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Is Dropping the Sales Price of Your Home a Good Idea?
Among Sacramento Realtors, every agent has an opinion. And you know what they say about opinions, right? Among professional Sacramento Realtors with experience and a track record, the latter tend to employ time-tested strategies suited to the type of real estate market at hand. I understand that it’s hard to tell the difference between a Realtor who knows what she is doing versus one who does not. There is a lot of bad advice going around, which might be where some sellers picked up the idea that it is a good idea to drop the sales price.
I talked with a seller yesterday who said he was in no rush to sell and implied that when he received an offer, he could issue a counter offer giving himself the ability to wait a week or so to respond. He might be a lawyer, I don’t recall. Most of my lawyer clients I adore, although they tend to analyze themselves to death at times. However, I do know that a buyer is unlikely to wait a week for a seller to decide whether to take an offer. A buyer is likely to hold up a finger representing an international symbol recognized worldwide.
I’m not even sure what that means: I’m in no rush to sell. I suppose it is a defense mechanism, designed to imply that the seller is nobody’s fool. Nobody is gonna take advantage of that seller, because gosh darn it, the seller is no rush to sell. The seller will just leave that home sitting on the market to rot until it is avoided by every real estate agent and buyer in town. It’s akin to saying: we can always drop the sales price.
There are many things wrong with dropping the sales price. You may as well take out a gun and shoot yourself in the foot as an attention diverter for all the harm it’s likely to do. There are ways to fix the mistake of overpricing, but dropping the sales price is not the way to do it. You can read more in this piece today about The Problems With Dropping the Sales Price. I promise you, it’s an eye opener.
Price Reductions: When is the Time Ripe for a Price Reduction?
Today we present an article about price reduction when selling a home. Do you know when is the time ripe for a price reduction? This is an article written by Elizabeth for another publication. Enjoy. –JaCi
My feeling is sellers should price a home right at the get-go and forget about “testing” the market. Those who test the market often end up selling for a lot less after a price reduction than they might have received had they priced it right from the beginning.
Testing the market works only if you get list price. If you don’t get list price within a reasonable period of time, quite frankly, you’re hosed. Because once buyers see a price reduction, they immediately begin to wonder how much lower you will go. It’s just human nature. Is the time ripe for a price reduction on your property?
But before you immediately jump to a price reduction, consider these ten options first. Read more before you consider a Price Reduction.
If you are interested in selling your home, please call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, with RE/MAX GOLD. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
— Elizabeth Weintraub
We Need a Price Reduction to Pay for Our Preferred Upgrades
Sacramento home buyers always have reasons for a price reduction but few matter.
Reasons for a price reduction in Sacramento. You’ve gotta love buyers who send offers with the explanation that they have adjusted the offer to account for all of the upgrades and repairs they plan to make. For starters, they think it has some bearing on the offer. Or maybe they simply just hope it is relevant in some way. It’s a wasted effort. Hello? I’d like to buy your house, but first you need to lower the price to to accommodate my desires. I’d like to install a swimming pool in the back yard because this house has no pool. What were you thinking, a lawn, in this drought? Plus, I’m really loving the Eames craze and plan to build low-level seating around the fireplace that’s not yet been built but which I will construct from hand-fired brick touched only by virgin hands.
Ooooh, I am NOT jiggy over the front door. No, see, this home really needs a double-door entry with a humongous lion head for a knocker. Do you know where I can buy such a thing? Oh, never mind, I’ll find it on eBay. Just give me that price reduction.
The roof is not jamming. That black and gray composition shingle is at least 10 years old. Whoa. It needs to be brilliant blue, perhaps imported tile from Japan. That kind of roof is really expensive, as you know, so I need to knock another $25,000 off the sales price. You don’t mind, do you, because you’re already making a boatload of bucks on this deal, right? Help a fella out, why doncha? What’s a price reduction to you anyway? It’s peanuts.
The kitchen appliances? The dishwasher, gas cooktop and refrigerator are white, for crying out loud. I don’t care that they’re brand new, I hate white. Hate it, hate it, hate it. If it’s not stainless with a hint of edgy ornate. Fuhgeddaboutit.
Let me also point out, I found a cracked tile in the master bath. Speaking of the master bath, I would really like a Jacuzzi instead of a regular bath tub. OK, it doesn’t need to be a Jacuzzi brand, but it still needs to bubble. Like my personality! Hey, look at my most recent selfie! I just shot it this morning when I ran over a homeless person in the street. My hair flowing in the wind. I felt this bump under my bicycle tire, but what the hey.
And the list goes on. Many buyers hold these types of opinions and demands today. Thank goodness there are still investors in the Sacramento marketplace. I’m finding that when homebuyer occupants thumb their noses, the investors swoop in. Lately, investors have been paying more, a lot more, than owner occupants to buy the same house. Why do you think that is happening? Could it be that investors know something that regular homebuyers do not?
You wanna price reduction in a low inventory market in Sacramento? Think again. If you need a Sacramento Realtor, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Using Common Sense in Sacramento Real Estate
Common sense mixed with the truth must be a wild concept to some. I wish people would quit thanking me for being honest with them, because the message they’re really sending is they expected that I would lie. It’s not that I couldn’t lie if I wanted to because, let’s face it, I sell real estate in Sacramento and just to be successful in that profession there is a certain amount of enhancing the truth to push product; it’s the spin. Can’t be in marketing without the spin. But it’s that I don’t go out of my way to make up crap because a) it’s stupid and wrong, b) I’d have to remember it, and c) it’s easier just to tell the truth.
Years ago I had a girlfriend who was a pathological liar. You couldn’t believe a word that came out of her mouth. I don’t know if she lived in a fantasy world or just liked to fool people but she’d tell the most outrageous stories to complete strangers, and none of it was true. We’d meet cute guys at a party and she’d tell them we were flight attendants or we lived in Japan. There was no reason for it. Guys who are 22 don’t really care what you do for a living when they are seized by hormones.
Personally, I find being truthful rewarding. It’s second nature. It’s not that I don’t know when to keep my lips zipped, because I do, but the older I get, the more I enjoy telling people what I think. I say things at times that other people wish they could say but they haven’t yet given themselves permission to do so. This is one of the freeing benefits of aging. We give ourselves permission to speak our mind. They don’t tell you about this in Sunday school.
Not that I’m out there in my yard waving my fists at kids and yelling get offa my lawn you hoodlums, and that little pooping chihuahua with you, too. Reality and protocol are still embedded. But I will tell people what I believe.
Of the five senses, common is my favorite.
Like this guy yesterday from somewhere in the Northeast, maybe New Jersey. He wanted to know when he should do a price reduction on this home. It was listed with an agent. He poured out the entire listing history in his email, including suggestions made by his agent, which he had been ignoring. My-oh-my, whatever should he do?
He should listen to his real estate agent and stop asking for direction from strangers on the other side of the country.
Then, an elderly fellow called to talk about his friend whose husband had died, and he thought maybe his friend should do a short sale. I looked up the information in records that are not accessible to the public and easily sized up the situation. Yes, his friend was upside down but there was no reason for her to short sale. She wasn’t responsible for the mortgages. She should get out of title. I suggested he obtain legal advice. I was looking at it from his friend’s point of view, which was why go through the hassle and misery if you don’t have to?
See, common sense pertains to so many things. And it applies to Sacramento real estate as well. While it would be nice to lounge about and dispense sage advice all day while being fanned and fed seedless grapes, the fact is my job is to sell real estate.
