Well, the winter selling season for Southwest Florida is about ready to come to a close! It's been a wonderful season as our prime tourist and home selling months are December - May.
Sales are up and inventory is down; actually way down from peek levels. Property is selling much more swiftly than 2006-2007. Our month over month and year over year appointments to view current inventory is also way up. Real estate is selling, albeit at levels not seen since 2003. That pricing brings us nearly 50% off of peek pricing of November 2005.
As many home sellers are starting to see the light of properly priced homes, the pending volume is increasing. A home seller in today's market must good decisions in hiring the "right" broker & agent. Many agents are still speaking what seller's want to hear and quite honestly that doesn't provide for a smooth transaction and certainly doesn't bring a home to close. We must be honest with a seller about real and true pricing even when that means that the jaws are hitting the table.
While we have been seeing a greater impact of foreclosures and pre-foreclosures or "short sales"; that is an imperative discussion to have with a seller at a listing appointment. Those homes which have already been foreclosed are being placed on the market with a very reasonable market price. Many of these homes are NOT in terrible condition as many would have you believe. When those homes come on the market and sell for a value based on today's market; that set's the pricing for a particular community. Couple that with a very tight credit market where even some of the best qualified purchasors are having a difficult time obtaining a mortgage and appraisers are using the most recent data to deliver their appraisal with no exceptions; than you need to be priced accordingly based on price per square foot to properly position your home for sale.
I've heard seller's say that the neighbor had a "fire sale" or that was a "foreclosure" so they can't be compared with my home is a "feel" good tactic and needs to be nipped in the bud early in the listing and pricing discussion if you truly want to "SELL" the home.
These are hard times for real estate home seller's, broker's and agent's but the more upfront and honest about market conditions and data we supply; the better off we'll be in actually all sitting at a closing table. We as agents might not obtain every listing by using this tactic and I certainly have been rejected a couple of times and also rejected the seller who wanted to "try" it at a higher position but in the end it's the properly priced home that get's SOLD and the rest are just statistics.
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