Do vacant homes sell for less
I've listed and sold both vacant and occupied homes and always thought there were advantages, and of course disadvantages, to both approaches but recently, those mad scientists at Redfin led by public relations wizard and CEO Glenn Kelman have analyzed the statistics and are taking a scientific approach to real estate and have come to the conclusion that vacant homes sell for less. They said:
1. "When selling your home, stay put: The pricing study of 3,490 Stockton listings found that vacant homes were 9.5% more likely to undergo a price reduction, which the author speculated was the result of a perception among buyers that the owners were anxious to sell."
You can read the highlights or lowlights as it were here or read the full report here.
Kris Berg takes on the scientists at the BloodhoundBlog on this point and others. Here is what Kris had to say about selling a vacant home:
“Vacant homes are more difficult to sell. Yep! But not always, in the case of the poorly maintained or cluttered home, in the case of the home with too many occupants including pets, or in the case of the tenant occupied home with difficult showing provisions. And not always for the reason you give (that buyers will perceive desperation). Vacant homes, absent careful and costly staging, simply do not speak to the buyer on the same emotional level.”
In today's Charleston South Carolina real estate market, there certainly are some bottom fisher's and lowball artists trying to steal a home and of course a vacant home does lend itself to the potential perception of desperation by the seller. The assumption is that they are paying to live somewhere else in addition to making the current payment on the home for sale and would accept less than market value in order to sell.
One solution to that is to price the house correctly from the start. Of course, that's good advice whether it is vacant or occupied. Do anything else in the current market environment and it won't sell whether it is vacant or staged to the max.
But I've found that homes that are easier to show and less cluttered do just fine in the sales category and sometimes, it just makes it easier for the family to be situated in the new home and not have to deal with the disruptions of showings at the former residence.
And one quick point about the science at Redfin, you can make statistics say whatever you want them to say and to use a study of vacant homes in Stockton California is typical Redfin manipulation of statistics. In case you didn't know, Stockton is the foreclosure capital of the United States with more foreclosures per capita than any other city in the country. I don't think prices are holding up very well there whether occupied or vacant.