Friday, May 18, 2012

Pricing a home. It's like an auction!

Have you ever been to an auction where the auctioneer started out with a price on an item and got no offers only to lower the price?  What happened?  Did the item end up selling for the same price OR MORE than what the auctioneer started with? 

I was an an auction recently and that very thing happened.  Not only did it happen once but several times.  Real estate pricing can be much the same way today.  I've had houses overpriced on the market and had no offers.  When we lowered the price just $5000, the offers came out of the woodwork!!!  And we got list price too!  Pricing real estate is somewhat of a game these days.  If you overprice a property, you won't get any calls or showings.  'Underprice' a house or price it just at market price and you run the risk of multiple offers.  I hate it when that happens!!!!  ;-)

Truth is, you really can't underprice real estate.  The market is what a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay for property.  Condition, location and demand dictate the price of a home just like an auction.  When you have more than one interested in property, the price can go for more than advertised because someone sees the value of that home more than it was initially priced at.  Look for an agent that subscribes to this philosophy and you'll likely have someone that will be honest and work for your interest to get the best value in a home if you are buying or the best price for the home if you're the seller.

One more thing, my wife Deb is now jumped into the real estate business full force.  Working as a team, I've taught her everything I know and she's doing extremely well.  She loves to work with buyers interested in buying their first home, dream home or investment property.  She's great at all of them too!  Visit our website; www.markdbroadway.com or the company site at www.cbvanguard.com and learn more of what we can do for you.  Hope everyone has had a terrific spring so far.

Mark