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There are many mistakes a person can make when deciding to sell a home. Listing your home with a REALTOR® just because that Realtor is your friend can present some of the most serious problems when listing your home. Consider the following story that talks about this point.

A home owner listed his home with his best friend, who happened to be a Realtor. In consideration of their friendship, the Realtor could not bring himself to even mention to the owner that the house was an absolute mess, smelled like a litter box and that it needed to cleaned and the carpets replaced 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 condition to say the least. Not surprisingly, the weeks passed with few showings and no contracts. The Owner's friendship with the Realtor became more and more strained as each week passed without a contract. After several unsuccessful months, the owner lowered the price of his home to just below 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.

Several months later, the owner called a well-known, professional Realtor who met with him and told him the truth about his house. 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 the house value that the marketplace would yeild. In just a fraction of the time that the original agent took, the owner sold his house for more than he had it listed for with his friend.

The sad part of this story is that the owner now resents his friend for not being honest with him up front and for not getting his home sold the first time around. 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.