In the minds of the Seller, the most important question at a listing presentation is "What Would You List my House For?"It doesn't really matter that I may say, "well, it's your house and although I can give you experienced and researched suggestions, ultimately, we're going to list the house at a price you choose," the seller looks up at you with hope in their eyes that you'll name a really big number!
As market values have continued to fall here in our area, it's often difficult to help a Seller understand that what their house will sell for is less than it would have been a year, or even six months, ago. In listing presentations until very recently, I've relied on spreadsheets and comps to help lay out the numbers. I've talked about how prices in our area are just above the 2005 numbers ... and slightly lower than the 2006 numbers for pricing. And it was always a tough sell and sometimes I allowed myself to get talked up in the ultimate question of "what's it worth?" Okay, that's it. Time for pictures!
And, you know what? They worked! Did a listing presentation on Tuesday evening. Held my breath a bit when we got to the number parts because, gee whiz! My numbers were a full $75,000 below the only "looks like this house" listing in the neighborhood. And even further below those that had sold in the recent couple of months. Really kinda sad.
I laid out all the data I had in graph form. And my comps, etc. All the stats about absorption rates and days on market and all that stuff. With data from 2005 forward. And, dang! It worked. The Seller actually came up with a number lower than mine! Good grief.
The chart below illustrates that Median Sold Prices in Maple Valley through the 3rd week of March, are just above the prices in effect for the same time period in 2005 --and below those those of 2006!
Next, a quick graphical look at how long houses are staying on the market before sold.
Finally, here's an illustration of the huge gap between what's really happening, price-wise, between what's on the market and what's actually selling:
Try using charts and graphs! They worked for me!
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