Is that a question you’ve asked your real estate agent? It seems this question is being asked more and more these days. While there are many factors that go into the answer to that question, one reason that is the most frequent reason is the listing price. How is the listing price of your home so important in getting your home sold within 90 days?
Your goal is to sell your home for the best price in the shortest time. That is also the goal of your real estate agent since your agent only gets paid when your home sells. That poses a very delicate balancing act. What is the best price to get your home sold in 90 days? What relationship does that price have with what you paid for your home, or more importantly, what you owe on your mortgage? As a homeowner, these are important factors to you, but a potential buyer is not interested in what you paid for your house and what you owe on your house! To a potential buyer the only thing that is relevent is what is your house worth in this market. Isn’t that what was important to you when you bought your house?
Is your house worth more to a buyer than your neighbors?
When your home is listed, the first two weeks tell the tale of list price. If your house is shown often during that time you are probably in the right price range of comparable homes. If you haven’t received an offer, your list price could be high. If your house has only a few showings in the first two weeks that is a clear indicator that you need to take immediate pricing action to get in the range price of comparable homes in the area. If you do not act immediately another reason comes into play. What’s that?
If you’ve listed your house at a price that is above the selling price of houses that are comparable to yours and you aren’t getting showings within the first two weeks of listing your house, your house will be ‘old’ in the minds of buyers. Even worst, buyers might feel that it would be difficult to negotiate a deal on your house because the listing price is above the market. That puts you in a difficult position. By the time you lower the price to where the market was, you’ll find that the market has changed. You end up chasing the market and your house has lost its luster. Some agents may tell you that the price reduction will cause your house to show up on the MLS hot sheet notifying all local agents of the price reduction. But remember, these agents saw the first listing with a price that was above market. And there are newer listings that their clients might want to see!
Avoid the hassle! Selling your house is a business transaction and there is little room for emotion. What ever your reason for selling your house your goal is to sell it at the best price (fair market value) in the shortest time possible! While you cannot do this with price alone, one thing is sure: If you price above the market you will not sell your house in the shortest time possible.
If you have questions on this, or other real estate topics, call us.