Proper Price Positioning To Guarantee Your Property Sells

Every homeowner wants to make sure they maximize their financial reward when selling their  home. But how do you guarantee that you receive maximum value for your house?

Here is how to ensure that you get the highest price possible.

 
 Price it a LITTLE LOW

This may seem counterintuitive. However, let’s look at this concept for a moment. Many  homeowners think that pricing their home a little OVER market value will leave them room for  negotiation. In actuality, this just dramatically lessens the demand for your house (see chart below)

• Aim to price your property at or just slightly below the going rate. Today’s buyers are highly informed, so if they sense they’re getting a deal, they’re likely to bid up a property that’s slightly underpriced, especially in areas with low inventory. Your initial list price is the most important part of positioning your property to sell because the first couple weeks on the market is when you will get the most amount of interest  your property listing. Knowing how consumers search online is crucial. 

How do buyers search?

The #1 search criteria on any property search online is price.

What are the most important parameters buyers set up?

Most people and search sites search in $25,000-$50,000 increments. Your initial list price should take this into consideration. For example,  listing at 254,900 would miss all buyers searching up to $250,000.   Your initial pricing should be focused on what would trigger the most amount of traction in the least amount of market time simply on price alone. “Testing” the market at a very high price can backfire on you if price is not adjusted early on in the listing.

WHY?

More showings and competition means higher offer to list price typically.  It is better to  list at $199,900 vs. $209,900 for example.  There is a higher chance of getting as close to $200,000 within the first two weeks of listing.  In a tight inventory market there’s a good chance you can get higher than $199,900 by creating a multiple offer scenario.  If you start at $209,900 you are  missing everyone capping their search at $200,000.

 The  risk of starting higher is in accumulating too much market time. A buyers agent would normally advise their clients to come in much lower on properties that have over 30 days of market time than ones newly listed. If you have over 60 days of market time, most buyers will come in very low. Nobody wants to buy the house that nobody else wanted, but at the same time everybody wants the house that everyone else wants. When a property gets listed for sale, everyone takes notice of it. You must price to create urgency.

“You are more likely to generate a higher offer when you can create urgency because someone will pay more for something they feel will be gone tomorrow”.