Most homeowners are flooded with home sellling tips but still have no clue how to sell a house fast. Selling a home in today’s market is extremely challenging. With that in mind, we meet with our clients early on to establish clear objectives on pricing.
Many sellers believe that it is still okay to price their home too high thinking that they will drop the price at a future date and will be inundated with offers that very day. This reasoning comes from a fundamental lack of understanding about pricing in real estate. You see, real estate is not a commodity. Each house is different and buyers purchase based on the way a home “feels”. Because this is the case, you need to do everything possible to sell when the house first comes on the market.
The best way to do this is to properly prepare your house for sale AND to create a “worry” price. This pricing strategy may seem a bit more aggressive initially to the seller. However, they must understand the whole picture behind worry pricing.
We like to create a “worry” price so that any buyer that walks into the home, will “worry” that someone else might buy it. We have to lure buyers in by price, and hope they fall in love once inside. If we price a home right from the beginning, the home will sell more quickly and for more money as compared to selling a house that has had a price drop. In the end being priced right to begin with will net the seller more than being over priced and having to reduce the price some time over the listing period.
I would love to hear from everyone on their experiences/questions with pricing. Use the comment box below to join in the discussion.
Nina Harris and The Suits Team with Keller Williams Realty Peachtree Road collectively have over 10 years real estate experience in the Atlanta market. Year after year they sell 50-75 homes, rank in the top 5 in their office, and continue to be top producers within Keller Williams Realty. They work with both buyers and sellers, and have a team in place to help provide clients the most efficient service, a no fluff approach to buying and selling, and all the while making it an enjoyable process! 
Good for you Nina. Someone needs to set sellers straight with pricing especially in today’s market. I see too many agents who bow to their buyer’s wishes and overprice the listing from the start.
A few years back, you could overprice a nice house and still get a handful of offers. In this market, if the house isn’t priced aggressively, the seller is in trouble EVEN if it’s a great house.
My biggest issue right now is finding the “worry price.” Our house has been sitting for a while (yes, we overpriced it at the start) and now we have to figure out how low to go.
I would get with your agent to figure out what the most recent comparable sales were and maybe go 5-10% lower than those sales if you want to be REALLY aggressive!
You hit the nail on the head with this one. Your price should start out where it will sell fast, not where you dreamed it could be some day.
This is what happened to a few of my peeps down on the coast. They went for the moon on price and 6 months later the bottom dropped out of the housing market. Now they won’t be able to get anywhere near their original price.