I have often been asked lately about pricing properties to sell quickly. Since things aren't selling quickly, and not much is selling at all, it's hard to know whether price is really the issue, and whether lowering it will change the outcome. We worry sometimes that, in advising people to lower their prices and get out and move on, we are helping to reduce prices across the whole market.
That's a hard question to answer. While we clearly have an influence on prices, ultimately we don't make sellers sell or, more importantly, buyers buy. So what we've come up with to explain the phenomenon is the "compelling" price. That may not be the highest price (most likely not), and isn't arrived at by figuring out what the property is worth. It's determined by figuring out the number needed to get other people to move, and move urgently.
Think about that in your own life. If you see a sale notice, you may glance at the prices in a flyer. Sometimes you look at one and decide to wait until the price goes lower, or the season ends, or something along those lines. Every once in a while, however, you look at an offer and just know that, if you don't act soon, you won't get whatever it is. That company has discovered the compelling price. Not necessarily the lowest price--that might raise doubts about quality or value--but a great incentive to buy.
So think about the real estate you know. Is it priced compellingly?
