Call Nathan: 916-969-7379
Specializing in the amazing homes of East Sacramento and surrounding neighborhoods

The Odds That a House Will Sell

Posted by on Dec 20, 2010 in Comps, East Sac, Pricing | 0 comments

Most people think that if you list a house that it will eventually sell. The odds right now aren’t very good and it surprises most people to hear what the numbers really are. These are the statistics from December 1st 2009 to November 31st 2010 for Non-REO or Short Sale Properties: 48% of all the houses listed in Sacramento County last year sold, 16% were still listed, 4% were in Pending Sales status and 32% didn’t sell and were taken off the market. I thought it would be good to look at it from a neighborhood level as well as the whole county to see if there was much of a difference somewhere like East Sacramento… Surprisingly, East Sacramento fared a little worse with only 45% of all the houses listed being sold, 16% were still listed, 5% were in Pending Sales status and 34% didn’t sell and were taken off the market. The best way to insure your house will be in the sold percent is to price it to sell right at the start. The first 30 days are...

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Pricing a Property

Posted by on Dec 19, 2010 in Comps, Pricing | 0 comments

Sometimes the process of pricing a home can be a stressful. Many sellers feel like agents try to control the pricing process. Some agents want them to list at a low price so it will sell easily and other agents promise that they can get a higher price than the market will support just to get the listing (and then a month later start the price reduction conversation). My job is to provide a seller with the best information about what their homes competition is on the market and the recent home sales that other agents and appraisers will be looking at. I give my professional opinion of what I would list the home for if it were mine and what I think it will finally sell for. I also consult with the 50+ other agents in my company and get feedback from those that are familiar with the neighborhood for their price opinion. After I’ve given all of these opinions and information, the seller tells me what price they want to list your property for. I give my honest opinion and the chance that I think it will sell at that price. The seller sets the listing price and as long as I think there is a decent chance of selling the property I will take the listing and support them and their price fully. Given that it’s my job to represent my sellers best interests, I always try to help them get the most for their property and the best way to do this is to set the price right at the time of the initial listing. This is an excerpt from and article titled “Selling Price vs. Timing” from the Consumer Reports in November 2002 and it still applies today. “Setting the correct price is key to selling your home quickly and profitably. John Knight, associate professor of real estate at the University of the Pacific, in a study of several-thousand home sales over a two-year period in Stockton, California, found that houses whose prices are changed sell for less than homes with no price revisions. The longer a house sits on the market, the more it is stigmatized in the minds of buyers.” Another way to look at it could be seen in this blog entry a while back:Listing Price and the First...

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I’ve Lost That New Listing Feeling

Posted by on Sep 5, 2010 in Pending Sale, Pricing, Rosemont | 0 comments

It’s not that the new listing feeling doesn’t last very long, it’s that the listing itself didn’t last very long on the market. It went live late Sunday night and by Friday evening a great offer was accepted for the property. Amazing how well a house moves when it is priced right and the sellers have done everything to make it shine. Add in over 20 professional glamour shots and lots of marketing and easy showing access for a very quick transaction. The Pending Sale feeling is even better than the new listing feeling. 9468 Ole Ct Pending...

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Listing Price and the First Week

Posted by on Aug 26, 2010 in New Listing, Pricing | 0 comments

In response to my Pricing Your Home to Sell blog someone sent me an article on the Wall Street Journal about how critical the first week is for a listing. This article detailed out the number of online visits a listing received on their website and how that declined over time. Here is the graph and link to the article.   I keep a book of all the properties for sale in East Sac and update it when there is any change in status. Out of about 100 properties, about 10-15 make it into my short list of “great house, condition and location for its price”. Some houses will only make it onto the list after many price reductions over several months. I was recommending one such property to someone at a recent open house and she had commented that she saw that house a couple months ago but wasn’t interested in it. She couldn’t remember why she wasn’t interested in it, just that she dismissed it and now it wasn’t worth looking at. After talking about it we discovered that she liked the house when she first saw it, but thought it was priced too high to put in a reasonable offer on it. The high initial listing price made many buyers dismissed it, and then when its price was reduced enough to be reasonable, most people just remembered that they dismissed it and didn’t give it a second look. Between this phenomenon of remembering the rejection but not the reason and “it’s been listed for 90 days and no one else has bought it, so there must be something wrong with it” syndrome, a high initial listing price can be the greatest detriment to a property...

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