How Rock The Block Is Helping Me Sell My House

There was one thing I did when listing the #11thStreetRetreat that might surprise you. And yes, it was right out of my Rock the Block playbook. Well, if I’m being honest, I’ve always done this with the real estate I sell – but it was front-of-mind because of Rock the Block on HGTV.

So first of all, for those who haven’t seen Rock the Block – what are you waiting for?! You can watch Season 1 here and catch up on Leanne Ford, Mina Starsiak Hawk, Alison Victoria, and myself all competing to take run-of-the-mill houses and transform them into something spectacular. And guess how you win? That’s right, the house with the highest APPRAISED VALUE takes home the trophy.

Soooo, if you haven’t already figured it out, guess what I did before listing our house for sale? I GOT AN APPRAISAL. Now I know what you’re thinking – WHY? Here’s how it works…

When you live in a house for an extended period of time (Brett and I had lived in our house a little under 8 years) you start to get emotionally attached and thus inflate the value of the home in your mind. Most homeowners have no idea the actual value of their house and each time they say what they think it could sell for, their estimated price goes up a little bit. The problem is, you will only ever sell your home for market value.

The stories of people coming in and paying double what a home is worth, or knocking on your neighbor’s door and making them a crazy offer… well, I’m not saying it’s never happened, but that’s not the norm. The norm is much less sexy and the long and short of it is this. If you list your house (meaning choose a price) too high, your house will sit on the market until you drop the price to the market value. Having real estate sit on the market costs $$$, never mind the stress of open houses, property taxes, snow removal, heating bills… the list goes on and on.

So here’s what I did: I ordered an appraisal. And yes, it’s that simple! It was from an independent appraiser that I’d never met and cost under $1,000. He looked carefully at my house (my agent met him there) and then analyzed the local comps (comparable properties that are for sale and have sold in the neighborhood) to come up with what he thought the home was worth.

This number is important because if someone needs to get a loan to purchase your house, you know what the loan appraisal might come in at and if that person might not be able to get as much financing as they thought. The other thing the appraisal helps with: setting the asking price. We landed on a price LESS THAN THE APPRAISED VALUE, hoping to sell the home quickly and without headache.

And guess what – it worked! More on that soon, but hopefully this Rock the Block trick will work for you too.  Keep me posted and good luck!

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