Just before the beginning of the fall selling season, it's a good idea to review some of the facts we know about the current state of real estate. We know that Guilford, for example, has twice as many homes on the market now as have been sold since the beginning of the year. By definition, that constitutes a buyer's market. We know that pricing high is almost never the way to go, because one of our agents did an analysis of a shoreline agent at another company. This second agent was known for taking listings at high prices, so we looked at what the sales results were, and the answer was striking, but not surprising. The agent who lists high sold properties at an average of 59% of the listing price, while most other agents in the same area sold their listings at over 90% of the listing price.
The final statistic comes from my smart friend in Madison, Wisconsin, whom I've mentioned before, because his market seems to be so much like ours. He studied the phenomenon of "chasing the market down", which I've blogged about previously. He looked at the selling experience of sellers who priced correctly from the start, and compared their results to those of sellers who just wanted to "test the market" or who priced their properties above what agents thought they should be for other reasons. The sellers who priced correctly from the start got 12% more for their properties in half the time.
What else do I need to say?
