When it comes to selling your home, there are a few strategies to consider – and the most important point is to select one, any one!
- There is the old traditional PPP plan – Put it in the MLS, Put a sign in the yard, and Pray.
- My favorite is to spruce it up, price it right, and have a great realtor sell it promptly.
But a third option is available that is sort of a hybrid of the two.
If you worry that pricing attractively might leave some money on the table (mostly because you lack confidence in your realtor’s ability to conduct a proper bidding war), and really want to start at your aspirational price and hope for the best, then consider this plan.
List Your Home With Two Planned Price Reductions Built In
Generally speaking, the problem with price reductions is that sellers and agents don’t make them big enough to impress the buyers, and hence, you’re just throwing money away. Dropping the price in any amount does get you back on the realtor hotsheet for the day, but we are more annoyed than impressed with sellers who are dinking around over a few thousand dollars when we’re trying to sell a house today.
The amount of the perfect price reduction is 5% of the list price.
It follows my regular guideline of knowing when your list price is right:
List-Price Accuracy Gauge
- If you are getting showings and offers, your price is about right.
- If you are getting showings, but no offers, then your price is about 5% wrong.
- If you’re not getting any showings, your price is at least 10% wrong.
It’s just common sense. If no one is coming around, it’s because buyers think that the price is way off, based on how the home is being presented. There is a glimmer of hope that improving the presentation might get some lookers, but in this market, once buyers take one look at the listing, they will cast you aside and forget all about you unless there is a drastic change in price.
I’ll understand if you don’t want to commit to any price reductions today – heck, you haven’t even signed the listing agreement yet.
But hear me out.
There will be an initial burst of activity once the listing hits the MLS – everybody jumps on the fresh meat, and hopes they are reading the presentation/price combo correctly.
But after 7-10 days, it will be crickets. Showings dry up like an old peach seed!
Plan for two price reductions in advance as a strategy to re-energize the urgency. Put it right in the listing agreement that the price is to be reduced by 5% on Day 14, and another 5% on Day 24.
As long as the initial list price wasn’t more than 10% crazy, then this strategy will get you into escrow within 30 days. If you let the listing languish for more than a month, it will only invite the lowballers, and they will be hacking off more than 10%.
Pick a plan that gets you into escrow early!
