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How To Price A Home To Sell

By
Real Estate Agent with Joe Manausa Real Estate 8508880888

Winter will be departing soon and the seasonal changes that are approaching always stimulate the Tallahassee housing market. If you need to sell your home, you have a great chance now, so don’t blow it!

For you to realize success in selling a home, you have to be knowledgeable on how to determine the home value range. This is so critical that I suspect that is the top reason that most people fail to sell a home in Tallahassee (and most other markets as well).  So how hard is it to sell a home right now?

The current one-year trend of the home selling success rate has risen to 46%, but I fear that number will peak soon and then begin to drop. Now remember, the one-year trend is not affected by seasonality, as each point in the graph (blue field below) represents 365 days worth of home sales in Tallahassee.

A 46% sales success rate means less than 1/2 of all homes for sale in Tallahassee are selling. In the real estate graph below, you can see that number actually dipped down to 1 in 3 homes selling in the spring of last year. Do you want to be part of the 60+% that are not going to sell? I hope not …

Home Sales Success Rate Should Begin To Fall

The home sales success rate is measured by dividing the total number of listings taken over the past 365 days and dividing that by the total number of home sales during the same period. This gives us a relative snap shot of the difficulty (or ease) of selling a home.

Unfortunately for homeowners who need to sell, a really bad economy combined with a weak housing market are conspiring to make it more difficult to sell a home. Inventory is going to be emerging from the shadow inventory of homes in Tallahassee, creating more competition than most homeowners will be able to handle.

Knowing what is ahead of us is the one competitive advantage that homeowners have today that can help them be successful in selling their home. The key is to use this information and take decisive action.

New Competition Will Make The Same Old Mistakes

If you are ready to sell your home now, you can get it done in 60 days or less if you make some wise decisions. You need to work with an expert at determining real estate values and your initial market position, and you need to make sure that your home is exposed to the largest market segment that is most likely to find your home attractive.

Fortunately, your competition will not do this. They will make the same mistakes that others made last year (remember, less than 40% of homes listed last year actually sold) and spend their first few months on the market just flailing around. If you make the right decisions early, you can beat them to the seasonal buyers that are arriving daily.

We know that real estate values are dropping, so the homeowners who act wisely now will reap the benefits, while those who do not, will be forced to sell their home in a market with fewer buyers and more homes on the market.

[How To Price Your Home To Sell]


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Joe Manausa Real Estate
1934 Dellwood Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32303
(850) 366-8917

Comments (8)

Gary L. Waters Broker Associate, Bucci Realty
Bucci Realty, Inc. - Melbourne, FL
Eighteen Years Experience in Brevard County

Selling is easy if the initial list price is competitive. I do not understand why sellers always want to believe their home is special!

Feb 09, 2010 11:44 PM
Chris Hill
Century 21 New Millennium - California, MD
Your Southern Maryland Real Estate Professional

Thanks for the info, pricing a home correctly in todays market is more critical than ever. Understanding pricing and what drives buyers is really a tough game. Thanks for sharing.

Feb 09, 2010 11:45 PM
Anne Hensel
South Beaches Real Estate Professionals - Saint Petersburg, FL
Realtor - Broker - St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island

Love your statistics, it is very helpful for buyers and sellers

Feb 10, 2010 01:18 AM
Kevin J. May
Florida Supreme Realty - Hobe Sound, FL
Serving the Treasure & Paradise Coasts of Florida

We've been using the probably now outdated statistic that 60% of homes which are priced correctly will sell within 30 days.  By the end of 60 days, 90% of those properly priced homes should be sold.  Thanks for your market snapshot Joe! 

Feb 10, 2010 04:14 AM
Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL
Joe Manausa Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Real Estate

Hey Gary, they get a lot of agents giving them hopes of higher prices. Always been that way...

Feb 11, 2010 08:42 PM
Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL
Joe Manausa Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Real Estate

Thanks Chris, I agree. Bad pricing used to mean adding time to getting it sold. Today, it means not selling.

Feb 11, 2010 08:43 PM
Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL
Joe Manausa Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Real Estate

Hey Ann,

I like providing as many "pictures" as possible. You never know which one will drive home the point.

Feb 11, 2010 08:43 PM
Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL
Joe Manausa Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Tallahassee Real Estate

Hey Kevin, as far as I'm concerned, every home priced correctly will sell (except for the very, very top of the market, where # of sales per month < 1). The key is to knowing the correct price.

Feb 11, 2010 08:46 PM