So happy sun has come out & it won’t be raining on our fundraising event for Cardiff schools… Join the fun!http://tinyurl.com/3a22pj8
Looking for something fun to do tonight with the kids for Halloween? Come to the Halloween Carnival in Cardiff by the Sea from 5 to 8. Food, games, activities, lots of fun! We'll be there – not sure you'll recognize us, but we'll be there…
Having trouble with the link! Here it is again!
Looking for something fun to do tonight with the kids for Halloween? Come to the Halloween Carnival in Cardiff by the Sea from 5 to 8. Food, games, activities, lots of fun! We'll be there – not sure you'll recognize us, but we'll be there…
According to this article, it is still unlikely that prices will go through a protracted period of decline like the one that took place from mid-2006 to mid-2009. Homes are as affordable as they've been in over a decade. The ratio of home prices to rents, a measure of the extent to which houses are over- or under-valued, has fallen back near its long-run level. The American economy continues to grow, albeit slowly. And a new round of quantitative easing from the Fed could turn markets around again, by keeping interest rates lower for longer and nudging up prices generally. But recovery is far from certain….
I read a cute blog post recently entitled “The Money You ‘Lost’ in Your Price Reduction Wasn’t Real“. The author J Phillip Faranda pegged the delusional attitude many sellers have about the value of their home perfectly! He writes “I have to approach a price reduction with the diplomacy of a funeral director but be as convincing as a physician imploring his patient to quit smoking”. So true!
My partner Maxine Geller and I have gone on several listing presentations, in Del Mar CA, Carmel Valley CA, or surrounding North San Diego County communities, where it all boiled down to one thing: the sellers want to know if we are willing to price the home where they want so they can net a certain amount. The price they want to list at is some arbitrary, pie-in-the-sky figure based on the sellers’ desire/need, not on a buyer’s interest level in the home. BUYERS set the price (i.e. VALUE), not SELLERS.
Needless to say, we didn’t get those listings. We didn’t want them. Having an overpriced listing is a ball and chain, a money pit, a waste of time…
What these disillusioned sellers don’t realize is that money “lost” in the decrease in market value from 3 years ago to today or in a price reduction after sitting on the market for several months getting stale was never their money. It was all theoretical. On paper. It’s time to get real!
As Faranda says: The pool of able buyers has shrunken by an absurd amount. Millions of prospects have vanished due to either their own disasters or the new draconian lender underwriting guidelines. The few buyers that remain are skeptical, terrified of making a mistake, have no confidence in the future, and are heavily invested in the group think notion that they must get a steal or they will be exposed to grave financial risk.
Here’s the reality: If your home is in the MLS, presents well, and has been on the market for 2-3 weeks with no offers, the market has spoken; you need to reduce your price. Everyone looking for what your home offers (i.e. a certain profile, e.g. 3-4 bedrooms, 2+ baths, 2000-3000 sq ft, in either Carlsbad CA or Encinitas CA) became aware of your home the minute it hit the market – they probably got an automated notification on their iphone. If they didn’t rush to see it, or if they did, and after comparing it to everything else they’ve seen in the same niche, didn’t write an offer, you are simply overpriced. More marketing won’t do it.
We at Geller Meier R.E. strategically price a property, based not only on what has sold (comps), but what similar homes currently on the market (i.e. the competition) are priced at, how much competition there is, what the trends are, etc - to generate a tidal wave of interest, an “I’ve got to check that home out right away” kind of excitement. Not to underprice so as to risk leaving money on the table, but to price well enough to generate lots of traffic, because the more traffic, the more likely we’ll get an offer, or even multiple offers, and net top dollar.
If we are in showing condition, and do not get the traffic we expected, the faster we address the price by “repositioning” it in the market, the faster we’ll sell, and the higher you’ll net. We’ve done this a few times… Give us a call if you’d like to discuss our pricing strategy with you and show you how well it has worked for us and our sellers.
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