No one wants to hear their house is overpriced! Especially after they have been on the market for a few months, had pretty consistent showings and gotten close to an offer a time or two. So does a $5000 reduction really make a difference?! I'm here to tell you, YES it does! Buyers are more educated than ever on home values. With the use of Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Realtor.com they know more about your house before they walk in the door than you could ever imagine. Buyers are literally touring homes with their Ipads or phones in hand and have the most recent sales at their finger tips!
While working with sellers I am consistently reviewing market data. Watching daily to see what is new to the market, what recently sold and what houses were listed too high and eventually expired. No one wants to go a home owner and say "We need to consider a price reduction." Which is more than likely responded to with "if they want it badly enough, they will make me an offer." Believe me my job is to get the seller the highest possible price I can for their home, but this is where a reduction is crucial.
So buyer's have worked for months, maybe years, to buy their first or next home they have saved and paid off any debt they can to be sure they can get the financing necessary to purchase their home! All the while, they have been watching the market where they eventually want to buy on the Internet. They have watched many homes come and go, and are constantly editing their short list to see once they have their approval in hand.
Approval in hand they are ready to shop! After looking through homes in their ideal area in person for the last couple of weeks they have narrowed it down to 2 or 3 properties. One is overpriced, but they really love it! After sleeping on one of the most important decisions of their life, they decide to pass on the overpriced listing and pursue another home.
Why you ask? They are simply exhausted from working on their credit, saving and house shopping, the last thing they want to do is negotiate an offer on an overpriced house.
Now let's go back to the sellers, the sellers who were $5000 overpriced. They were the ones passed up by these highly qualified buyers. What happened? Well, they eventually reduced their price by $5000! In a single week they have 2 buyers who are working with their agents to put an offer together and had at least one showing every single day since the reduction.
Moral of the story, $5000 does make a huge difference to buyers. Buyers want to pay fair market value for your home, but don't want to take the time to get you to that price.
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