Seller Resources
The price is the entire negotiation
In a market where inventory is rising and days on market are lengthening, buyers have the one thing you do not, which is time. Every week a house sits, the comparable sales behind it get weaker and your position gets worse.
The list price is not an opening bid. It decides whether a buyer opens the listing at all.
A recent example from our own file. In Harmony Hills this spring, a renovated three bedroom listed at $390,000 and sat 56 days before selling below asking. A comparable house two streets away, essentially the same size and the same year built, listed at $350,000 and went under contract in eight days at full price with no reduction, in a neighborhood whose median sale price had fallen 10% year over year.
The houses were not meaningfully different. The prices were.
Do not price against what is listed. Price against what closed.
A neighbor's list price is a hypothesis. It is the most visible number in the neighborhood and the least useful one.
Because Texas is a non-disclosure state, closed sale prices are not public record. They come from the MLS. That cuts both ways: you cannot look them up yourself, and neither can the buyer, which makes the quality of your agent's comparable analysis matter more here than it would in Florida or California.
Ask to see the comps. Ask which ones were thrown out and why. That second question is the one that separates a real pricing analysis from a number someone liked.
Get ahead of the option period
Texas buyers get a paid, unrestricted right to terminate during the option period. They will use it, and the inspection is where deals die.
Pre-inspect. Paying for your own inspection before listing is the highest return few hundred dollars in this process. You find out what a buyer's inspector will find, and you get to decide whether to fix it, disclose it, or price for it, calmly, instead of renegotiating under a deadline with a buyer who now has leverage and doubts.
Foundation especially. Expansive clay soil makes foundation movement common here, and it is the single most frequent reason a San Antonio contract falls apart. If there has been a repair, find the paperwork and the warranty before you list. If there has not been an evaluation and there are signs of movement, get one. A documented, engineered repair is an asset. An unexplained crack discovered on day six of the option period is a price reduction.
What is worth spending money on, and what is not
The honest answer is that it depends on your price point, and any agent who gives you a universal list is not looking at your house.
Usually worth it: paint in a neutral color, landscaping and edging at the curb, deep cleaning, decluttering to the point of discomfort, professional photography. These are cheap relative to what they return.
Usually not: replacing countertops, remodeling a bathroom, or new flooring at a price point where the buyer intends to change it anyway. You rarely see that money again.
Ask directly what you should skip. An agent who only ever tells you to spend more is not managing your net proceeds.
Timing
Military PCS season concentrates buyer activity in late spring and summer, and Joint Base San Antonio makes that a real pattern here rather than a national generality. That is worth knowing, but it matters much less than price and condition. A correctly priced house sells in a slow month. An overpriced one sits through the good ones.
Your assessed value is not your market value
The county's assessed value is a tax figure, produced by a mass appraisal process, and it is not an appraisal of your home. It can be well below or above what a buyer will pay.
Do not price from it, and do not let a buyer argue from it either.
The questions to ask before you sign a listing agreement
- What closed sales is this price based on, and which comps did you reject?
- What is currently active in my price band, and how long has it been sitting?
- What should I not spend money on?
- What happens if we are 21 days in with no offers?
- Who is actually doing the work, you or someone on your team?
Keep reading
- Why isn't my San Antonio house selling? — nine reasons a listing sits, how to tell which one applies to you, and what a price reduction actually does.
- How much below asking should I offer in San Antonio? — written for buyers, which is exactly why it is worth reading before you set your price.
Thinking about selling?
Robert "Bobby" Cortez | Residential sales and purchases
TREC License #546997
(210) 454-8806
homes@thetreygroup.com
Get a comparative market analysis
About The Trey Group
The Trey Group is a San Antonio real estate team operating under eXp Realty, serving Bexar, Comal, Kendall, and Guadalupe counties. J.J. Gorena handles commercial real estate and franchise tenant representation, TREC #522975. Robert "Bobby" Cortez handles residential sales and purchases, TREC #546997.
