THE PRICING GAME

It has never been easy to price a home, and these days it's more difficult than ever. Buyers see everything on the market as being over priced and rarely offer full price. They are tuned in to all the negative ecomonic news and assume Sellers are anxious to sell. If a home is priced at or slightly under market value it will attract buyers and have showings, but offers on it will be for less than the asking price by at least $10K on the average priced home. It isn't a good strategy to price a home at $10K over market value to help sellers get their bottom line. Homes that are over priced by any amount do not get many, if any, showings. Without any showings there are no offers and the homes sits on the market month after month.

Market times are a little longer than they used to be, BUT homes are being sold every day! The homes that sell are those that are properly priced. An experienced realtor will spend a lot of time going over comparable solds in the area to suggest a realistic list and sell price. The good news is that once an offer comes in it can be negotiated up. Buyers seldom make their very best offer on the first round and they will negotiate. I like to think of low ball offers as "opportunities." The value of a home is what a Buyer will pay for it and it is Buyers that dictates the value of real estate, not the Seller. Sellers have to be ready to play the pricing game and realtors have to be willing to go that extra mile to recommend a price that is low enough so that Buyers will see the home, but high enough that when an offer comes in it is possible to negotiate it up to an acceptable amount.

The Butler Team (918) 740-1000
Tina & Mike Butler
ButlerTeam@cctulsa.com
http://www.tulsa4u.com/