You can put any price you want on your home, and I’ll take the listing – so long as we utilize the List-Price-Accuracy Gauges:
Original List-Price-Accuracy Gauge:
Once on the open market, if you are……
- Getting visitors and offers, you are within 5% of being right on price.
- Getting visitors but no offers, you are 5% to 10% wrong on price.
- Not getting visitors, you are more than 10% wrong on price.
Today’s Improved List-Price-Accuracy Gauge:
Once on the open market, if you are……
- Not getting offers the first week, you are at least 10% wrong on price.
It’s nothing personal, just a simple guide to know how close you are to selling. The buyers rush out the first week, but after that the showings drop like a rock, and it is tough for sellers to cope, or know what to do.
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All sellers have to do is keep within 10% of reason. Yet, plenty aren’t selling – only 57% of the NSDCC houses listed between November 1st and December 31st have found a buyer.
Where do sellers go wrong? They don’t properly price in the negatives.
Typically sellers just compare how their house is better than the comps, and then settle on a list price that will show everyone who’s the boss. If you don’t have any negatives, then you probably will get your price! But typically sellers are forced to come to grips with the negatives of their house, and adjust accordingly.
Do sellers have to lower your price? NO!
There are other alternatives:
1. Make your house easier to show. Vacant homes sell faster – over the last three months the vacant houses sold have averaged 53 days on market vs. 74 days for occupieds. If you have a place to go and don’t have dazzling furniture, you should go ahead and move.
2. Fix the problems. New carpet and paint is the best thing you can do: 1) it looks clean, 2) it smells new, 3) you have to clean out your house to install it, and 4) you are managing a business transaction now – it is the logical solution. Try some staging too.
3. Improve the Internet presence. No reason or excuse for not having at least a dozen hi-res photographs and a simple youtube video tour.
4. Wait for the market to catch up. If you don’t sell in the first 60 days, cancel and take 1-2 months off to re-group.
5. Reset the Days-on-Market stat. As long as the MLS allows agents to do it, then it is in the best interest of the seller to reset the DOM. It is a gimmick, and instead sellers should concentrate on creating real value for buyers – that’s what will cause them to pay more.
The longer it takes to sell your home, the more discount the buyers will be expecting – usually about a 1% discount per week on market. When they see others flying off the market they can’t help but think that your price is wrong.
Even if you complete one or all of the five ideas above, don’t be surprised if you need to lower the price too. Keep the list price attractive!
