a price that we didn't really think was realistic. And they're sort of falling behind. So I was like, let's talk about, again, we can't control the market condition. But let's talk and give the sellers an idea of the things that they absolutely have within their control. And notice I mentioned the seller is not responsible for the promotion. However, it is still within your control who you hire. If you hire an agent that doesn't do marketing.

Andy: Then you're going to take a lot longer to sell it.

Jay: Yeah. And you may potentially make less money.

Andy: That's a good point.

Jay: So, you know, it is all within your control. If you're listening to this and you're thinking about selling your home, you can't worry and be stressed over the things that are outside your control, focus on the three that are within your control and you should be in great shape. Are you ready for the House of the Week?

Andy: I'm ready. Let's do this.

Jay: All right. 24105 Raven Rock Road in Smithsburg. I will tell you, if you were looking for privacy and a retreat, this is a rare thing to come on the market. We're having an open house Sunday, the 23rd from 1 to 3. This property is listed for $450,000. It's a raised rancher on almost 11 acres. So 10.77 acres, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, open great room with cathedral ceilings that leads to a wraparound deck, hardwood floors in the kitchen and great room. The basement is partially finished with a patio, LVP flooring in the basement. There are walking trails on the property, streams, a walking bridge. There's a detached garage with electric outbuildings. There's a wood stove. You absolutely want to go to wfre.com. Take a look at it. We not only have pictures, we have video to sort of give you an idea of what this one looks like. It is an amazing property. I can almost guarantee you it won't make it to next weekend.

Andy: No, it's a rural retreat that everybody's going to want a piece of.

Jay: So definitely take a look. It's a wonderful property.

Andy: I'm Andy Webb.

Jay: And I'm Jay Day.

Andy: This has been Real Talk Real Estate.