The Dangers of Overpricing a Home

The reason why you should not overprice a home is simple. It won’t sell! In addition to not selling when you overprice your property the odds are stacked against you that it will sell for what it should if priced properly from day one!

The process of selling a home can be an emotional roller coaster, one that many people are not adequately prepared for. What your home means to you, and what you imagine it to be, must come to terms with the real world of the current real estate market.

Nowhere does this clash become more apparent than in pricing your home.

You are putting your home on the market to sell it. This may seem like a given, but you would be surprised how many people miss this important fact when they begin working on listing their home.

Everything you do in the listing and selling process is meant to accomplish this goal. It may be one of your most prized possessions, but the price the market will bear is the most important factor in the sale of your home.

Trying to price your home too high – because you paid a certain amount for it, or because it means so much to you – is a sure way to stall the successful sale of your property.

Buyers don’t care that you need X amount of dollars from your home because you are buying something elsewhere. All a buyer cares about is paying the fair market value. There is nothing that will blow up in your face quicker than an overpriced property.

In fact, overpricing a home is right at the top of the list for reasons why a home does not sell.

You are free to list your home for any price you choose. However, any exceptional real estate agent will tell you that overpricing a home can lead to serious problems. Some of these include:

Attracting Unscrupulous Real Estate Agents

The initial asking price of your home may lead unscrupulous real estate agents to your door; people you may not realize are bad news until too late.

Real estate agents are in the business of selling houses, and they want to work with clients who hold realistic expectations.

The problems of trying to sell a house priced too high are numerous, and many agents will want to avoid getting into a listing that is doomed to fail.

Good agents will tell you honestly that you want more for your home than you can reasonably expect. However, there are also agents out there who will tell you exactly what you want to hear.

Overpricing a home is part of their game plan. They will encourage your high expectations to get your listing, only to tell you later – after the ideal time frame for selling is past – that your price must go down to sell.

You might be thinking why in the world would a Real Estate agent want to take a listing they have no chance of selling?

A Realtor who purposely tells a seller their home is worth more than the true market value does so for a couple of reasons.

• The first is using your home as an advertising vehicle to pick up buyer clients.
• The second is a strategy designed to get you to sign a listing contract with them because they can’t beat out a good Real Estate agent otherwise.

There are some Realtors who could care less about selling your home because they want to have their sign in your yard for the next 3-6 months. They want to be able to advertise your home online all the while picking up buyer clients that they can “spin” elsewhere because God knows these prospects won’t grossly overpay for yours.

After getting plenty of buyer clients in the passing months some agents will finally get around to telling you “boy am I sorry the price I gave you for your home doesn’t seem to be working out.” You should drop your price now by $25k Mr. & Mrs. Seller. Sorry, the jokes on you!

One of the top mistakes home sellers make when choosing a Real Estate agent is picking one based on the suggested list price they give you for your property. Don’t be suckered into the oldest trick in the book! Overpricing homes are part of a lousy agents game plan. There are lot of great real estate agents who don’t have overpricing a home as part of their game plan. It is your job to find one!

Scare Off Buyers

If you are not careful, you can scare off the best buyers before you ever get a chance to show them your home. Buyers are often working with real estate agents, and a good agent can spot an overpriced home from a mile away. These agents will tell their clients to steer clear of your home.

Even if buyers are not using an agent, they will often still avoid a home that seems far pricier than others in the surrounding area. People want a deal, and positioning your home at a premium will drive off anyone that falls into this category.

Listen carefully to what the market will bear. Look at the comparable real estate sales data through the eyes of a buyer not as an emotional seller.

One of the things that is common with home sellers who overprice their homes is the belief that every home improvement they have made over the years translates into a one for one increase in value. Unfortunately that is not how things work in real estate valuation. There are some things that cost money that have very little return when selling a home.

Take Too Much Time To Sell

Overpricing a home causes the days on market to become bloated! Some sellers are more motivated to sell quickly than others. Not all are aware of how much time matters in selling a property, though.

