Charleston home sellers, it's called "buying" a listing
Why are there always a few homes that seem ridiculously overpriced. Doesn't the seller and the real estate agent know that even though other homes are selling for (to use a simple example) $100 per square foot, their home isn't really worth $125.
Oh I know that their home is special, I mean after all, it's their home, they've enjoyed living there, maintained it beautifully, upgraded and updated it and all that.
But none of that really matters.
And yet, some agents will offer to let you list your home for more than it's worth.
When I meet a potential home seller, I prepare a comparative market analysis (CMA) to determine what similar homes have sold for and then provide a range of suggested listing prices. At the top of the range, the home will generally sell a little slower, at the bottom of the range, it should sell fairly quickly and at the middle of the range, it should sell in an average amount of time. So depending on the seller's motivation, they can choose how to price their home.
But if they want to sell for more than the CMA indicates it should sell for, I'm generally brutally honest with them. Here's why.
Even if a buyer viewed the home, liked the home and made an offer, the appraisal might not support that high price. And actually it shouldn't even get that far because the buyers agent will have access to the same information in the CMA and point out to their buyer that the listing price is too high and would base their offer on those lower comps.
So once again, why would an agent let their seller overprice their home.
Because they want the listing and after it didn't sell for a while, they generally figure that they can get the seller to reduce the price.
It's called "buying" a listing and the agent is buying time.
But unfortunately, the first question that most buyers ask is this, "how long has the home been on the market" and the longer a home has languished on the market, the more undesirable it becomes. And the net result is that the home will generally sell for even less than it would have had it been priced right from the start.
If you're thinking about selling your home in Charleston, get in touch with me and I'll help you determine the best selling price.