Riding The Market Down...
In today's Northern Virginia real estate market, I see sellers make the all too often mistake of riding the market down. They set to high of a price then sit and await. While that might have worked in a market where prices continued to increase, in a down market it usually means sellers losing on average of 3% per quarter and has much as 10% per year of the property value... which in Northern Virginia is around $60,000 and sometimes MUCH MORE!
How can sellers avoid this unfortunate mistake? Well I counsel my clients to make sure we "Price for Traffic". Regardless of the size, condition of the property or even how long it's been on the market, it's critical the price doesn't inhibit traffic. Currently it's about setting a reasonable price and ensure you get qualified buyer in to check out the place. The buyers are out there! In fact I have several qualified buyers that I am currently representing. If the buyer traffic isn't physically walking through the property, there is ZERO chance of a reasonable offer to be presented. As a realtor, I track on a daily/weekly basis who's been through the open house or entered with a realtor? Is it their first time or their third time through? Are their clients pre-qualified? I closely monitor this situation and work with my clients to determine if the traffic through to see the property is sufficient to get a reasonable offer.
If the good traffic is not there, it CRITICAL to quickly reduce the price... feeling your way down to where the buyers are looking. I recommend resetting the price as often as once per week until the traffic reappears. This is very hard for a lot of sellers to stomach. Often they get hung on what the property "was worth" or "should be worth". But in all reality, the market is no longer there, it's lower, sometime much lower... and the sooner the seller can come to terms with this the less money they will lose.
The hardest part for an agent is having to tell sellers that their largest financial investment is decreasing and will, according to most experts, continue to decrease through 2009. So if you're looking to sell in 2009, don't ride the market all the way down and leave money on the table... instead find the buyers, find your buyer, by "Pricing for Traffic". If you have any question about this piece or anything real estate related, don't hesitate to contact me @ jennifer.mackenzie@longandfoster.com.
By: Jennifer MacKenzie
Days on market.... your clients advantage?
One of my clients ddidn't not want to accept a good reasonable offer. Because they had been on the market for only 1 week.How many of you deal with this same issue?
I tried to get my clients ( the sellers) to realize that only being on the market for less than a week was their advantage! Because they have not had a lot of days on market they command a higher price! But they should not turn down good offers because they just came on the market!
How do you teach your clients??
Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax
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