Selling a home can present many different challenges. One of the most serious is listing your home with a REALTOR® just because that Realtor is your friend. Here's a story that illustrates this point.

A home owner listed his home with his best friend, who was also a Realtor Considering the friendship, the friend/agent could not bring himself to discuss the condition of the property with the owner, especially how dirty it was and how it needed to be cleaned if it was ever going to sell. Considering that the owner had just completed finishing the basement into a gameroom and had invited the agent over to watch the Big Game, the agent couldn't bring himself to to break the news to the owner that he had spent thousands of dollars on home improvements that did not increase the value of the owner's home.

You can imagine what happened, the Realtor listed the home tens of thousands of dollars over the market value and in poor showing condition. Despite the friendship, months passed with little activity and no interest from buyers. The Owner's friendship with the Realtor became more and more strained as each month passed without an offer. After several unsuccessful months, the owner lowered the price of his home to a price within market value, but by then it was too late. The few people who came to see the home had already purchased another house, and the most active buying season was over. The Owner decided to take his home off the market for a while.

Turn the clock ahead several months, the owner called a well-known, professional Realtor who met with him and told him the truth about what it was actually going to take to get the home sold. This Realtor shared with the owner the history of sales in the neighborhood, gave him a list of all the competition, shared an aggressive computerized marketing plan and suggested a fair marketing price based on the facts. Thirty-nine days later, the owner sold his house for 98% of the listed price.

The sad part of this tale is that the owner now does not talk to his friend for for not getting his home sold the first time around & not being honest with him up front. Although the owner's friend was a good professional, he simply couldn't separate business from friendship and as a result he lost the friendship and the owners business. That's the danger of listing your home with a friend.

Lets face it. most people in any profession have a difficult time drawing a distinction between friendship and business, so if you truly value your friendship and you sincerely want to sell your home in Northern Virginia, play it safe and list with someone who can be objective with you and who can sell your house quick. You should also never make the mistake of listing with a part time professional. Selling a home is too complicated and too important to entrust to a part time professional, who by not knowing the pitfalls and complications of the business can end up costing you money

Lets separate the professional job of selling your home from your friends. Keep your friends and sell your home. This is a true win-win situation.