Don't Tell Anyone What Your Home Just Sold For!
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 6:14PM
Judy in Seller Tips, Selling Your Home

That's the agents job, and its their job to do it in a way that won't hurt you if your home comes back on the market. If you are going it alone a/k/a/ FSBO, it's even worse.

Keep your mouth closed- there are good reasons for it. Of course you should tell someone that your home just took a deposit if they are interested in buying it, or tell an agent that is wants to show your home to  an interested buyer, but it absolutely stops there. You don't want to ever misrepresent your home's status, but don't give out any other info, period.

I know, your first instinct  when you  finally accept a bid on your home might be to tell your friends and family that you just got a sale for "x" amount of dollars . DON'T DO IT. You should NOT tell anyone this information, no matter how much they are chomping at the bit to know the details.

Did you ever notice that you can not get an agent to tell you the sale price of a home after it goes under deposit? You might wonder why they won't tell you, and it's purely for the sellers protection. It's a closely guarded secret, and the reason why is because if that sale should happen to fall through, and it is already known what the sale was supposed to be, then there's a slim chance that the seller can ever get that same price again.

Let's look at it another way. Imagine that you are the buyer. You like a house enough to place a bid on it, and you find out that the sellers were willing to accept a lower price than you were going to offer. Are you still going to offer the same price as you were going to just a few minutes ago? Probably not.  You would probably submit a lower bid, because you have that knowledge.

Remember that when you call the listing office for a property that you are interested in, the whole office works for the seller and they owe a  fiduciary responsibility to that seller. They are bound to protect that seller's best interests, which includes not disclosing an agreed upon price until the property closes and the price becomes public information.

So,  sellers- remember. "mums the word" on the details.

Article originally appeared on Fairfield County CT Real Estate & Homes for Sale in Easton, Fairfield, Norwalk, Trumbull & Westport, Connecticut (http://www.thectrealtyblog.com/).
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