Truth is, the person whose opinion matters most is the buyer who makes an offer to purchase your property. Properties priced to high receive no offers. Properties priced a little to low generally receive multiple offers thereby driving the price up by receiving offers up to the real market value. There is little danger in pricing a home too low. The danger lies in over pricing and selecting your selling agent solely on their suggestions of listing at a higher price.
An agent’s job is to price the home competitively based on the most recent sales comparables (comps). Pricing a home is part science, part art and a whole lot of market experience. It involves a combination of comparing similar properties, tracking the most recent market movement, evaluating current inventory and making adjustments for any differences between comparable properties.
Can A Price Be Too Good To Be True?
When most sellers interview real estate agents about selling their home, many get caught up in the process of choosing a sales price. The thought of receiving additional money for your home is a no brainer. Unfortunately many uniformed sellers often choose the listing agent who suggests the highest listing price. Realtors call this scenario ‘buying the listing’. These agents are hoping to sign the listing and then worry about getting the price reduced to the actual market value over the coming months when the seller doesn’t receive an offer.
Unfortunately, many uninformed sellers often choose the listing agent who suggests an unrealistically high listing price. The overpriced property then sits on the market unsold, usually until another agent takes over the expired listing several months later and prices it correctly. You just might have missed an offer from a qualified buyer in the meantime!
Some Agents Specialize In Expired Listings
Dozens of agents here in the desert actually make their living by contacting the sellers of expired listings and then relisting these properties at market value. This process is called ‘re-packaging’ an overpriced property.
Sold In 24 Hours
As I mentioned earlier there is little danger in pricing a home too low and I'll show you one recent example. We listed a luxury golf course home for sale at The Palms Golf Club in La Quinta California at $579,000. This price was just below the comps and inventory in this smaller community was tight. Within 24-hours we have multiple offers in hand and our buyer was able to select a cash offer above the listing price and with a short ten day close!
Comments(2)