There will be one overwhelming factor in selling real estate this year:
Buyers Will Want To Pay Less.
They are coming into every situation with that mindset. Whether it’s online or in person, they will be looking for ANY reason to NOT buy this house. If they can’t find one, they will at least be doing the mental math on how much money they will have to pay to customize it to their tastes……and they will want someone else to pay for it.
It’s a 180-degree change from the frenzy era when buyers just wanted to win a house. Nothing mattered during the frenzy – bad floor plans, bad locations, bad improvements, bad agents, and bad prices didn’t stop buyers from paying insane amounts OVER the asking price. And what’s worse – those are now the comps!
Will sellers adjust?
Will listing agents adjust?
Here’s the first thought to go through their mind:
Let’s add a little extra to the list price to compensate. We can always come down later!
Oh, great.
How is it playing out so far? These are NSDCC sales from the last 30 days:
These are starter homes and mid-rangers for the area – not the high-end where it’s more challenging.
It will be easy for sellers to shrug it off, and mentally prepare to sell for 2% to 4% under their list price…..because they already added it on top! But 31% of the recent sales closed for a double-digit percentage below their list price.
Get Good Help!
Wait until buyers start looking up what owners paid for the property + making offers based on how much they feel should be discounted off list.
This is already happening with professionals but soon regular buyers will be doing the same thing.
It’s hard to justify paying over list when theres a good chance something better will come along in 6 months. Just think of the frenzy times where you had to throw out crazy numbers to get noticed but in reverse where throwing out lowball offers or no offer at all is rewarded.