There’s a phenomenon I like to call the Barbecue Mafia.
You know the one.
You put your house on the market, and suddenly everyone has an opinion.
Your uncle reckons you’re asking too little. Your neighbour thinks you should hold out for another $200k. Your cousin’s hairdresser’s husband sold something similar three suburbs over for a fortune back in 2012.
And before you know it, every man, woman, dog and distant relative gathered around the barbecue has become a real estate expert.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to the people around you. Sometimes they have a useful perspective.
But there’s a big difference between an opinion and market evidence.
Your uncle might genuinely believe your home is worth $1.5 million. That’s lovely.
But what are actual buyers prepared to pay?
That’s where things get interesting.
If you’ve done your homework, researched your agent and chosen someone you trust, let them do their job. I don’t walk into my plumber’s house and start telling them how to connect pipes, so I’m probably not going to take plumbing advice from the Barbecue Mafia either.
Your agent’s job is to read the market, not dictate it.
We don’t decide what your property is worth.
The buyers do.
And the market is constantly talking.
No enquiries? That’s feedback.
Lots of enquiries but nobody inspecting? That’s feedback.
Plenty of people through the open home but no offers? Yep, that’s feedback too.
And if buyers are making offers but they’re consistently landing around a particular figure, the market might be giving you some pretty clear information.
But here’s the important part: feedback doesn’t automatically mean “drop the price.”
A lack of offers might be about price. Or presentation. Or the floor plan. Or a particular feature. Or how your property compares with another one buyers have just seen.
Lots of inspections and no offers tells us something different to lots of online views but very few inspections.
A good agent looks at all of those pieces together.
They’re looking at the comparable sales, what else is currently competing for buyers’ attention, how many people are enquiring, who is actually inspecting, what buyers are saying, what offers are being made and, importantly, what buyers are actually prepared to do.
Then they translate all of that information into something you can use to make a decision.
That’s the value of having someone in your corner who knows how to interpret the market.
It doesn’t mean you have to take the first offer that comes along.
It doesn’t mean you have to blindly follow every piece of feedback.
And it certainly doesn’t mean your agent should simply tell you what you want to hear.
Your agent should be giving you the information – the good, the bad and occasionally the “well… that’s interesting” – and helping you understand what it means.
Because selling a home isn’t about having the most opinions in the room.
It’s about having the right information to make the right decision for you.
So once you’ve chosen your agent, maybe step away from the barbecue. 😂
You don’t need twelve different opinions competing with the person you’ve actually hired to sell your home.
Listen to the feedback.
Look at the numbers.
Ask questions.
And let your agent help you make sense of what the market is telling you.
Because the market’s talking.
You just need to know how to listen.
If you would like to chat about the market or book an appraisal, please call me or use the form below.
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Monique Clemens | Acreage Specialist
0423 618 275 | monique.clemens@raywhite.com
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