Real Estate Corner

Real Estate Corner

Question: What is the right way to price my home?

Answer: Here is the most important thing to remember. If you overprice your home, it will take longer to sell and sell for less money. Buyers are very savvy these days. They know when a house is over-priced and won't bother with a home that isn't priced to the market.

And yet, many sellers overprice their homes anyway, hoping their home will be the one to defy market physics. Why do they do it? Lots of reasons:

They feel entitled to make a profit.
They feel their home is superior to other similar homes.
They want a return on improvements and repairs.
They want to buy a bigger, more expensive home.
They want to pay for college, retirement or some other financial goal.
They think buyers want to negotiate.
They think real estate agents can get it sold for more if they just work harder.

Unfortunately none of these reasons has anything to do with the current market value of the home?

Most sellers want to live in the home for a number of years, and then sell it for more than they paid for it. That's understandable. Homes historically beat inflation by one or two points, but the market doesn't always cooperate. Things change. Buyers may not like the improvements you made to your home. The neighborhood may have changed. The economic times may have changed as we've seen in recent years.

If you overprice your home it will stagnate on the market. Setting a high price with wiggle room to reduce the price later is not a successful strategy. You might get some showings, but you won't get offers. Your home could sit for months without an offer. And, once you do reduce the price, buyers tend to think there's something wrong with the house, sending potential offers even lower.

There's a lot more to it and I'd be more than happy to discuss this further with you and answer any questions you may have. Just give me a call.

Author: Lesley Vitel
Phone: 904-534-8052
Dated: December 3rd 2014
Views: 339
About Lesley: Lesley's career in real estate officially began in 2005 when she partnered with her mother Lynn (A v...

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