By educating yourself about some common missteps you can save yourself from making a costly mistake when listing your home.
Many folks who decide to sell their home fall victim to these four pitfalls of overpricing:
1. Pricing your home based on emotion, not data, can cost you big.
You don’t need to be Bob Barker to know when the price just isn’t right. You need to keep in mind the location first and foremost and who are going to be the likely buyers.
Home pricing is more of a calculated strategy, but many homeowners price their homes with their heartstrings attached or from the advice of family instead of hard data and advice from their Realtor.
2. Overpricing Your Home to “Test the Waters”:
Homeowners often think that it’s OK to overprice at first, because — who knows? — maybe you’ll just get what you’re asking for. Although you can certainly lower an inflated price later, you’ll sacrifice a lot in the process. The most obvious damage: A house that remains on the market for months can result in low offers or no offers.
And worse: Continually lowering the price could turn off potential buyers who might start wondering just what is wrong with your home. “Buyers are smart and educated,” says Erin Romanski of Keller Williams Realty. “If a home is out of their reach based on price, they are not going to even consider it and option.”
3. Not Responding Accordingly to What the Market is Saying:
Once your home is on the market, you’ll start accumulating another set of data that will serve as the ultimate price test: how buyers react.
“There’s an easy way to tell if you’ve priced too high: “If we have no showings, it’s way too high. Lots of showings and no offer means the house is overpriced once people get inside and they are finding other homes for a better value,” says Jim Romanski of Keller Williams Realty.
When it comes to finding a buyer, pricing your home according to data — and the right data, at that — is crucial to making the sale.
4. Working with an Agent That Doesn’t Have Your Best Interest in Mind:
It’s no surprise that every owner wants the highest possible sale price for their property. This desire is one that some agents take advantage of by selling you on an unrealistically high list price. Once they have a signed listing agreement they’ll bank on price reductions to sell your home. The problem with this tactic is that it costs homeowners thousands of dollars.
At The Romanski Group it may not always be in OUR best interests. But it IS in our clients’ best interests. Our goal is to maximize the return for our Sellers, and minimize the time and inconvenience of having their home on the market. And the best way to do that is with the facts.
Telling the truth is not always easy. But it’s the right thing to do. Our clients depend on it! Check out the impact of pricing:
So What’s the Best Pricing Strategy?
The best pricing strategy? Consult a real estate agent, who will provide you with comparable properties to review (including current active homes on the market, pending sales and recently closed properties) to determine the appropriate listing price. Jim Romanski states, “our team pulls our information from up to 4 different resources to provide the most accurate pricing information available. Once we’ve assembled a list of similar homes (and the real prices buyers paid), we can make an accurate estimate of what you can expect to receive for your home. After we’ve crunched the data, we’ll work with you to determine a fair price that will entice buyers. The number might be less than you hope and expect, but listing your home correctly — not idealistically — is a sure way to avoid the aches and pains of a long, drawn-out listing that just won’t sell.”
Related: Fast and Financially Rewarding Sale
For more questions or for a specific update on YOUR neighborhood – call The Romanski Group at (765) 404.5095 for a FREE Seller Consultation. We use a systematic approach to determine the most accurate market value. Using an experienced team is the way to go to get your home SOLD! Don’t you deserve the BEST Realtor in the Lafayette Indiana area?!
