Every homeowner wants to sell his or her home for the highest possible price. The steps involved in a successful sale require a thorough analysis of current market facts. These include information on recent sales, other homes presently on the market, and those properties that were on the market with no offers and have been withdrawn.
Finally, an asking price is chosen. Hopefully, the asking price will encourage buyers to come see the property when compared with the asking price of competing properties. It should also allow for an offer somewhat less than the asking price so that an eventual selling price may be arrived at that give the seller the highest price possible and yet provides the purchaser with the satisfaction that the selling price is fair and reasonable.
The above described approach does not succeed, however, if the asking price is unrealistically too high. This particularly becomes a problem if the seller demands that the Realtor® list the property at a high asking price that cannot be supported by current market facts. This often occurs when a seller says to the Realtor®, “I understand the information about today’s prices, but I want to try a higher price for a while just to see if we can get it.”
When a Realtor® is given these instructions, he or she knows that fewer showings will occur while the property is for sale because it will not attract many lookers when compared to the competition. Many homeowners blame their Realtor® if there are little or no showings.
Insisting on a high asking price and blaming the Realtor® for few showings can give the Realtor® mixed signals and frustrate the efforts of the Realtor® and the homeowner to affect a successful sale.
Advice: If you want your property sold in a reasonable time period, price it to compete within the current market. If you want to price it higher than the market, don’t expect your Realtor® to be able to generate many showings by interested buyers.
