I hope you’re having a great day! I wanted to check in with you and share some valuable information. There’s a lot that goes into real estate, so we like to make sure we educate our customers and clients.
I don’t have to be a genius to know that homeowners looking to sell want to get the most money possible. Trust me, I want to help you get there; and after you hire me, I will get you the most money possible for your house.
The Endowment Effect
The Endowment Effect is a very real phenomenon all homeowners should be aware of--especially if you are considering selling your house. It means that ownership of something changes our idea of its value. Simply put: mine is mine, which means mine is better...actually mine’s the best, so clearly mine is worth more than anyone else's. It leads homeowners to believe their house is so awesome it will sell itself. This phenomenon is one of two main reasons we tend to see overpriced For Sale By Owner (FSBO’s)--the other is that people try to price their homes for what the market is going to be rather than what it is now.
The Price Is Right
Price matters when it comes to selling a house. Price (and merchandising) are what draw people in. One major myth people seem to put a lot of stock in is: You can price your house high and always negotiate down.
This doesn’t work, and it’s because the internet has transformed how buyers look for houses. The home search portals nearly everyone uses are designed to search by area… and price. So, if a buyer’s budget is 500K, and the home is priced at 700K, the buyer won’t see that home. There’s no opportunity to offer market price because they don’t know it’s there in the first place.
What happens then? The property sits… and sits… and sits. Days on the market start adding up, reducing the property’s initial value. Buyers start to wonder: What’s wrong with that home? It’s a problem that compounds itself.
Take a look at the chart I've attached below. You can see that after the second intersection of the red and yellow lines, inventories begin gradually trending up while sales are gradually trending down. Sellers start pricing too far above market -- at the level they think values will be in 6-9 months (because what goes up never goes down, right?), which means overpriced properties that buyers will not buy and a subsequent increase in the number of days on market.
By the time most sellers realize this, it will already be too late. This does not mean the real estate market will crash. It just just means the market will become more balanced between buyers and sellers.
The Time Is Now
So, right now is the perfect time to sell. One of the things I do to make my clients more money more quickly is to get in there early to prepare their property for sale and develop a merchandising strategy. For example, how does your front door look? Is there a brass door knob that has become pitted from Florida’s salt air? Buyers will not pay top dollar for a front door that looks like it's been abused. The good news is you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to replace the door -- just invest as little as $40 for new brushed nickel hardware and scrub the door itself with a Magic Eraser. This creates a first impression that can lead to a higher offer. That tip is free -- I'll give you my other tips and tricks when you hire me as your listing agent.
