Comments on: Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter.

By: Nashville TN Real Es

Nashville TN Real Es — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:16:42 +0000

The listing price of a home is just that the Asking price. In todays market prospective buyers should not be so focused on the list price of real estate

By: Spencer Barron

Spencer Barron — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:11:19 +0000

Rudy, not sure where you were going with that but I think you’re missing the point. The whole point is to maximize the value of a property. A listing agent can exploit the list price to anchor a value a little higher than what the market might support or to motivate buyers to move quickly. The best list price is the one that places your property arguably, in the top 2 or 3 in the neighborhood. Otherwise, you aren’t selling to today’s market but to some future market you can’t predict.
Many agents tend to think of the list price as a representation of value but it’s simply a starting point to a negotiation. The actual list price rarely represents an accurate value as your comment about ‘upholding’ a value illustrates. A savvy buyer’s agent should learn to ignore the list price and avoid the potential of being anchored to it as a starting point for an offer.

To be clear, I’m not talking about giving property away. The “right thing” to do is whatever your client wants you to. What I’m talking about in my post is maximizing value while meeting a time frame expectancy. Now if you’re selling lender properties and have been directed to hold your listing prices up while selling other properties, that’s fine too. But most agents should try to avoid this situation. Asset managers are keeping records of performance and tend to cycle fresh brokers in when previous brokers records start to look poor.
By all means sell the property for as much as you can but I would avoid trying to ‘uphold’ prices. In the end, you’ll have an unsold property, a pissed off client, a poor sales record and possibly a reputation that says your listings don’t sell.
Price the property appropriate to your current market, otherwise you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

By: Rudy McCormick

Rudy McCormick — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:18:41 +0000

Luck + Greed = End of Luck, plain and simple.

List prices matter to the people who are not required to sell their homes, so realtors should try to uphold the values of the lenders they represent. Just because the lender may be willing to give the dang thing away doesn’t mean that is what the “right” thing to do is.

By: Joel Carson

Joel Carson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:05:51 +0000

Although the listing price of a home is a great starting place — in many cases the actual value of a home is exactly what people are willing to pay for it. There are so many variables involved that it can be difficult to determine what that price is. Guess that’s why we depend on CMAs to help us find a place to land. Smart investors know the tricks. Others are likely to miss out on a nation-wide clearance sale!

By: Spencer Barron

Spencer Barron — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:44:30 +0000

Wes, that can be frustrating. I think there are a lot of people that think they’re investors. Truth is, they may have just been lucky in the past. Now they’re greedy. They spend most of their time looking for that ‘home run’ deal. Real investors treat it like a business. They understand that some deals will be the ‘bread and butter’ deals that keep them and their people in business. It’s much better to be busy making something than bored making making nothing.

By: Wes Brown

Wes Brown — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:08:49 +0000

I am a Sacramento area professional realtor and have run into similar situations. Even with investors. One recently contact me asking me to look for fix and flip homes. I found him many that had great potential or a return on his investment. However, even though the homes I recommended were scooped up one after another, he failed to make a move on a single one. Our local inventory is down to approximately 3 months and many houses are now receiving multiple offers. Careful analysis would have told the investor to move forward. Instead he gave into his fears.