A Price Reduction is Worth a Thousand Pictures
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that may be true, but a price reduction is worth a thousand pictures. (Or maybe 500 Athol Kay pictures, or 250 Ansel Adams pictures. What’s the exchange rate, anyway?)
Our listing on Birchgrove, which recently ran afoul of Athol’s kodachromatic sensibilities, has two offers on it as of this evening, because the price is right on it.
Kelley Koehler, Tuscon’s very own eyeball-friendly Housechick, wrote this brilliant article for sellers recently, in which she counseled that if sellers are having a hard time selling (as most sellers are in this market), they have four choices:
1) Change their price.
2) Change the condition of their home.
3) Change their agent. (Actually I’m just quoting that one. I can’t endorse it, for a couple of ethical and legal reasons. If you have an agent, you need to stick with them. However, if you’re home’s not yet listed or the listing has expired, this is fine.)
4) Change your mind about selling.
I couldn’t have put it better if I’d quoted it myself.
Here’s the reality: the market is not a seller’s market, so you need to be realistic in your expectations. Last I checked we had about seven months of inventory in Sacramento County. That means that out of every seven sellers hoping to sell their homes this month, six will fail, and one will succeed.
Assuming changing your mind is not an option, your agent can only help you to succeed, counsel you, and work on ensuring you have maximum exposure so you can rule out needing to do change the price or condition of your home. I checked the stats one time on the very top #1 listing agent in our area once, and was surprised (at the time) to find that her success rate was no better than mine on average for closing sales. She was just better at getting listings. Her sellers either reduced their price and fixed up their homes to the point where she could sell their homes, or they didn’t, just like mine do.
This market is making me seriously consider the nature of my fiduciary duty to my sellers. I no longer see it as a kindness to take a listing at any price. My seller on Birchgrove could have moved on months ago if I’d been more of an “aggressive SOB” on price, and he probably would have taken home more money, as well. Indeed, what’s sad in this case is that we thought we had the price right, too, at each stage of the game. So now I no longer shoot for the middle of the averages when counseling a seller on price. I shoot lower.
Sellers, get out, run away. Take that sign out of your yard.
If you can’t do that, your price needs to be slashed. Slash early, slash hard. We’ll do the best we can on the marketing, but the home with two offers on it isn’t the one that Athol thought looked good.
Buyers, one in seven sellers has already been market-educated. Let’s go shopping!
