MISTAKE #3. PRICING TOO HIGH
As we talked about in the previous chapter, pricing your home correctly is key to selling your home for the best price in the shortest amount of time. However, too often, sellers make the mistake of pricing their homes too high, which can derail their efforts and result in homes languishing on the market, halting the selling process. Once your home is priced and officially on the market, the most critical time is the first 10 days. But if you start off with too high a price, potential buyers could bypass your listing because it’s out of their price range. And by the time you’ve lowered your price to garner some interest, they’ll have moved on to consider other properties, which can leave your home just sitting on the market, giving the impression that something is wrong with it because it hasn’t sold. Serious buyers sometimes take months to find the right home, and are usually looking for newer listings — not ones that have been hanging around for a while. Price your home correctly, with the help of a professional real estate agent and based on a CMA, and you will generate interest from buyers and sell your home more quickly and for more money.
MISTAKE #4. PRICING TOO LOW
On the flip side, pricing too low is another mistake that sellers make. Don’t insist on pricing your home lower than other homes in the area just so you can sell it faster. Buyers and buyer’s agents will wonder if something is wrong with your home because it’s priced too low. You might also decide to price-drop your home if it hasn’t sold yet at a higher asking price. This strategy might work in a stable (or increasing) market, but if the market is declining, you might have to reduce your price even more to “catch up,” leaving you with much less profit than you’d hoped for in your decision to
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