A Different kind of Seller's Market

A Different kind of Seller's Market

Home Sellers: This is for you. If you pay attention you'll make more money from this. The alternative can cost you time and money - ouch!

Looong ago, even before the days of easy sales, there was a public perception about selling real estate. Sellers priced their home between 5 and 10% higher than they thought it was going to sell and they waited. If they were lucky, within 3 to 6 months, the wait  paid off and they negotiated down to market value. This happened for decades.

Then we went too fast, and then too slow - way too slow. Now we're getting back on track again and a funny thing has happened. For a number of reasons, there are very few listings for buyers to buy.

Given the basic law of supply and demand, it seems like sellers are in the driver's seat and they can just list it and wait for the offers to come in!

Hold on there a moment. This is a different kind of seller's market. Buyers are highly educated on what creates value and your home better present value or it will actually sit in a seller's market!

So how do you sell best in today's market? How do you create the kind of  value that gets you multiple offers or at least gets you sold in a week at full price?

You look at the sold comparables and determine where you're positioned given your condition and features. Then you look at the active comparables and see where you're positioned in the current competition based on condition and features. Then (and here's the kicker) you price the home at the price you think it will sell for - EXACTLY!

If you're right, a great thing will happen. You'll have many showings and possibly multiple offers. Even if you don't get multiple offers you will get one, and it's tough to get less than list price in the first week on the market.

If you get 6 to 10 showings and NO offer then you created value and the marketing worked, you just didn't create enough value and a single price improvement within the first 6 weeks should do it. I know, I know, you want to wait and keep it at this same price but guess what? If you wait you'll still sell it at the lower price because the longer you're on the market, the less you get for it.

So why not price it properly and get is sold while you have power, instead of waiting for that one person to make the offer and understand they can control the transaction because you don't have any other interest.

So what happens if you stick with the old way? In my experience, the market actually punishes you and you sell for 5 to 10% LESS than market value.

So one way you get sold at or maybe even above value in less than a week and the other way you deal with showings for months and sell for less than market value. Seems like an easy decision.

Agents, if your home is a traditional sale and has been on the market for longer than 3 months, your sellers don't understand this different seller's market. Explaining this new market is providing the utmost in service to your clients!

Good Luck to all you sellers both already listed and getting ready to list. I wish you the best proceeds possible!