A Formula For Disaster In the Springfield Market Place
After spending several hours with a home owner today, I finally convinced the sellers to price their home at market value. A few months ago I met with them and at that time the price was higher. Now, the home is competing with a larger number of homes.
Here's a great article by Paula Hathaway that backs up the reason to price your home aggresively in today's market.
Via: Paula Hathaway
OVER PRICING HOMES = HIGH INVENTORY + LESS SALES + DESPERATE SELLERS = CONTINUED HOUSING CRISIS: A FORMULA FOR DISASTER IN A FRAGILE MARKET PLACE!!!
We MUST do in-depth research before we price properties!!! ....and we MUST price properties as if our lives depend on it.(...because they do!) If we don't face over-pricing head on, we will see the inventory levels climb like never before! Not only that, the desperation seen and felt by huge numbers of sellers that we witnessed during the downturn in 2008 will likely re-appear! In many markets there are still great numbers of desperate sellers.
OVER-PRICED HOMES = HIGH INVENTORY + MORE DAYS ON MARKET + LESS SALES + DESPERATE SELLERS = CONTINUED HOUSING CRISIS.
In my last blog post, I mention the above formula to the umpteenth agent who said he would take an over-priced listing but would schedule a reduction in the agreement in 30 days or 60 days. There are still huge numbers of real estate professionals who do not understand the importance of correct pricing---and we direct the whole real estate market; or at least we are supposed to!
In my last blog post "HOW DO YOU HANDLE A SELLER WHO WANTS YOU TO OVER-PRICE THEIR HOME ?..." I was amazed at how many agents feel it is ok to over-price a listing "for a short time like 30 days" ...let me remind you all that the best time to sell a listing is in the first 2-3 weeks on the market! Over-price it and you miss the best selling time!!!
Even a small amount over the correct price of a home will keep it on the market for too long! We can not afford this in this housing climate; people are desperate now (and more will get there)....but there are buyers out there and they are looking for bargains, even here, where the average income usually very high.
As a community of professionals who are looked to, by most homeowners, for our guidance and expertise, we MUST not over price homes. We need to take a stand NOW before we slip again into the abyss.
This may seem evangelistic to a lot of you but it is the basic truth: If we all take one listing with even a small of amount of over-market pricing, look at the impact! Guess who is in charge here?...We are and we MUST do what we can do to bring the housing market back to some normalcy.
PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE URGENCY AND IMPORTANCE OF THIS! DO NOT OVERPRICE HOMES IN THIS MARKET OR WE WILL NEVER GET OUT OF THE CRISIS!!!
Paula I. Hathaway, LBA, Prudential Douglas Elliman
Top Producer, Diamond , Gold and Chairman's Circle Awards
