When you are looking to sell your house or condo, the absolute most important factor to selling it at the highest price possible is (Drumroll, please)… the price itself.
When you price your home for the right amount, it naturally fits in the market along with its competition. It won’t seem like you or your agent are trying too hard; or trying to pass the property off as something better than it really is. In the same way, it doesn’t seem too good to be true either.
It is in the best interest of both you as the homeowner and your real estate agent as the seller to get a high price for the property, however pricing too high can have very detrimental affects the sale. Here are five reasons why:
1. First impressions are everything. Don’t sabotage your sale!
The biggest days of impact when it comes to marketing your property are within the first weekend it’s on the market. If the price is too high for what the property is, you may lose the interest of would-be buyers who will dismiss the property as overpriced and never look back.
2. You will emotionally torture yourself dropping the prices lower and lower
If you overprice your property, it’s highly likely that it will not sell and you will need to lower the price. When that first initial price is set, naturally the seller will get excited at the idea of closing the sale for high price. It is disheartening and disappointing to have that idea; that dream, taken away by realising the impossibility of it. Even worse is when the price has to be lowered a second time, or even a third and so forth. Lowering the prices to finally make a sale is frustrating to the seller and may lead him or her to feel like the final sale was a failure. It’s a situation that the agent can easily avoid creating by not setting unrealistic expectations from the beginning.
3. It will stay on the market too long
Again, if you overprice your property it will not sell right away (if ever). While you are waiting for someone to be foolish enough to overpay for the property you no longer wants, you yourself are paying for your mortgage. Not only is this a financial burden to you, but it also may cause you to put off your other plans for buying a different property; for moving or starting your retirement, etc.
4. Buyers may question what’s wrong with it
If you need to continuously lower the price of your property for sale, or leave it on the market for too long, buyers who have noticed it may start to wonder if the property isn’t selling because something is wrong with it. Maybe a buyer has seen and liked your property from the beginning, but ignored it due to its too-high price. When it’s finally at the price they would have wanted, they may have already found and identified a different property or are simply no longer interested in your property because they are skeptical about the sale in general due to its length on the market.
5. You’re helping your competition sell faster
Property buyers almost always have a budget that they have decided to not exceed. If your property would have caught their eye but was overpriced, the buyers will simply move on to other properties that do match their needs. It’s not a good feeling to see and hear of other, similar properties selling quickly when yours has been on the market for longer than you’d like. You can avoid this feeling and keep up with the competition by pricing your property right from the beginning.
