The Biggest Mistakes Sellers make when selling a home in Cumming and Alpharetta in this market
Biggest Mistake: There is one item that stops a home from selling more than any other factor. When Sellers list their homes in Cumming and Alpharetta, the single biggest mistake I see is the listing price of their homes. Last week I had a listing appointment with a couple that purchased their home in 2005 and paid $609,000 -I explained the market from my experience, we looked at the area, county and subdivision comps, and my highest recommended price was $599K - understanding we will drop the price every 28 days until we get an offer. He asked if we "could" list the home at $634,900 and my response was "we can, but not if you want to sell it". Pricing a listing wrong at the beginning is a huge mistake and costs the seller in the long run. Let me give an example.
I listed a great home, by far and away the nice home in the community. The issue was the seller had put way to much money in the home for the subdivision. The maximum homes sold for the low 400s so I recommended a maximum price of approximately $439K. The response is what kills most homes sales - it was that they ‘needed" to get more for their home. They said "if it did not sale it would be O.K.". So we listed their home for signicantly more than $450K.
Well after a month of showings their attitude of "if it did not sale it would be O.K" was forgotten or changed so we held several discussion about how to sale the home. Needless to say we decreased the price by $5K every month, but the seller really struggled to decrease the price - it was extremely emotional for the seller to decrease the price. We had a verbal offer of around $415K which "offended" the seller. At the end of the listing the seller decided to take their home off the market until spring.
This week I received a call asking me about expired listing that was just listed for 399K. This is an example of what I call "Seller Capitulation" - the seller went through all the emotions of trying to keep their asking price very high, knowing it would not sale but hoping it would - then when the next agent came in they accepted a significantly lower price and since the seller knew what was coming said yes to whatever price the second agent suggested. Sometimes it pays to be the second agent. This is an example of overpricing a home at the beginning cost these sellers a minimum of $20K.
Pricing right at the beginning is the best way to get the most for your home when you sell it. The couple I mentioned at the beginning decided to stay in their home until 2010.
I would love to get any stories you have on pricing homes at the beginning of a listing.
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