Why you shouldn’t overprice your home in today’s market
Most real estate experts agree that the best way to increase your chances of selling your home is to price it a fair market value. Many sellers however, want to “try a higher price” or “leave room to negotiate”. While we certainly understand this, there are many more reasons to avoid this temptation:
- Stagnation – the longer your home sits on the market, the more likely it is to be considered stale. Perspective buyers will begin to wonder “what is wrong with this house?”
- No Showings – if your home is overpriced, buyers may not even look at it. Today’s buyers are pretty sophisticated.
- Selling the Competition – If your home is overpriced, it will make your competition’s home seem like more of a bargain.
- Appraisal Problems – Even if a buyer is ready to pay above market value, if that same buyer is financing the home (90% of all buyers are) and the home doesn’t appraise…the sale is likely to fall apart.
- Tougher negotiations – If your home is overpriced and therefore sits on the market longer, buyers are likely to negotiate harder and will have more leverage to demand more concessions from you.
- Lost Opportunities – If you aren’t fishing in the right pond, your not likely to catch any fish. For example if you have a $275K home that is priced at $300K, the buyers who could afford $275K may not even look at your home if it is out of their price point. The buyers capable of paying $300k may not be impressed.
Most buyers look at 10-15 homes before making any decisions. Because of this, it is essential to be competitively priced relative to competition if you wish to be succesful in selling your home.
