Pricing your home at the right value is crucial in maximizing your sales price. Doing it correctly is a little bit like threading the needle; it takes precision. We have perfected Precision Pricing.
I have learned a little in my nearly 25 years in selling homes. Pricing the home correctly at the very beginning is crucial. When I sell my Solana Beach home, I am going to review the comps and determine what the true value is. If I were to sell my home to a family member, what would the value be? Asking that question takes the wishful thinking out of it. Then I would add 4-5% to the value and that would be my asking price.
Precision Pricing creates demand. When I sell my home, I expect the home to go into escrow in the first 10 days. The first 10 days is the sweet spot when a seller gets the highest price for their home. My objective would be to receive multiple offers which often results in a sales price over the asking price.
There is nothing better for a homeowner than to have several buyers competing with each other trying to outbid the other buyers. The other advantage is that a seller doesn’t have to endure weeks of showings and all the constant house preparation.
Often homeowners want to over-price. They are emotionally involved which is understandable because it is their home and where their family has prospered. We have been in our home for 28 years, so Sharon and I are emotionally involved, but the buyer won’t be. Some homeowners think someone will love their home so much that they will overpay. Experience tells me that it rarely works and is not worth the risk. This strategy usually leads to price reductions. At this point, there will not be competing offers, thus a missed opportunity.
Another reason for Precision Pricing is the timing. When I started real estate almost 25 years ago, the internet was not a factor in buyers locating homes to purchase. When a home came on the market, it took three weeks for the interested buyers to find out about a home and see it. Usually, their agent would call them about a new property. Today with all buyers being on several internet home searches (Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and Compass.com, etc.…), every buyer is notified of a new home on the market that matches their criteria the instant a realtor puts it in the MLS. What used to take three weeks is now completed within forty-eight hours.
San Diego remains a hot sellers’ market. But that does not mean every home is selling. Buyers are carefully studying the comps to determine a home’s fair market value.
Yours in real estate,
