The Most Important Factor in Getting a Home Sold

All the best marketing in the world won't be enough to sell a home if it's not priced properly. Today, I wanted to share some examples of why it's so important to price your house based on what the market will bear.

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What's going on in the Capital District market? It's both a buyer's and a seller's market—it all depends on what area, neighborhood, and town you're looking in. 

If you're wondering what's going on, you can see an in-depth market report here.

Price-wise, you can see that as you hit the $300,000 range for homes, it becomes a buyer's market. Under that price point, it's more of a seller's market with low inventory and multiple offers.

Pricing is the most important aspect of selling a home. I'll put my team's marketing up against anybody, but no amount of marketing will sell a home if the price is off. I've been a state certified appraiser for the last 25 years and am one of the few Realtors with that distinction, and I can tell you that pricing is so important to maximizing your return on your home. Even after 25 years in the business, it still takes me a lot of time to analyze a property and to find the right price. 

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Pricing is the most important aspect of selling a home.

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Too often, I hear people say they want to list their home high just to see what happens, but that's just not going to work. There is a price that the market supports for each home, and it's important to price your home within the range that the market supports if you want to successfully sell. 

I could tell you story after story of this problem, like a house flipper I'm working with who has had a home on the market for 200 days. That means 200 days of carrying costs, too. He reduced the price by $70,000 and the home still hasn't sold—he's almost to a point where the home is listed below market value. If he had just priced it right, he would have sold it 180 days ago for $20,000 higher than where it's currently priced, but now the home has a stigma that's very hard to overcome.

I also recently performed an analysis on a seller's home who listed with a competitor four days later at $125,000 more than the home is worth. That home will sit on the market for a year and it will obtain a stigma that will make it very hard to sell. I can almost guarantee that the decision to list the home so high will cost them both in carrying costs, as well as their eventual bottom line.  

Remember, you can check out our most recent market report here. In the meantime, if you have any questions about your specific area or you're thinking or buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be glad to help.