There is an ideal time frame to sell a home in, and it usually falls within the first few months that the home is on the market. Take much longer, and you risk having your listing expire – a stain that is hard to erase from a property.

You also risk the market changing on you, and not in your favor. If you price your home competitively in the first place, you are likely to sell it within a month – taking advantage of whatever the current market happens to be.

However, if you take too long, the market could go south on you. Your home started off too high, so when the market turns sour, you are going to have to drop far lower than you would have initially to move the property.

One of the things that Realtors often hear from home sellers is “I can wait for a great offer.” “I am no rush.” “I have plenty of time to sell and can wait for my price.” “I can always reduce my price later.”  What many sellers fail to understand is that in Real Estate time is your enemy!

The number one question that every buyer asks their agent when becoming serious about a property is “how long has this home been on the market?”

When you first list your home for sale as a seller you are in the drivers seat. A buyer is not. They know they need to be realistic if they want to purchase the home.

At a certain point in time, depending on the market, the pendulum will swing the other way and the buyer will feel like they have the upper hand. This is because the days on the market heavily influences what a buyer will be willing to offer.

When the days on market become higher than the norm buyers will start to ask themselves what is wrong with this home? Why has someone else not made an offer?

Buyers will feel like they can negotiate with someone who’s home has been on the market for months far more than someone who just listed. This is just human nature and a very common thought process.

Contrary to what many home sellers think, overpricing a home does not lead to a higher sale price. It is the exact opposite.

Failing To Show Up In Search Results

Real estate agents and buyers search for homes nowadays in the same way everyone else does – through search engines and consumer multiple listing sites.

They may be specifically designed for real estate, but they still function in essentially the same way as every other search engine. You enter in the parameters you desire, and the search delivers results that fall into those specifications.

If you set your home price at $420,000, everyone searching for homes up to $400,000 will fail to see your home in their search results. For example lets say you have met with a Realtor and they have pinned the market value of your home somewhere between $385,000 – $390,000.

The agent recommends that the proper list price is $400,000 figuring there may be a little bit of negotiation involved. The agent realizes that pricing over the 400k price barrier could price your home out of the market.

Instead you decide you want your home priced at $420,000 because you are under the belief that a higher list price leads to a higher sale price. You may imagine pulling in buyers willing to haggle with you, but the reality is that many buyers will miss your property altogether because they are only searching up to $400,000.

Pricing within the range of comparable sales data, on the other hand, will make certain that your home is seen by everyone looking for a place to buy in your neighborhood.

Home Price Appraisal Issues

Say you are lucky enough to pull in a buyer that is willing to pay what you are asking. He or she happens to think your place is perfect, and is willing to pay your asking price for the home. There is only one problem: They need to get money from the bank to pay for it.

All banks demand an appraisal of any property they loan out money for, and yours will be no exception. Your local appraiser does not care how perfect you think your home is, nor how perfect a fit it is for this particular buyer. The market rules the appraiser, and he or she will appraise your property accordingly.

When the appraiser comes back with a market value that is noticeably lower than the price the buyer is offering, the bank is likely to balk on giving the buyer a mortgage. This can take you from a sure sale to a botched mortgage application, leaving you looking for further buyers.

Stay Realistic on Home Pricing

Seek out a good real estate agent, and listen to his or her advice for pricing your home. Many will advise you that it is better to list a little lower, and encourage a bidding war, than risk all of the problems that listing too high brings. Stay realistic in your pricing, and accomplish your ultimate goal of selling your home.

Over the years I have seen and heard it all from some home sellers who set unrealistic expectations when it comes to the value of their property. The will forget about the evaluation that the Real Estate agent provided them and instead will come up with every excuse under the sun why their home is not selling.

In three decades of selling property, I have heard some of the craziest requests from sellers when their property fails to sell.

