Divorcing couples with a house to sell could loose valuable dollars by putting a listed price in the court order. The real estate market is constanly changing. One minute prices are going up the next they are going down. Using an appraisal or CMA from a month or so ago that values the house at say $500,000 could be out of date today when you had 3 homes in the neighborhood that sold for between $525,000-$550,000.
If you happen to be in a declining market and homes are now selling for less than $500,000 you become that over priced listing that just sits there with out showings. Worse yet you get the bottom feeders who then low ball it. Fixed prices in court orders can not keep up with the market at that given time.
Other things that can effect price is condition. Are there pet roaming the house and pet odors, unruley tenants who refuse to keep the house picked up, in home day care in the basement with screaming kids making it hard to show or locked doors with no access are to name a few. These are the type of things that makes the buy head the other way.
Knowing where to price it to optimize showings is the key to getting homes sold. If you have a court order that say the home to be price at $599,990 you could be missing that buyer. When house shopping, buyers use sites like Refin and Zillow. They need to select a range to search in. If they are a $600,000 buyer and they are searching $600,000-$625,000, you will have missed that buyer by $10.00.
Price manadating in a court order can be one isssue but price reductions can be another. If the order says 5% price reduction every 90 days and houses are selling in 2 weeks you could very quickly become that over priced listing. Costing you thosands of dollars and wasted time.
A good Realtor knows the market. Best practice is the leave the list price up to the recommenation of the Realtor or consult with the Realtor before creating and the order so the price is relevant and has flexiblity.
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Susan Jacobs is a CDRE- Certified Divorce Real Estate Expert. She works as a neutral third party in Family Law cases regarding real property and secured debt. She can be reached at 703-347-4418 Susan@SusanOJacobs.com or visit www.DivorceThatSpouse.com
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