Stuart Neal's Blog

Are you trying to sell your home? Where are you in the pricing pond?

If we think of the market like a pond, when a listing is new, it flows into the pond from the left and moves across the surface of the pond. If the listing is positioned properly for the market and if the seller is realistic, the home will sell in short order and this case will ‘flow out’ of the pond to the right.

If your home is overpriced, it may still get showings, but they will slow down as the listing starts to sink into the middle of the pond. Your home is becoming overshadowed by more recent, more interesting and better priced homes flowing into the top layer above it.

Over time, (perhaps 75 days plus in our market) your home will sink into the ‘stagnant mass’.

Once your home is in the stagnant mass what will you do?

How can float back up and out of the stagnant mass?

You might consider taking the house off the market for a while. In the old days before databases and computers this may have worked. Home buyers would ‘forget’ that the home had already been on the market and that it failed to sell and would often consider it ‘new’ when it was relisted.

That approach won’t fool anybody these days. The listing history of any home is available to home buyers at the press of a button and they will know that your home failed to sell and will most likely conclude that:

a. there is something wrong with it, or

b. it was overpriced

Not only is this measure a fruitless endeavor, your REALTOR^® may also ask you to pay early termination penalties and perhaps relisting fees.

So, what can you do? How can you float your home out of the stagnant mass and have it flow out of the pond as a sold home?

Consult your REALTOR^®. Allow them to supply you with enough data so that you can make a sensible choice on pricing.

Have you received any offers? This data could be the most valuable information available to you. Assuming that the market has not deteriorated since you received those offers, pricing in line with the values those buyers suggested, might be your best option.

Let me end by saying that a seller’s success is not all based on price. We have identified 8 keys to success and you can read more about that here: The Ambergate Realty Advisors 8 Keys to Success System (click on the link). However, once you have fine tuned your listing for success in all other areas but price, this is the final and perhaps most important component to correct.

Unfortunately, too many sellers get in their own way and if they would perhaps accept what was in front of them, their journey to success would often be less stressful and timely. Read this information for more details: 7 Emotional Stages of a Home Seller.

The pricing pond concept came from the Ninja Selling real estate coaching program I enrolled in last year & so full credit to them for the diagram. Its intended for review during a client counselling session, but nevertheless it serves well to explain to many home sellers, who are wondering why their home has not sold, or why they are not getting offers, or why the amount of traffic is slowing down.

About the author:

You can read more about the author of this blog by clicking this link – Stuart Neal Broker Owner & REALTOR^®.

Want more information about our full service FLAT FEE home selling programs? Please feel free to call our broker owner Stuart Neal at: 780-760-2014 or visit our home sellers page www.FlatFeeRealtyAdvisors.ca