Tough Love from Heather

Here is some plain speak regarding pricing. Now, I know no homeowner is going to want to hear this, especially one who is chasing down the market, always priced a bit too high to sell. But these things need to be said:

1. Buyers' first question when looking at a house is "How long has it been on the market?" followed quickly with either "Let's wait until they reduce." or "Wow! That long? Let's lowball them. They must be desperate." Your best bet is to price it right so that educated Buyers know it's a good deal and move on it immediately.

2. Mortgage companies are becoming brutally stringent with their appraisals. If the appraisal doesn't come in at contract price, you'll lose the deal or be forced to lower the price. There is no "stretching the market" anymore because banks are no longer flexible on their lending.

3. The ideal is to generate multiple offers. Sellers have true leverage when they have multiple offers on the house and can counter price, settlement, financing - whatever is most important to them.

4. In this vein, it's nearly impossible to UNDER-price a home, since you'll see a correction via multiple offers.

And finally...

In today's market, PRICING is going to make or break your home sale. All the good marketing, advertising, staging, or dark magic and voodoo in the world is not going to convince a Buyer to pay more for a home. It will simply sell your well priced home faster (although the dark magic and voodoo are suspect at this point.)

Don't despair homeowner - we can still sell your home for you and make you happy! Be reasonable. Be realistic. Be flexible. We'll get it done.

Need some more tough love? I'm always ready to dish it out. Shoot me an email!