A fair market price can mean more money for you in the least amount of time. Proper pricing leads to:
• More potential buyers
• More agent interest
• Fewer showings
• Higher offers
• A faster sale
• More profit for you
The most important thing you can do to sell your home for the most money in the least amount of time is to price the home correctly. Far too often, people think “I’ll just put it for sale at this amount, and if it doesn’t sell I can always reduce my price”.
The problem with this type of thinking is that nobody will even come and look at an overpriced home. Every realtor wakes up in the morning and immediately checks all the new listings in their market. They know when a home is overpriced and would never bring a client in to see that home. They are looking out for the best interests of their client.
When a listing is new this is the time to create some “buzz”. If it is priced properly you should get at least 7-10 showings in the 1st 2 weeks. If it is not, you will be lucky to get 1 or 2 showings, and maybe no showings.
Now the home sits and sits on the market racking up the dreaded “Market Time’.
After 120-150 days you finally decide to reduce your price. At this point even if you reduce it enough to bring it into fair market value, realtors will begin to wonder if you are now desperate, you will start to get unreasonably low offers that you would never consider. Another 60-90 days go by, you drop the price again, more bad offers come in. But by now you are actually considering some of these offers. Since that is all that you have seen and you have to sell, prices that were never a consideration 6 months ago are now prices you actually have to consider.
You finally accept one of these offers and sell below market value.
All this could have been avoided by properly pricing your home in the first place.
Today’s consumers are very knowledgable, they research the areas they want to live in, research market values before they even begin looking. The odds of selling your home at an inflated price are almost non-existent.
Properly pricing your home makes all the difference in a smooth enjoyable selling process or a long, frustrating ordeal.
