Any home will
sell, given enough time. How much time do you
have?
One of the most
frustrating things about selling a home, condo or town house
during a slow market is trying to price it so that it sells in the
amount of time the owner wants to sell it in.
You don’t want price
your property so high that it doesn’t sell.
Of course you don’t want
to price it so low that you unknowingly give money away to your
buyer.
This is a fine line that
a property seller ends up walking.
Here is what I suggest a
home seller do to find the best sales price for their home given the
amount of time that they have to sell:
- Get Three
CMA’s:
Call three
real estate agents that have at least two years of real estate
sales experience. Tell them you are thinking of selling your
property and want to get a CMA (CMA: Comparative Market
Analysis). A CMA will be a written estimate of the value of your
property based on recently sold properties that are similar to
yours. Be sure and let the agents know that you are talking to
other real estate agents.
Between the three values you
should be able to get a fairly good idea of what your home might
sell for.
Heads
Up:
There may be other homes in your neighbor that are for
sale. Don’t confuse their asking prices for actual home values.
Home sellers can ask any price for their home.
Values are figured strictly by what similar homes
have sold for.
Heads Up:
It is
fairly likely that one of the agents may have set the CMA value
considerably higher than the other two. This may be due to
negligence on their part, but it is more likely that they are
“buying the listing”. They set the CMA price high in an effort to
get you to list with them. Later they will pressure you to lower
your price to where it should have been in the first place. Of
course by now they have wasted your time while you waited for your
over-priced home to sell. I have seen this over and over again.
This is a common ploy. Don’t get taken by this deception.
- How long will it take
to sell?
When you have
figured out what seems to be a good asking price for your home,
you will have a good idea which agent you would like to use to
help get your home sold.
Ask your agent how long other
homes like yours have taken to sell. Let’s imagine that the
average “days on the market” (Days on the market: number of days a home
takes to sell after it is put up for sale) is 120 days. If you are
not in a hurry this may sound just right to you.
What if
you need or want to sell faster than our 120 day example? Let’s
say you have a new job that starts in 90 days in a new city. It
usually takes 30 days to “close the sale” (close the sale: sign the final documents
transferring title to the buyer), after your home “goes under
contract” (goes under contract:
you have a buyer that wants to buy, has signed a sales contract
with you, and is in the process of getting a loan). You realize
that you need to find your buyer in no more than 60 days after you
put it up for sale.
You are going to have to ask your agent
to give you an idea of where to price your home so that it sells
(goes under contract)
in 90 days. Hopefully they can come up with a fairly good idea of
the 90 day sales price.
What I might do, if I were your
agent, is to figure out what the highest selling price you could
ask, so that you could sell your home in one day. Then figure out
the seven days selling price, a 30 days selling price, and then a
90 days selling price.
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For
example:
·
Let’s say the 120 day sales price
for your home is $275,000.
·
Then given one day to sell
your home, you might be able to get $200,000 (30% below
market value).
·
Given a
week you could
probably sell your home for $225,000 (20% below market
value).
·
30 days sales
price: $240,000 (15%
below market).
·
And finally, 60 days sales
price: $255,000 (8% below market value).
Priced at
$255,000, your home will look like a bargain to a home
buyer, and you are more likely to get a faster
sale. |
In a slow market you
have to be willing to lower your asking price, maybe more than
once in order to get your home sold in a timely manner. Be
prepared mentally for this possibility and your home selling
process will be smoother and
faster.
Would you like to know
the current value of your home? Click
Here
Copyright 2006, all
copyrights owned and reserved by Don Glasgow.
Absolutely no use or
copying of this material without the written consent of the
owner.
Don Glasgow
St. George GMAC Real
Estate
1060 S. Main St. #200
St. George, UT
84770
(435) 619-3664
Email: DonGlasgow@stgeorgegmac.com
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