Instead of being objective about the obvious fact their home is overpriced, the finger will get pointed at the Realtor. Here is a humorous look at what happens with realty pricing issues. While this is a comical look inside the world of Real Estate pricing and may seem a little far fetched, believe it or not some of these things are actually spot on! Overpricing a home creates one certainty – stress for all who are involved.

If you take away anything from reading this remember this one thing: 75% of Real Estate marketing is the price that is set for your home. All of the marketing and advertising in the world will not sell an overpriced home. If you don’t price your home correctly all of the rest of the marketing will be pointless.

 

Selling your home, you must read this.

The 10 Most Costly Home Selling Mistakes, And How To Avoid Them

Here are the 10 mistakes you must avoid:

1. Not Hiring A Professional To Sell Your Home, Trying to sell your home by yourself is sheer madness. You need the expertise of a professional. The numbers also don’t lie home sellers who try to do it themselves often end up taking longer to sell and sell for far less than homeowners who work with an agent.
2. Mis-Pricing Your HomeOver-pricing or under-pricing is a huge money-losing mistake. It’s so critical to know your market and get familiar with comps of similar homes currently for sale (and those that have recently sold) to understand exactly what price tag your home needs. Neglecting Necessary Repairs Prior To SaleYou will lose money if you don’t take care of repairs before the house goes on the market. It’s always going to cost you less out of pocket to fix things ahead of time, rather than have buyers see your house in disrepair. I promise they’ll offer less or ask for a credit back for the work that needs to be done before the deal closes.
3. Refusing To Remove Your Clutter And Junk Prior To The SaleClutter eats equity and kills deals. One of the least expensive improvements you can make to your home is to declutter and create a sense of spaciousness throughout, from the kitchen countertops to the overstuffed closets to the trophy-lined shelves in the den. It costs you nothing to get rid of all that stuff, yet it reaps big rewards.
4. Selling Your House EmptySelling an empty house makes buyers feel the same way: empty. I’m a firm believer that a home should be dressed or staged. Don’t worry, you won’t need to go out and buy new furniture and accessories. Chances are, you have plenty to choose from already; in fact, that’s usually the problem (see tip four, above). Editing out items and lots of them may just leave you with the perfect amount of furnishings for a simply staged home (space is your friend, after all). If your furniture is already in another house or taking a cross-country trek, I highly recommend making the small (but mighty) investment in a local stager to give the for-sale home a new look that will charm potential buyers.
5. Letting Your Ego Get In The Way When NegotiatingToo many sellers take negotiating personally and lose out on creating a win-win deal. Remember, this is a business transaction perhaps the biggest one of your life. Take your ego out of the equation and put your head back into it.
6. Failing To Complete A Full Set Of Disclosures Prior To ClosingI’ve watched too many sellers pay big bucks because they didn’t reveal it all. Being upfront and forthcoming about any of your home’s issues will save you lots of money and time, especially if the buyers end up uncovering problems themselves. And they will.
7. Mis-timing The Sale For Maximum Tax Benefits Even a sale miss-scheduled by one day can cost you tens of thousands in extra taxes. Don’t be left a day late and many dollars short. Make sure you talk to your accountant to find out if any long term capital gains tax breaks apply to you, and check your calendar to determine when they come into play.
8. Overlooking Junk Fees And Extra Expenses At ClosingHome sellers throw thousands away by not requesting and confirming a list of fees and expenses long before closing day. Make sure you and your real estate agent review estimated closing cost statements long before it’s time to hand over the keys. Because the closing table on sale day is way too late to be fixing costly mistakes or asking for discounts and credits.
9. Using Lousy Photos This is my pet peeve. I do segments on several TV shows, and I’m always looking for great houses to showcase on-air. I can’t tell you how many awesome homes have horrible camera phone photos in their sale listings. Now, more than 90% of all buyers start their home search online, so you’d better make sure you and your agent nail your homes close up! You won’t ever get a second chance to make the perfect first impression.