The rules are different in soft markets, you don't overprice your house 20 percent to leave wiggle room for negotiating. That kind of strategy might never be a good idea. It's not a matter of being willing to negotiate. If your price is too high, potential buyers may not even look at it. And they may very well see a negative message in such a high price. I am tired of agents who are overpricing their listings just to make their sellers happy, in this market they are wasting everyone's time.
Get your comps from the local paper, from sites such as Zillow.com and Realtor.com, from you MLS service, to see how similar houses in the area are priced. Also find out which newspaper in your area publishes notices when properties are sold. Work a little bit more sometime is good to do the homework and not make things difficult for the real professionals, and worse than that is spending the money you probrably don't have. Tracking comps is a good way of learning actual sales prices, as opposed to asking prices.
Then set a realistic figure. Your goal: to maximize the chances that the perfect buyer will actually see it.
To get an idea of what's going on now, you want recent comps. But you may also want to look at comparables from the past three months. I even don't waste more time on 6 or more months, real estate is totaly new and we have to work with the reality. Are properties moving? Are prices holding steady or are sellers dropping prices?
Pricing is strategy. And much of it comes down to just how motivated you are to sell -- or how quickly you have to leave.
If you plan to pad the price, it's an art, not an exact science. Five to 10 percent is one thing. Fifteen to 20 percent and you have a problem.
Need comps?? Go to www.forsalebozeman.com and have some fun!
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