When selling your Knoxville home, starting with the correct pricing and staging are like getting to start a marathon with a 5 mile head start. No it won’t necessarily make the race easy, but it will definitely get you ahead of the competition, and even the very best Knoxville houses comparable to yours will have to work really hard to catch up and beat you. So often agents are afraid to tell home owners the truth about what the market is saying their home is worth, or what improvements need to be made to help the home show the best it possibly can. The typical agent may be worried that they might not get the listing because they are not telling the seller what they want to hear. The truth is that by not telling the seller the cold hard facts, they are doing both the seller and themselves a disservice. Overpricing leads to extended listing times and ultimately a lower sales price as homes languish on the market. The same holds true for staging and home improvements. These items should be brought to the attention of sellers as the improvements will ultimately help the home sell faster and eliminate objections from potential buyers. Simple fixes such as de-cluttering, painting, removing of wallpaper, or trimming the bushes and planting flowers can make a huge difference in the perception of the potential buyer, turning a negative into a positive. However if the issues are never brought up, they can only stay negatives. Honesty will bring results. Within the past 12 months, because of sellers heeding this advice, I’ve had three listings go under contract within 10 days of listing. The old saying holds true in real estate, honesty is the best policy.