Priced to Sell

By Patricia Spangler

REALTOR, Broker Associate with HomeSmart Coastal Realty

August 1, 2024

Since selling is the goal, one of the most important things your Realtor must do for you when listing your home is price it to sell. No matter when you list, pricing correctly is always the best decision. With MLS feeds readily available, consumers are savvy, and they know when
something is priced high.

During my listing appointments, I always bring my laptop and go over comps with my sellers so we can see other homes that have recently sold nearby and that are currently on the market. We can easily compare them to the home we are selling as we go through photos and info on the competition’s amenities, updates, finishes, sizes, ages and prices and come up with a range of value for pricing the property together.

Many times when customers have it in their minds to price way above market value, I’ve heard the words, “I’m not in a hurry to sell.” I always respond in a way that helps them understand that they don’t want to leave money on the table either!

When listing a property above its value, the seller begins to imagine and mentally attach themselves to the current number—and then it then sits on the market. That’s not to say that the market doesn’t have its cycles, picking up and slowing down. But the longer a house sits beyond the norm for local competition, the more it becomes STALE.

House hunters see it lying there with the crickets and pass over it mentally. But it goes into the memory banks, nonetheless. Then when the seller finally decides to drop the price, it comes back up in the forefront, and those old house hunters happen upon it again. Their first mental inclination is: “I’ve seen that one; it’s been around a while. Wonder what’s wrong with it.” At the same time, new people are exposed to it for the first time. This is because many buyers set their feeds to include properties only up to certain price breaks that they can afford. Therefore, they will not have seen it before the latest price drop. Because everyone is looking for a bargain, one of the first things they do is look at days on market and cumulative days on market (DOM and CDOM). The cumulative feature on the MLS makes it impossible to cancel with one listing agent and list with another in order to “cheat the system” and pretend like it’s a fresh listing. When it says 45 DOM or 120 CDOM, everyone knows it’s ripe for low balls and the investors come trolling.

It can be quite discouraging to get no offers for a long time followed by low balls. Often after months of putting up with showings and keeping the house clean, sellers getting low offers will relent and settle for far less than they would have been offered right in the beginning when the market sees a brand new listing and gets excited to check it out. When pricing a little high, it doesn’t hurt to adjust the price down quickly as the “market speaks” and DOM are still minimal.

My strategy is to list just under local competition and just above recent sales in a market that is rising. I adjust that strategy when the market is changing in the other direction or when it’s rapidly changing. I make a big splash and hit the market hard on day one with my top notch marketing team.

Agents who take acutely overpriced listings are reluctant to spend a lot of money ahead of listing a property they know will not sell (and pay them back), so they tend to do less marketing. In my case, I always spend about $1000 in marketing prep before day one on the market, so I simply lose money if I take overpriced listings. For this reason, I usually avoid these now. My customers are happy with my results; and my advice to sellers who are not in a hurry is to wait until they are ready to sell before listing. It is in their best interest financially and emotionally to do so.

Your Space Coast REALTOR, Broker Associate with
HomeSmart Coastal Realty

Get the results you want when you hire Patricia Spangler as your REALTOR in the Space Coast. When you do you get the same quality agent that made her a multi-million dollar producer for HomeSmart Coastal Realty.