Finding The Right Buyer

As a Seller of real estate (that being your home), you need to have the "right buyer" for your home. 

What exactly is a "right buyer?"

Well finding the right buyer has much to do with how your home is priced. Think of it like a 14-day rule. Most homes will receive an offer within 14 days of listing....or a price change. Said another way, waiting more than 14 days to make a price adjustment on your home, when you have not received any offers, does not result in getting an offer. 

It comes down to math.

For example, let's say your home is 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The people looking and your list of potential buyers will be :

• In that area (that being neighborhood, city or possibily a condo building)
• The same number of bedrooms
• The same number of bathrooms
• At that price point

Once we list your home, our on-line marketing plan quickly goes to work, making your home be visible not only one our company sites of MyMidtownMojo.com and MyAtlantaMojo.com, but very important sites like Zillow and Realtor.com. Based on this on-line marketing (and why we place so much emphasis on the condition of your home for photographs) part of this buyer potential will quickly schedule showings. Since this group of buyers existed before the home was listed, you will tend to see a flurry of activity when you initially list your home. 

This activity usually happens in that first 14 days, whereby every interested buyer from that group has seen your home.....in person, or on-line.

But, when you have NOT received an offer in that first 2 weeks, how do you expand that group of buyers?

Let's go back to the potential buyer list above...which one do you have control over? You are not adding bedrooms or moving your house....so it's the price.  When you lower the price, you expose your home to another group of buyers, with the same criteria...but at a lower price. 

Now, lowering the price does not mean you walk away with less money. The listing price is a starting point for negotiations. Let me give you an example:

I list your home (as described above) for $409,900, and you expect an offer in the high $390's. In the mean time, the "right buyer" for your home is looking and has a budget of $400,000. Your home should have an offer almost instantly, shouldn't it?

Well, not so fast. Most agents search under the price/budget of a buyer, so they may search up to $399,900. So your home, listed at $409,900 never comes up. And it won't come up, until you make a price adjustment of at least $10,000.  So, you would potentially sell your home faster without losing any value just by reducing the price to attract more buyers. 

What Does This Mean For You, Mr/Ms. Seller?

There is no benefit to waiting to find that perfect buyer.

Rewind to when you bought your home....if it had been on the market for a month, and at the same price, I would not have recommended you offer full price. I would have recommended you offer less than the list price and possibly some other concessions. There is also a good chance I would have advised you that we may have an "unmotivated Seller" who is not willing to negotiate.

Instead of chasing the market, which is what you so when you over-price your home, we develop a pricing plan before we list your home. This starts with an initial price, but then has a defined timeline as to when and how much the price on your home will be adjusted.

With this timeline in place, we don't have to have this discussion every couple weeks, which can certainly add to the stress of selling your home.