After you have lived in your Oakland or Piedmont home for a while, and invested money its repair and restoration, you are convinced that you have the very best home in the neighborhood. While this may or may not be true, when it comes time to put it on the market, you need to take a truly realistic look at your competition before you decide on a final price. As your Oakland/Piedmont agent, it is my job to assist you in coming to a price that will move your home in a reasonable amount of time, and allow you to realize a realistic profit at the same time.
Why is it important to price correctly? Here are the reasons:
1. Brokers and Agents Will Not Show Your Home to Their Clients: With the large amount of real estate web sites on the Internet showing area home sales, potential buyers are very sophisticated as to comparable pricing in the neighborhoods that interest them. Add to this an agent who can run comparable sale information for their use and information, and it soon  become obvious that if your home is overpriced, it will not worth be viewing while it is in that price range.
2. You Will Have Both a Time and a Money Loss: It is well known in the real estate profession that after a home has been on the market for months, it will become stigmatized. The reason for this is the buyers begin to wonder what is wrong with the home, and why it has been staying around so long. Are the owners unreasonable? Are their serious problems that need attention? It is important to review the price regularly to make sure this issue does not arise. Additionally, each month that it sits on the market unsold costs you, as the seller, money in mortgage payments.
3.Weakened Negotiation Position:When you finally decide to lower your price, you may find that there is really only a limited market of buyers who wish to work with you. Realistically, all of the past buyers who might have been interested in your home at a lower price have moved on to other choices. The worst part of this delay, however, is that they recognize that you need to get out of your home, and away from mortgage payments and move on. This puts you in a weaker position to negotiate.Â
4. Ultimate Appraisal Problems: Many sellers do not realize that even though they insist on their higher price, and find a buyer willing to pay for an overpriced home, your home may not appraise at your inflated price. The potential buyer goes to his/her lender, and finds out that purchasing this home will become a real problem because it is well over the price of comparable homes sold in the area. Lenders base their funding on realistic appraisal pricing.Â
In summary, pricing your home correctly at the outset makes the most sense financially, and moves you on to new opportunities.
Posted by Bruce Wagg on
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