Buyers continue to focus primarily on price, even when they like a house. However, Turpin Realtors has seen, in several recent cases, that listing at a lower price than expected has generated multiple offers, sometimes resulting in a higher selling price than the listing price. There is no magic percentage that you need to lower your home- analysis of very recent sales and contracts in your neighborhood will guide you to where you need to be.
Currently, the market has a few favorable characteristics for sellers to sell homes to buyers who are seriously looking.
- Low Mortgage Rates: We are currently experiencing unprecedented low mortgage rates. However, these low rates have been artificially pushed down by the Tarp and the Bailout. Once that money is used, it will dry up and mortgage rates will go up sharply and quickly.
- Consumer Confidence: Consumer opinion of the market is turning around. According to the Pew Research Center survey of March 16, 2009, “75% said it was a good or very good time to buy a home”. This is important because there are serious buyers out there and you need to position your home in the center of their attention.
- Movement to realistic prices: The market is a buyer’s market and the buyers expect to buy as low as possible. They are correct in their thinking for two reasons. First, according to the Brooking Papers, the housing market experienced an unsustainable price increase of 89% in 2000-2006 (vs. the average 5 year increase of 25%). Lowering prices is a natural correction. A home just will not sell at the high price of 2006!
A reduced price combined with low mortgage rates, consumer confidence, and improved customer affordability just might entice those buyers who have been interested in your home but have not made an offer.
Posted by:
Mary Jane Benedetto
