Although I can multitask ’til the cows come home, I will always spend uninterrupted time analyzing real estate market data. And oftentimes, as I did just recently, I find some surprising trends worth noting.
When I looked at the relationship between a $500 – $749 home that sold for its asking price and one where a price drop occurred, it was startling to see that the “discounted” home, on average, took an additional 4 months to sell. This trend held true across all price ranges, meaning that homes with price drops took 5 to 6 times longer to sell.
The data shows that a home that requires a price drop becomes significantly less desirable to buyers than one that gets offers immediately. There is a perception that if no one wanted it initially, there must be something inherently wrong with it. And my experience is that a market-worn property eventually attracts a confident buyer who feels he is in the driver’s seat during negotiations.
As I counsel all my clients, what this means is that you’ll need to really understand the value of your home as it is perceived now, price it well and expect to sell in 23 days, as the graph shows is the median DOM for homes $300 – $750K.
Posted on 02/24/2014 at 10:30 AM
