PRICED...TO SELL vs. FOR SALE! What is YOUR home?

In some of my recent blogs, you might have noticed that I mention a home being listed TO SELL rather than FOR SALE. For those of you that have asked me what the difference is, here it goes...

As a listing agent, it is my intent to SELL a clients home as I would also like to think that the client would like their home SOLD as well. That's a fair assumption to make right? Well, this is where my difference between the two come into play.

Many time an agent will go on a listing appointment and somehow find themselves listing a home higher than either THEY Care to or The Market will bare. There's many reasons why this happens (i.e. Seller needs more $ out of the sale, the agent isn't very trained on SELLING homes, the agent knows the sellers needs so therefore tailors the price to the sellers needs just to get the listing, etc.). These are just some of the reasons. Now let me caveat something here. I am by NO MEANS bashing other agents in the Myrtle Beach real estate marketplace. I only speak of what I hear and see. I can also speak from experience as I have been guilty in the past of what I speak of.

So, when an agent finds themselves in a situation where the home is "OVERPRICED" we can then categorize the home as PRICED FOR SALE. What I mean by this is, the home is obviously FOR SALE, but what we have to ask ourselves is, at the home's current price, is the home going TO SELL? This is where you have to be realistic. If you find yourself saying probably/maybe not, then your home is PRICED FOR SALE meaning that it will most likely just sit on the market forever, clog the market with supply, distort market statistics, & make (you the agent) or (your agent) look bad and quite possibly make the home look unattractive to buyers as they will think something is wrong with it as to why no one wants to buy it!

So here's the answer! Pricing your home TO SELL! Pricing your home TO SELL means that you are pricing your home in accordance with what has been established as market value "What Buyers are willing to pay in TODAY's market." Though a bit more work for your agent, this method is much more effective for agents and sellers alike because if the agent is selling homes, he/she is making $, satisfying clients, getting more listings, selling more homes, building a reputation, and so on and so forth. YES, IT'S AS EASY AS THAT!

How is this achieved? Through market research and analysis. Agent should always prepare a CMA. Some agents call them Comparative Market Analysis'...I call the CUSTOMIZED Market Analysis (check previous blogs for further explanation). In conducting the CMA, the agent should prepare the potential seller a detailed explanation as to HOW they arrived at the priced they recommend. Some of the information that needs to be taken into consideration is: Homes SOLD similar to YOURS in YOUR neighborhood (or within a 1 mile raadius), How long ago did they close? How long were they on the market? What were market conditions like during that time period? How many price reductions happened prior to receiving a contract? What is your current competition (price, quality, length of time on market, price reductions, etc)? After taking all this (and more) into consideration, an agent should be able to tailor what the listing price SHOULD BE based on YOUR motivation TO SELL (how soon do you need to see your $, what Stage of Seller's Motivation are you in?).

Now many will say that this doesn't always work because of market conditions changing, lack of buyers, lending procedures, etc. They're right~ Nothing is ever fool proof, but what you and your agent will need to discuss is price reduction plan (i.e. When will the 1st, 2nd, 3rd price reductions take place and for how much should the home not go under contract in X amount of time). Why is this? Remember what we said was market value..."What buyer's are willing to pay for a home in TODAY's market" so if you are getting showings and no contracts, then buyer's ARE NOT willing to pay your asking price and the rule of thumb here is to continue to reduce until the home goes under contract!

Now, we can go on and on with this as to how some homeowners can't, aren't able to, etc. reduce their homes and whatever else everyone is running around out there saying. Here's how I look at it...YES YOU CAN~! You just choose NOT TO! If you are serious about selling your home, this is the PROVEN method to use. This WILL SELL YOUR HOME!

Hopefully you will be able to see the difference between PRICING your Home TO SELL vs. FOR SALE and will keep this in consideration when it's time to sell your home. If your home is currently listed and is not getting contracts or showing, please take a look at this plan and see if it works for you...I assure you that if you put together A PLAN based on YOUR NEEDS, you will find that this plan works for YOUR NEEDS and TIMEFRAME!

For more information on Homes for Sale in Myrtle Beach or Myrlte Beach Real Estate Market, please feel free to contact me!

Christopher.Hart@HartRealtyOnline.com
843-903-HART (4278) Office
www.HartTeam.biz