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Pricing Your Home To Sell In Today's Market ~ Correct Pricing May Bring You A Seller Sooner Than Later...

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage 335893

It is a far worse thing is to stay priced over current market values and to continue the downward spiral of decline while attracting no offers than to price your home according to the current market conditions.

While the mortgage market has become more stringent with loan approvals, the general consensus of any number of market analysis trends continue to show less stability on the horizon. With that we may expect to see the downward trend continue (see article links below).  The recommended correction to attract offers is a price adjustment of 5% to 8% assuming that they were priced near market to begin with, or to put it another way, priced close to appraisal value. Now please don't shoot the messenger. These are statistics specific to our region, though similar stats span the entire country. And mortgage lenders utilize all of these factors to determine risk.

The danger that comes with not making any adjustments until all the others follow suit is what we refer to as 'chasing the market'. These are the homes which are always the bridesmaid and never the bride. Previous homes which were priced to the market 'sold comps'  6 to 12 months ago have for the most part sold. Of course the planets were in perfect alignment, they were marketed appropriately and they had a buyer come through in the right place at the right time. However if the three legged stool of 'Price, Terms and Condition' were in place, it would be safe to assume that offers would follow. In any market people are always buying and selling houses. And everyone is looking for a deal. I don't know of anyone who would pay 25% over the sticker price of a new vehicle. The same theory applies to the housing market. And as recent predictions have the housing market declining a bunch before years end and a minimum of 10% after the first of the year, the need to price accurately according to market conditions is increasingly imperative.

Will people come out of the woodwork for a fair market value deal? Maybe as it will be most attractive. Will more come out for a 'value priced' deal? Perhaps, and even multiple offers have been know to occur. Do you have to accept any offers that come in? No! Yet once people become vested in the contract process spending several hours pre-qualifying, writing the offer and providing the earnest money deposit, it is surprising how they can begin to bid themselves up when they meet up with seller resistance. Once on paper they have made the decision to pursue a home purchase which is perhaps the largest purchase they will ever make. They have researched the area and resolved to reside there for a committed period of time. They will be educated by their Realtor if the property is priced correctly to the market and that it wasn't over priced by the seller to end up at a price the seller expected to get after negotiations. They will be made to see the value. The decision to bail and find another property and begin the process of jumping through those hoops all over again is not appealing in the least.

Anyhow, here are some interesting articles. I hope that the financial world stabilizes sooner then later. The "R" word (recession) is being bantered about more and more in the news these days. Even more frightening when they use the word 'global' in conjunction with it.

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