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Why Are You Pricing Your Home Like Clothing at the Mall?

Sellers who really want to sell their property NOW so that they can move on, are more involved with analyzing their price point than ever before.  It seems that most sellers want to price their property with something that ends in '99'--$299,000 or $499,900, etc.  Here's what I ask them:

"You're about to move to Prospect and your Realtor® has set up a search for you through his/her MLS.  Can you tell me what your price parameters are for that search?  When you're searching online at night for homes in the Prospect(or Middlebury or other city of choice), what price points do you use in your own search?"

They'll say, "We're moving up a bit so, we enter $300,000 - $400,000."

"What if you were searching from $300,000 to $400,000  here in Prospect?  You would completely MISS this home in your search!  Had you priced it at an even $300,000, you would capture buyers from both the $300,000 - $400,000 AND the $400,000 - $500,000 ranges.  Setting the price at $399,000, will cause you to lose an entire group of buyers for your home!"

They look at me for a minute and my analytical-minded clients have an ah-ha moment!  Then, they completely agree with me!

Try it, it WORKS!  I recently listed a townhome in a complex that had 23 townhomes on the market when we listed.  We priced the property at an "even" price and we were under contract in 10 days--last one on the market, first one off!  If you searched MLS for the even number, either way (least price or highest price) you would catch this listing!  When you look at the others, every one of them were 'off-beat' numbers and were missed by 1/2 of their prospective buyers.  

Stop pricing your homes as though they were sale-price clothing at the mall!  Use those 'round' numbers and see how it works for you.  You'll instantly expand your pool of buyers!  

Your sellers will love you!

This is a repost of a blog by Dede MAxwell on Active Rain modified for our local markets.