of a home. There can be wide differences between the seller’s assessed price, the asking or listing (market price value), and the price at which the home sells (sale price). A market in which homes sell within six months of listing is considered balanced or neutral, meaning enough home owners are selling and customers buying that neither has an advantage. A variable, such as a major retailer entering or leaving the area, will tip the scale toward sellers to make a “fast” market or toward buyers to create a “slow” one. The average time in a fast market might be 30 days, and the average time in a slow market could be a year. Typically, any number below six months is considered a seller’s market. Let’s touch on what the home owner/seller can do to elicit offers at the listing price, or even above, in a competitive market. As mentioned earlier, the partnership between seller and real estate agent will make an enormous difference in results. The agent can professionally market a house, bring in a qualified prospect, and then the deal is blown because the seller didn’t clear his garage of his taxidermy hobby during a critical showing. Or because the snow isn’t cleared, or because the walls are painted kind of “funky.” Of course, there’s only so much even the most talented real estate agent can do. The seller’s time, effort, and investment are the most important parts of the process. The seller’s willingness to adequately prepare the home for presentation by improving, freshening, landscaping, and generally making the home pristine—and to live in that presentation state of readiness for the time it takes to sell the property—will greatly affect both the sale period and the price at which the home sells.
POINTS TO REMEMB O REMEMBER:
• Setting the price at which to sell your home is not a
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