Column: Up, down and all around

by Shawn Lackie

If you follow the world of Real Estate frequently, every once in a while, you will come across something which makes you stop and go, “Huh?” I looked at this property, just last week, and I could swear it said, it was listed at $749K. Now, it’s up at $899K. How could that be? After you are done scratching a bald spot in your head, you will come to the realization, we have witnessed this many times in the business. Some sellers think, when they have listed at a reasonable price, they didn’t get the kind of interest generated to sell because potential buyers thought there was something wrong with it. Or maybe it was being perceived as being worthless.

At any rate, they switch gears and tell their Realtor to relist it $150K higher. A normal agent would say “No” and walk, but there are many in the trade who just nod and go along, hoping good things will happen. They seldom do. It’s not like putting an old chair out by the road, with a “for free” sign on it. It sits for days, still there, so you change the sign, to say, “$20 or Best Offer” and, next thing you know, it disappears. Guess that’s human nature. Except in housing.

I posted a recent piece which talked about a couple I represented, who ended up going with another agent and raising the list price by 300K. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. Imagine walking into the supermarket and the butter has a price tag of $8.99. After you shake your head and walk away, you come back a few days later and see it now for $10.99. Does that make you all of a sudden want to buy it? Um, no. Same with housing.

We had a neighbour, a few years ago, list her home at least seven different times, with six different agents, for a variety of price points. After a while, we started holding a contest, to see when the next listing would change and what it come as, out more or less. In the end, she ended up selling at least three years after she started the whole process, for considerably less than she was originally asking. Consequently, it sold closer to market value.

Speaking of which, what the market saying and doing, is the usual, most determining point. That is where you should start. Some agents underlist and hold back an offer date, thinking we are still in the pandemic, competing offers mode. For the most part, that process died a few years ago. Some sellers just don’t want to admit it, so they try the low price. This doesn’t work, so they re-list closer to the price they originally wanted. However, here’s the thing, they have already established a lower price threshold and the buyers will see that and act accordingly.

Long gone are the days when you can depend on buyers being uninformed. They are much more savvy these days, especially where pricing is concerned. So, as a seller, you should be able to acknowledge that and act accordingly. There is only one chance at a first impression, so, if you are smart, you will make it count.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site, at https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more