You've probably heard the old saying " if you can't beat them join them." Well if you are planning on selling your home than this timeless saying will be of special interest to you again. The days of competing against other home owners to sell your home are rapidly becoming the glory days of yesteryear. A new day is dawning in which your primary competition will be with the banks or with sellers who have lost the ultimate control in sellng their homes to the bank.
In the past competing mainly with other home owners meant that there was delicate balance of importance between price, condition, location, and presentation. Being a little overpriced could be compensated for with a good eye for home staging, especially if the house had the aroma of fresh baked cookies or bread. Those rules are now officially out the window.
Today the new rules apply. Bake the cookies, stage the home, AND PRICE YOUR HOME COMPETITIVELY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. If you are not the best house at the best price than be prepared to stay right where you are and by competitively I mean priced to win.
If the average price for comparable homes is $385k than you need to be priced at $375k. You need to stand out by price and than close the deal with your staging and presenation. If you ignore this advice than you are doing it at the risk of your own financial peril.
Can't you just drop the price later? Of course you can but by than the other prices will be dropped too and once again you will be a needle lost in the haystack of homes that are currently on the market. The key is to realize that today your competing with banks and distressed sellers. Both of these types of sellers have a high motivation to drop their prices and sell their homes. Prices are dropping and with the current mortgage crisis expanding you need to price your home to beat the competition or you may find yourself joining them as the prices continue to fall. The next year will be marked by price wars between average Joe's like you and distressed properties that will leave a lot of home owners with wounded equity or devastated finances.
Get ahead of the game, price your home to sell quickly and you will be counting your blessings when the last shot has finally been fired and the market begins to clear.
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